CELEBRATING A REFUGE FOR BOOK LOVERS

STARS JOIN THE PUBLIC FOR THE QUEEN'S READING ROOM LITERARY FESTIVAL AT HAMPTON COURT PALACE

- REBECCA RUSSELL

Queen Camilla makes no secret of her passion for books and is keen to promote appreciation of literature. So when her charity, The Queen's Reading Room, staged its inaugural literary festival at Hampton Court Palace last week, OK! was delighted to be invited.

The festival, attended by the King and Queen, welcomed hundreds of book lovers to the historic palace for a day of performances, talks by leading authors and a finale involving Dame Judi Dench and Gyles Brandreth.

Taking to the stage was the cast of improvised comedy Austentatious to perform a farce in the style of Jane Austen with a title dreamt up by the Queen herself, Persuasion And The Odd Occasion. Elsewhere, novelist Kate Mosse spoke passionately about her book, Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built The World.

As always, the British weather was unpredictable, but torrential rain didn't put off the likes of Succession's Dame Harriet Walter and The Crown's Ben Miles, as they paid tribute to the award-winning novelist Dame Hilary Mantel, who died last year. And bestselling author Peter James shared insights into writing crime novels.

The charity, previously known as The Duchess of Cornwall's Reading Room, has grown rapidly since its launch in January 2021 and is, in the Queen's own words, "a resource, a reassurance and a refuge to all book lovers."

She has said reading has often been her salvation in challenging and trying times. "If you learn to read, however difficult your life is at the time, you can pick up a book and you can escape. You can laugh, you can cry, it just takes you out of the real world and it gives you a different dimension to life."