Under Pressure: The Queen's Secret Christmas

On Christmas Eve, the most recognized woman in the world goes missing for a few hours. Nobody notices. That's rather the point.Every December, she delivers the same speech to several hundred million people: warm, grandmotherly, entirely rehearsed. This year, with eight hours to spare before the broadcast, she does something she has never once done in seventy years on the throne - she disappears.Not far. Just into an ordinary black cab, in an ordinary coat, driving ordinary Londoners to ordinary places on Christmas Eve. A tourist family bound for Madame Tussauds. A heartbroken best friend. A young man about to make the worst decision of his career. None of them recognize her. All of them, in one way or another, need exactly what she has to give - which, as it turns out, has nothing to do with being royal at all.Back at the palace, her private secretary is quietly coming apart, a tabloid reporter is closing in on the story of his career, and the clock on that evening's broadcast is ticking down whether she's home to deliver it or not.Under Pressure is a wry, warm, unabashedly British comic novella about disguise, duty, and the particular loneliness of being the most photographed woman alive - and what happens when, for one afternoon, she finally isn't.Perfect for fans of gently subversive royal fiction with real heart underneath the comedy.