Two Weeks with the Queen

Buy this, it's a marvellous book - funny and wise, lulling you with the apparent simplicity of its charms. It's set in Australia and narrated by Colin whose younger brother is taken to hospital after collapsing. Luke has cancer and the distraught parents send Colin to relatives in England where he first tries to walk in and visit the Queen, then phone, write and finally climb over the wall. No success here or with the 'Best Doctor in the World'. Outside the hospital he meets Ted, crying, we learn later, for Griff, his boyfriend who has Aids. Ted helps to find out what's wrong with Luke (it's incurable) and Colin keeps up the visits to Griff after Ted is beaten up. Griff's death teaches Colin that the only important thing is that he's with his brother. The pun of the title dawned on me slowly.