Duchess Camilla launches Reading Room initiative

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, thinks reading is a “great adventure”.

The 73-year-old royal released lockdown book lists during last spring and summer and she’s now launched a new initiative called The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room, which she’s kicked off with a list of four books.

She said in a video message shared by Clarence House: “To me, reading is a great adventure. I’ve loved it since I was very small and I’d 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. There’s every kind of emotion that humans experience in a book.”

The first four books are ‘The Mirror and The Light’ by Hilary Mantel, ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’ by Delia Owns, ‘Restless’ by William Boyd and ‘The Architect’s Apprentice’ by Elif Shafak.

Camilla said of her book club: “I think I’d like it to be something that everybody could delve into and find something that suited them and enjoy it. I just think it’s because I love reading myself I think a lot of other people also get a huge amount of pleasure from it.”

The duchess was thrilled to be contacted by people from “all over the world” about reading following the publication of her reading lists.

She added: “It’s a lovely way of communicating.”

The titles will be highlighted for two weeks on the Instagram account @duchessofcornwallsreadingroom, which will offer information about each book and its author.

In addition, Book Club Kits have been created by researchers from the University of Portsmouth and the University of Copenhagen as part of the Lockdown Reading Project, a study of how reading habits are changing through the global health crisis.