{"id":351554,"date":"2026-09-20T06:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T06:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351554\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T06:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T06:02:21","slug":"queen-speaks-of-love-for-books-with-life-enhancing-power-at-charitys-festival-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351554\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen speaks of love for books with \u2018life-enhancing power\u2019 at charity\u2019s festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camilla\u2019s appearance comes after a series of allegations were made about the King in extracts from Earl Spencer\u2019s memoir.<\/p>\n

The Queen has spoken of her love for books that have a \u201clife-enhancing power\u201d after a series of allegations were made about the King in extracts from Earl Spencer\u2019s memoir about the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.<\/p>\n

Camilla was welcomed with applause to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire for the first day of the festival for The Queen\u2019s Reading Room, a charity she founded following the success of her Instagram book club during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"TheQueen Camilla with Gyles Brandreth speaking to author Reeta Chakrabarti (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

The charity is holding its fourth festival at the Grade I listed stately home in the Peak District on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Queen was welcomed by Lord William Burlington, the chairman of The Chatsworth House Trust, who said it was \u201ca huge thrill\u201d to collaborate with The Queen\u2019s Reading Room for a second consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Camilla gave a speech in the Painted Hall and said being at Chatsworth House, which has a library of over 17,000 books, was \u201clike coming home\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheQueen Camilla meeting members of different book clubs during The Queen\u2019s Reading Room Festival (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

She told the guests: \u201cI created my Reading Room simply because, like all of us here, I love books and their life-enhancing power and I want to share that love with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those early days, I had no idea if anybody would be interested but six years on, we are a global community of millions from over 180 countries, swapping recommendations, undertaking research and donating thousands of books to women\u2019s refuges and homeless shelters.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThere could hardly be a more fitting location for a literary festival than Chatsworth, a house that has inspired and hosted countless authors, including Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and William Makepeace Thackeray, among many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture generations will, no doubt, boast of the day when William Boyd, Elif Shafak, Robert Harris and Kate Mosse were guests here too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Queen as she unveils the titles for the four new books in The Queen\u2019s Reading Room Book Club Autumn 2026 season (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

Camilla\u2019s speech about her love for reading comes after Earl Spencer made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling the life of his sister Diana that prompted an \u201cunprecedented\u201d response from Buckingham Palace who said, \u201cthe pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earl Spencer further claimed that the King sounded \u201cgiddily elated\u2026 like a lottery winner\u201d when he rang the earl following the princess\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The book \u2013 Swan Song: Diana, My Sister \u2013 alleges that Charles subjected the earl to a \u201cstream of anger\u201d after he insisted Diana would not have wanted Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to walk in her funeral procession.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamilla spoke of her love of books and their life-enhancing power during the festival (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

In an extract of a BBC interview released on Friday, the earl insisted he is \u201ctelling the truth\u201d and described the King\u2019s comments about his sister as \u201cmonstrous\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wearing a blue dress, the Queen spoke to members of four local book clubs at Chatsworth House, including from the Elm Foundation, a charity which helps people affected by domestic abuse.<\/p>\n

She then revealed her four book recommendations for autumn \u2013 Finding Belle by Reeta Chakrabarti, The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Whistler by Ann Patchett and Sashenka by Simon Sebag Montefiore.<\/p>\n

Journalist and news presenter Chakrabarti witnessed the unveiling of the chosen books and told the Queen: \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know what to say. Thank you so much for choosing it, and I\u2019m going to read the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheReeta Chakrabarti, whose book, Finding Belle, has made the list for The Queen\u2019s Reading Room Book Club Autumn 2026 season, thanked the Queen (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

Camilla said of Chakrabarti\u2019s debut novel: \u201cIt\u2019s a very good book, I highly recommend it to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, who is one of the trustees of the charity, said: \u201cMillions of people around the world are now reading books recommended by Her Majesty and people she\u2019s invited to help her choose books.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Queen gave her speech in the Painted Hall, she heard a performance of William Sieghart\u2019s The Poetry Pharmacy, with readings by actress Natascha McElhone, known for her roles in The Truman Show, Ronin and Solaris.<\/p>\n

In the Sculpture Gallery, The Queen attended a reception with literary figures taking part in the festival, including Lee Child, who wrote the Jack Reacher novel series and Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Camilla\u2019s appearance comes after a series of allegations were made about the King in extracts from Earl Spencer\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-351554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}