With their extraordinary power to educate and inspire, books – from authors around the globe – have enriched my life since I was a child. It has therefore been such a joy to watch my Reading Room grow over the years into a thriving book community. Now a charity, I hope that we, together with our partners, can foster in adults and children alike a lifelong love of literature and connect more people with that special magic that can only be found in the leaves of a book.

~ Her Majesty Queen Camilla



The Queen’s Reading Room is the charity working to celebrate and promote the power and benefits of reading and is on a mission to help more people find and connect with books which enrich their lives.

It was formed from Her Majesty Queen Camilla’s book club, which launched in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The club quickly grew into a global online community, as we shared unique insights and conversations with authors selected by The Former Duchess of Cornwall.

Soon, we began to hear from people around the world – telling us that reading was making their lives better – and reinforcing our belief that books make us happier, healthier and better connected by boosting our mental health, brain health and social connectedness.

As a charity, we produce accessible, free educational content around literature 365 days a year through our social channels and website; as well as literary festivals and events; research and campaigns. Join us in reading the selected books each season, or delve into this website to discover reading recommendations, author interviews, never-before-seen archive and lots more. Find out more here and discover interviews with The Queen on her passion for books.

Discover more

The Queen’s Reading Room Study


Read more

What we’re reading now

Join The Queen’s book club


Read more

Dive into

Themes we’ve explored


Read more

Watch online

The Queen’s Reading Room Festival 2023


Read more




Books keep our minds fresh and our hearts open.

There is perhaps no greater exercise in empathy than reading a book: placing oneself in another’s shoes, travelling the world and meeting its people. Reading teaches us the value and power of our imagination, as our minds paint pictures to the words and conjure new worlds we may never have dreamed of. And when we realise that power, young or old, who knows what we can achieve. Finding a great book is special; but coming together over a shared love of a story is a very precious thing indeed.

Check out our Books page for stories to make your soul soar, expand your horizons, or simply provide a gentle comfort in times when the world seems dark. Read along with us on our Instagram page, where writers and readers interact, where the reading experience is enriched by education, and where the love of a great story is shared.

Exploring the life and works of

Agatha Christie


Read more

Children’s book recommendations

HRH The Princess of Wales


Read more

Online exclusive interview:

Elena Ferrante


Read more


Find your next book

Click on each book to access background and exclusive content to enrich your reading experience.
Enjoy interviews with authors, historians, academics and experts.

  • Archangel

    By Robert Harris

    Publish Date: 1998
    When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north -…
  • The House of Doors

    By Tan Twan Eng

    Publish Date: 2023
    Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of the early twentieth century. But in 1921 he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. His…
  • Mapp and Lucia

    By E. F. Benson

    Publish Date: 1931
    Subtly brilliant comedy of social rivalry between the wars. Emmeline Lucas (known universally to her friends as Lucia) is an arch-snob of the highest order. In Miss Elizabeth Mapp of Mallards Lucia meets her match. Ostensibly the most civil and…
  • Horse

    By Geraldine Brooks

    Publish Date: 2022
    Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has…
  • Pachinko

    By Min Jin Lee

    Publish Date: 2017
    Yeongdo, Korea 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza,…
  • Some Experiences of an Irish R. M.

    By Edith Somerville & Martin Ross

    Publish Date: 1899
    Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. was the first in a trilogy of books that described the misadventures of Major Yeates, an Anglo Irish countryside magistrate who leaves the British army and moves to Ireland with his new English wife,…
  • Tom Lake

    By Ann Patchett

    Publish Date: 2023
    In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a…
  • Still Life

    By Sarah Winman

    Publish Date: 2021 Awards: 2021 InWords Literary Award
    1944, in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa, as bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening. Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner is a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy.…
  • I Capture the Castle

    By Dodie Smith

    Publish Date: 1948
    Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fading glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her…