Queen Camilla is following in Meghan Markle’s footsteps as she is preparing to release a podcast series.
While the Duchess of Sussex’s Archetype programme focused on the various stereotypes and typecasts linked to women, King Charles’s wife is to discuss books, literature and literacy during her eight-episode show.
In the first episode of The Queen’s Reading Room podcast, to be released on January 8, the Queen Consort provided a glimpse into her domestic life and her duties as a grandmother.
Asked which books she most enjoyed reading to her grandchildren, she replies in the episode, as reported by the Telegraph: “I think the one I enjoyed reading more than anything else was Harry Potter… all the stories.”
Despite loving to read to her grandchildren, Queen Camilla added she is “hopeless” at doing one thing.
She said: “I can’t mimic voices for love or money. I’m completely hopeless at it. I was a really bad actor at school and I’ve never been able to master the art of mimicry.”
On the other hand, the Queen added, “my husband, he does it brilliantly, he can do all the voices”.
Camilla had already revealed several years ago how King Charles gets stuck into reading for his grandchildren. During an interview with the Daily Mail in 2017, the then Duchess of Cornwall said: “Sometimes, when we are with my husband in Scotland, he reads them Harry Potter. And he does all the voices, because he is a brilliant mimic.”
The royal’s ability, Queen Camilla continued, leaves her grandchildren “spellbound”.
The Queen has five grandchildren from her daughter Laura Lopes and son Tom Parker Bowles. Her twin grandsons Gus and Louis Lopes as well as Freddy Parker Bowles served as pages of honour during the Coronation in May.
She also has five step-grandchildren – Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Camilla’s podcast is the latest project linked to her Queen’s Reading Room initiative. Started as an Instagram page when she was still a Duchess, the Reading Room has grown to be much more than an online book club, and provides further support to the royal’s work on literacy.
Among the other initiatives of the Queen’s Reading Room, which is now a charity, is also a literary festival held at Hampton Court Palace.
Each of the eight podcast episodes will include a segment from the Queen as well as an interview with guests. The first episode features bestselling crime author Peter James.
