A hyperactive sensory overload

Bennett is no republican, despite twice turning down honours from the Queen (a CBE in 1988, and a knighthood in 1996). Not so Sue Townsend, who told The Independent newspaper in 1992, "When you hear the word 'subjects' and find out what 'to subject' yourself means, it diminishes us all." She was speaking on the publication of The Queen and I, a satirical novel that opens as an antimonarchist People's Republican Party sweeps to power and boots the royals out of Buckingham Palace. The Queen – now plain Liz Windsor – finds herself exiled to a council estate in the Midlands.