Gin O'Clock

Gin O'Clock by The Queen [of Twitter]

Paperback, Jubilee Celebration Edition, 314 pages

Published May 24th 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton

My shelves: adult-fiction, arc-or-review, books-i-own, coming-up-next, currently-reading, favourites, historical, memoirs-biographies-etc, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, really-good, title-appeal

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

IN 2012, THE DIAMOND JUBILEE YEAR, HER MAJESTY'S DIARIES ARE OPENED AT LAST...

'Had a quick run-through of the opening ceremony. One wanted to call it "The Empire Strikes Back" but it was generally felt that might intimidate the smaller nations.'

Queen of sixteen sovereign nations, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. She's one of the world's most well-known and powerful leaders and has reigned for 60 years. But what does she really think?

'One does enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest. Lovely to be reminded how much more civilized the British are than our European neighbours. Royal Eurovision Fancy Dress Party to celebrate. Unfortunately Camilla misread the invitation as 'Euro-tunnel Fancy Dress Party' and came as a train.'

Taking in the momentous events of 2012, including the Jubilee celebrations and preparations for the London Olympics, these diaries reveal the seldom-seen workings of state and reveal how an octogenarian is quietly ruling the world and still has time for a gin.

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My thanks go to Hodder & Stoughton for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

After all of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, I found myself completely enamoured with the Royal Family and really wanted to read a book about them! I did, like a lot of others, love the Queen [of Twitter]'s running commentary of the celebrations and when I found out she had released a 'Jubilee Celebration' edition of her book Gin O'Clock, I desperately had to get my hands on it!

The Queen [of Twitter] is also known as @Queen_UK on the popular social networking site and has hundreds of thousands of followers on twitter. If you're not one of them, I'd highly recommend following her right now! I have followed her for quite a while and she is never incapable of making me laugh out loud. The figure is a parody of the Queen and often comments (in her own, unique manner) on current events. If you like @Queen_UK's tweets, you will love this book.

Gin O'Clock is a collection of diary entries written by 'The Queen' dating from 2011 all the way up to her Diamond Jubilee. Just like the Twitter account, the book features plenty of British (and overseas, for that matter) events - everything you can imagine seemed to be mentioned, without the book feeling over crammed - even the famous Coronation Street tram crash was included in there! I believe that, at the start of each entry, was a tweet that was actually posted that day. I was really impressed with everything that was included and for anyone who followed popular events of the past couple of years, this will definitely bring up some fun memories. Being the Queen's diary, we always get her very frank opinion on whatever's happening in the world and the political satire, in particular, was absolutely brilliant.


I loved reading about all of the Royals and important worldwide figures, as described by Her Majesty. It's so difficult to choose a favourite moment or person, but favourite portrayals included the DoE, Camilla, Edward and the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. Of course, the corgis weren't forgotten as we got to hear about their thoughts (well, see their behaviour) on the PM, David Cameron! I don't think I could give them justice by simply describing them, as nobody can do that better than The Queen, but I honestly thought that the portrayals were excellent.


I did fear, after reading so many tweets, that the humour would become repetitive and a little tiresome, but thankfully that wasn't the case. I did read this book continuously and very quickly indeed - the format of the book certainly makes it a quick read, which maybe wasn't the best idea, but I didn't want to stop! There are a lot of 'Post-it' notes scattered throughout the book, with little lists that the Queen has made and I found that they separated the book up quite well. I wouldn't recommend to read this in one sitting, as it probably does take a bit of a shine of the effect of the book (some phrases are repeated), but as a quick read now and then for a bit of a laugh, this is ideal.


The Queen [of Twitter] is one of, if not the funniest parodies around and I couldn't recommend it strongly enough. I know that this is a book that I'll return to now and again as I think it will always be able to cheer me up. I challenge anyone who picks up this book not to have a big smile on their face by the end of it. 

To finish this review, I thought it'd be appropriate to share with you a message from your loving Queen: