Never-before-seen picture of Queen Camilla released | Royal | News
Queen Camilla said it was “more urgent than ever” to encourage people to read as she praised the priceless benefits of sitting down with a good book. “Books make life better,” he said, celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Reading Room book club.
A new photo taken by royal photographer Chris Jackson has been released to celebrate the charity’s fifth anniversary. Filmed in the garden of the Queen’s private home, Raymill, in Wiltshire, in July, Camilla was caught reading Louise Penny’s The Gray Wolf on the steps. Wearing a deep navy blue floral dress, the Queen smiles sweetly as she reads a book among flowering potted plants.
Camilla, who founded the book club during the coronavirus quarantine, expressed her pride in how what started as a simple book recommendation on Instagram has reached more than 12 million people in more than 180 countries. And in 2023, the Queen’s Reading Room became a charity with a very simple mission: to spread the joy of reading.
But the book-loving Queen is concerned that global reading rates are at rock-bottom levels. Currently, only one in every adult in the UK reads a book a year, and 46% of people say they struggle to finish a book due to distractions around them.
As a result, the charity’s motto for 2026 is “Make Room for Reading”; It aims to encourage people to switch off and read for just five minutes a day.
This comes after neuroscientific research commissioned by the charity revealed that reading for a short period of time can reduce stress, improve concentration and help people feel more connected.
It has also been revealed that reading is as valuable to health and well-being as walking 10,000 steps a day and eating five portions of fruit and vegetables.
The charity hopes people can make small changes and that five minutes of reading a day will become as ingrained as taking steps and eating greens.
The Queen told the press association: “Five years ago I started a book club in lockdown in the hope that others would enjoy good literature as much as I do.
“From these humble beginnings, this book club has grown into a global charity, supporting a community of book lovers united by a shared belief in the power of reading.
“I am proud of what my philanthropy has achieved, reaching millions of people, organizing extraordinary events, and partnering with incredible organizations to bring books to the people who need them most.
“His groundbreaking research confirmed what many of us have always felt: Reading truly changes the way we perceive, the way we think, and the way we connect.
“At a time when global reading rates are at their lowest, my charity’s mission seems more urgent than ever. Books make life better, and this is just the beginning.”
Camilla has personally recommended 76 books in the last five years, with the initiative starting with Dame Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror And The Light, William Boyd’s Restless, Delia Owens’ Where The Crawdads Sing and Elif Shafak’s The Architect’s Apprentice.
More than 120 authors recommended their favorite books, while the King and Princess of Wales and Queen Mathilde of Belgium contributed their own selections.
Vicki Perrin, the charity’s chief executive, described the project as Camilla’s “baby” and described current reading levels as a “reading crisis” and said the charity was “deeply concerned” by falling rates among children.
The National Literacy Trust, of which Camilla is a patron, reported that just one in three children and young people aged 8 to 18 in the UK (32.7%) said they enjoyed reading in 2025; This is the lowest level since the question was first asked in 2005.
The charity hosts an annual literary festival, has its own podcast and has launched the Queen’s Reading Room Medal to celebrate unsung local heroes championing reading, with the first recipient to be announced in the spring.
It has also donated more than 2,300 books to 11 base locations, including 1,400 to inpatients at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, as well as supporting reading groups in St Mungo’s homeless shelters and working with domestic violence shelters.
