To me reading is a great adventure, I have loved it since I was very small and I would love everybody else to enjoy it as much as I do.  You can escape, and you can travel, and you can laugh and you can cry. Every type of emotion which humans experience is in 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.

 

The Queen’s Reading Room launched as an online book club on Instagram in January 2021 with reading recommendations from Her Majesty Queen Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, before becoming a charity in February 2023.
We began our book club with Charlie Mackesy and his wonderfully illustrated The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. Since then, there have been fourteen complete series with four widely different but equally compelling books chosen by Her Majesty, featuring in each series. The selected books vary across the genres and include classics as well as newly published books. All books featured on The Queen’s Reading Room have been chosen for their educative, literary or historic merit.
With each recommendation, we talk to the authors to learn how they crafted their book, explore their archives, learn from academics and experts and bring the books to life with readings from well-known actors. Our goal is to close the gap between reader and writer, enriching the reading experience.
In February 2023, we became a charity, on a mission to champion literature in the UK and beyond.
On this website, you can find all of Queen Camilla’s recommendations and those of guest curators, or scroll through by series or search for individual books. Whatever your reading taste, we hope you enjoy being part of our book club. Join our reading community by signing up for the monthly newsletter for all the latest news from The Queen’s Reading Room, or head over to Instagram to read along with us and for daily, free literary content.

 

At a glance

Our charitable objectives as registered with the charity commission, are to advance education for the public benefit by:
  • promoting the joy of reading, including the promotion of the works of writers, to adults and children throughout the world
  • collaborating with and supporting other literacy charities

Conversations with Her Majesty Queen Camilla

On the importance of books, the value of literacy, and the legacy of authors

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In Conversation
An introduction to The Reading Room
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Edna O’Brien
In Conversation: On writing ‘Girl’
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In Conversation
The Camilla Club
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Edna O’Brien
In Conversation: On Writing ‘The Country Girls’
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In Conversation
Who inspired HM’s love of books?
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In Conversation
Books Unlocked
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Peter James
In Conversation: On Roy Grace
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In Conversation
Hopes for The Reading Room
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Peter James
In Conversation: On writing crime
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In Conversation
Why should we read to children?

Q&A with HM The Queen

RR
What are your hopes for The Queen’s Reading Room?
HM
I hope that my Reading Room will be something that everybody can delve into, and find something that suits them, and enjoy it!
RR
What kinds of books do you love?
HM
All sorts! I read a lot of fiction but I do have a lot of cookery books (though they usually get stolen by my son who is a cookery writer). But I like non-fiction too. A really great biography is a lovely thing to get stuck into.
RR
How do you feel when you open a book?
HM
There’s something so tactile about books. I like the smell of the pages when you open the cover. Turning the pages and folding down a corner ready for next time…
RR
Do you think that many people rediscovered their love of reading during lockdown?
HM
Whatever other awful things came out of lockdown, I think reading has come out extremely well. I had letters from all over the world when I put out my original reading list saying, “Oo, I read the Gentleman of Moscow,” or, “Goodness me, I haven’t read The Queen’s Necklace for years and years”, and, “Have you read this? You might enjoy that.” It’s a lovely way of corresponding and getting to know people. It’s a lovely way of communicating.
RR
How important do you think it is to read to children?
HM
I read to my children and now I read to my grandchildren. I love it. I read to them when they were absolutely tiny and then they got older and older and older, and now they actually read to me.
RR
Who inspired your love of reading?
HM
Well I think it certainly came from my father who is probably the best read man I’ve come across anywhere… He read to us as children. He chose the books, and we listened. And I think it was his love of books which became ingrained in us, from such an early age.
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