Queen Camilla has said it’s “more urgent than ever” to encourage people to read as she hails the invaluable benefits of sitting down with a good book. “Books do make life better,” she said, as she marked the fifth anniversary of her Reading Room book club.
A new picture taken by royal photograph Chris Jackson has been released to mark the five year anniversary of the charity. Taken in July in the garden at Raymill, the Queen’s private house in Wiltshire, Camilla is captured sitting on some steps reading Louise Penny’s The Grey Wolf. Wearing a dark navy floral dress, the Queen smiles sweetly while reading surrounded by floral potted plants.
Camilla, who founded her bookclub during the coronavirus lockdown, has spoken of her pride that what started as a simple recommendation of books on Instagram has reached more than 12million 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 alarmed that global reading rates are at their lowest. Currently, only one in two UK adults reads a book in a year, and 46% of people say they struggle to finish one due to distractions around them.
As a result, the charity’s motto for 2026 is “Make Room for Reading”, as it seeks to encourage people to find just five minutes a day to switch off and read.
It comes after neuroscientific research commissioned by the charity found that reading for this short amount of time can reduce stress, improve concentration and help people feel more connected.
Reading was also found to be as valuable to health and wellbeing as walking 10,000 steps and eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
The charity hopes people will be able to make small changes and that five minutes of daily reading becomes as ingrained as getting your steps in and eating greens.
The Queen told the press association: “Five years ago, I founded a book club in lockdown, in the hope that others might derive as much enjoyment from good literature as I do.
“Since those humble beginnings, that 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 so proud of what my charity has achieved, reaching millions of people, staging remarkable events and partnering with incredible organisations to bring books to people who need them most.
“Its groundbreaking research has confirmed what many of us always felt: reading truly changes how we perceive, how we think and how we connect.
“At a time when global reading rates are at their very lowest, my charity’s mission feels more urgent than ever. Books do make life better, and this is only the beginning.”
Camilla has personally recommended 76 books over the past five years, with the initiative beginning with Dame Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror And The Light, William Boyd’s Restless, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak.
The King, the Princess of Wales and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians have all contributed their own selections, while more than 120 authors have recommended their favourite reads.
The charity’s chief executive Vicki Perrin described the project as Camilla’s “baby” and described current reading levels as a “reading crisis” and said the charity was “deeply concerned” about the falling rates among children.
The National Literacy Trust, of which Camilla is patron, reported that just one in three (32.7%) children and young people aged eight to 18 in the UK said they enjoyed reading in 2025 – the lowest level since the question was first asked in 2005.
The charity hosts an annual literary festival, has its own podcast and launched The Queen’s Reading Room Medal to celebrate unsung local heroes who champion reading, with the first recipient due to be unveiled in the spring.
It has also donated more than 2,300 books to 11 grassroots locations, including 1,400 to inpatients at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, as well as supporting reading groups at St Mungo’s homeless shelters and working with domestic violence refuges.