Topline
Queen Camilla has chosen a once-scandalous thriller about the royal family being held hostage as the first read of the year for her charity book club called “The Queen’s Reading Room,” a choice that prompted the author to praise the monarch for her “fantastic sense of humor.”
King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend day 5 of Royal Ascot 2023 at Ascot Racecourse on June 24, … [+]
Key Facts
“The Lords’ Day” by Michael Dobbs will be the first book recommended by the Queen in the first season of her book club for 2024 (she recommends books in four seasons each year), the Telegraph reported.
A story about a security breach at the State Opening of Parliament that ultimately sees Camilla’s husband, then-Prince Charles, and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, held as captive hostages, “The Lords’ Day” was once controversial for laying bare the potential security flaws of Parliament, the BBC reported.
Dobbs, a member of the House of Lords, is best known for his “House of Cards” trilogy, which ultimately became a smash hit TV show starring Kevin Spacey on Netflix.
Queen Camilla has been recommending books through her book club—formerly called The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room—since 2021 and just released the first episode of a podcast of the same name, which featured Sir Ian Rankin in the debut episode, on Sunday.
The show has been met with mixed reviews—the Guardian called it “a deeply generic author interview podcast where Camilla sort of pops up at the end” while the Telegraph called it “a treasure trove for bibliophiles.”
The first episode caught the attention of younger fans when Camilla revealed her soft spot for the “Harry Potter” series and said she loved reading the books to her grandchildren, “more than anything else.”
Crucial Quote
“I didn’t expect them to read it, they are busy people,” Dobbs told the BBC of sending a copy of “The Lords’ Day” to the new King and Queen about a year ago.
Key Background
“The Queen’s Reading Room” has recommended titles like “Frankenstein,” “Black Beauty” and “The Year of Eating Dangerously” by Tom Parker Bowles, her son, since it first launched. Queen Camilla recommends four different books four times per year, usually with some sort of theme. The October to December 2023 picks, for instance, all focused on “the power of female friendship.” Queen Camilla joins a number of other politicians and public figures to have started such book clubs of a sort, including Oprah, Reese Witherspoon and former President Barack Obama, who releases a summer reading list each year.
