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


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News

The Queen’s Reading Room Festival returns – Ticket vouchers available now


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What we’re reading now

Join The Queen’s book club


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Dive into

Themes we’ve explored


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Watch online

The Queen’s Reading Room Festival


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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


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Children’s book recommendations

HRH The Princess of Wales


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Online exclusive interview:

Elena Ferrante


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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.

  • 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…
  • Rebecca

    By Daphne du Maurier

    Publish Date: 1938
    Working as a lady’s companion, the orphaned heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of…
  • The Lords’ Day

    By Michael Dobbs

    Publish Date: 2007
    The State Opening of Parliament. The most magnificent royal occasion of the year. The most powerful people in the land are gathering in one room, the House of Lords. And none of them know they are about to endure the…
  • My Family and Other Animals

    By Gerald Durrell

    Publish Date: 1956
    Ten-year-old Gerald doesn’t know why his older brothers and sisters complain so much. With snakes in the bath and scorpions on the lunch table, the family home on the Greek island of Corfu is a bit like a zoo so…
  • Frankenstein

    By Mary Shelley

    Publish Date: 1818
    One of the best-known Gothic novels, Frankenstein is both a haunting, uncanny novel about the dangers and temptations of scientific progress and an enduring investigation into what it means to be truly human. Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein…
  • Miss Benson’s Beetle

    By Rachel Joyce

    Publish Date: 2020 Awards: 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize
    It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search…
  • Lady in Waiting

    By Lady Glenconner

    Publish Date: 2019
    The remarkable life of Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret who was also a Maid of Honour at the Queen’s Coronation. Anne Glenconner reveals her life of drama, tragedy and courage, with the wonderful wit and extraordinary resilience which define…
  • A Tale of Two Cities

    By Charles Dickens

    Publish Date: 1859
    Vividly interweaving epic historical drama with personal tragedy, Dickens’s gripping novel depicts the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, as they become enmeshed through their…
  • Black Beauty

    By Anna Sewell

    Publish Date: 1877
    Black Beauty is a handsome, sweet-tempered but strong-spirited young horse, used to galloping free in the fresh green meadows with his beloved mother, Duchess, and their kind master. But when his owners are forced to sell him, Black Beauty goes…