The Queen’s Reading Room is a charity led by Her Majesty Queen Camilla to celebrate and promote the power and benefits of reading, and her major move with helping children with literacy is “taking off” claims a royal editor.
The Queen’s Reading Room Festival will return to Hampton Court Palace on June 8, 2024. and will gather authors, experts and celebrity literature lovers together for a day to celebrate the written word.
The Sun’s royal editor, Matt Wilkinson, told Talk TV: “You’ve got to give Camilla credit for this. She started up her Reading Room just after Covid and it was just an Instagram page. Now we have regular receptions at Clarence House.
“She has been to prisons and read to inmates who have struggled with literacy, she is really keen on this. Her Queen’s Reading Room is really taking off and all credit to her – it was just a social media start-up that she did.”
Camilla has long been a champion for the benefits of reading, launching her own book club online during the COVID-19 lockdown to encourage others to get into books and talk more about what they were reading.
The Queen’s Reading Room Festival, which will be held in the magical backdrop of Hampton Court Palace will build on the success of last year’s literary festival which saw more than 8,000 visitors in the first year it was organised at the Palace.
During the day, Oscar-nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter, 57, will join William Sieghart for a live version of his BBC Radio 4 show ‘Poetry Pharmacy’ as they explore the art form.
The programme also sees Miriam Margolyes take to the stage along with other guests to explore the characters of Charles Dickens’ novels.
Also headlining the Queen’s Reading Room festival are the authors Sir Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves, Lee Child, Elif Shafak, Kate Mosse, Mick Herron and Harlan Coben.
Last year, Queen Camilla was almost late to her own party after getting held up on a motorway and almost missing a star-studded reception of the inaugural festival in Surrey because of bad weather.
But the Queen’s official car arrived just in time to be greeted by the star turn of the evening’s proceedings, Dame Judi Dench – who was speaking about her life-long passion for Shakespeare.
Having become actively involved with helping children develop reading and writing skills, in March, Camilla praised a talented young group of writers for their ability to “conjure magic” with their pens, in a prestigious event held at Buckingham Palace – the BBC 500 Words award ceremony.
Famous faces at the event included actors Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Bonneville and singer Olivia Dean and the event was hosted by presenters Alex Jones and Roman Kemp.
