I wonder if the Queen, like so many others, spent her weekend binge-watching Bridgerton? It’s not that outlandish a suggestion: on the opening episode of the second season of her podcast, The Queen’s Reading Room, Her Majesty reveals that the first adult book she read – and which made a lasting impression – was French author Anne Golon’s racy historical romance series Angélique. Ooh la la.
“It was about this beautiful Frenchwoman who went through a series of completely mad adventures,” the Queen recalls. “At one point she landed up in the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV. I think I must have been about 11 or 12. It was incredibly exciting.”
But it wasn’t just the royal escapades that chimed with her. “We all wanted to look like her,” says the Queen, who speaks with longing of Angélique’s “green eyes and long golden hair”. She concludes: “We all wanted to be Angélique.”
It’s a lovely, candid recollection to kick off this new season, which follows the successful launch of the podcast (a spin-off from the Queen’s existing literary charity) in January; it’s already reached listeners in 158 countries. Next month also sees the return of The Queen’s Reading Room Festival at Hampton Court Palace, while a specially commissioned neuroscience research study has shown that reading for just five minutes can reduce stress by almost 20 per cent, and that it reduces feelings of loneliness.
It certainly cheered me to hear that our Queen is such a passionate advocate for reading, even though she herself only makes a brief appearance on the podcast. The introductions are crisply handled by Vicki Perrin, and then it’s over to that week’s guest to share their musings from their own reading room.
That works perfectly well when it’s someone as thoughtful, wise and poetic as this week’s guest: sci-fi and fantasy god Neil Gaiman, author of Stardust, The Sandman and Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett). His gorgeous opening salvo is: “I am somebody who counts himself as happy and as rich as he has books to read.”
Gaiman tells a sweet tale about the significance of his illustrated copy of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, bought by his mother when he was three years old – although, it being Gaiman, there’s a dark observation too. The Pied Piper story, he says, “told me a lot about how adults behave: which was not well”.
He makes a sterling case for the pleasures of re-reading, and gives us some insight into his research process – including a tease for an upcoming children’s book about frogs in Central Park and staff in the New York Public Library. That links into a closing segment: each episode, one librarian – “the guardians of our nation’s reading rooms” – will share a favourite line from literature. Tommy, from Christchurch Library, chose his from Pratchett rather than Gaiman, but I very much doubt the latter would mind. Reading, he points out, is “its own special, very particular magic”.
The series itself, with its polite orchestral music and a lack of probing follow-up questions, isn’t quite as transporting. But with a sterling line-up in place – this season includes Kate Mosse, Richard E Grant, Mel Giedroyc and Curtis Sittenfeld – it should prove the audio equivalent of a very pleasurable page-turner.
Episode one of series two is available from all podcast providers now, with future episodes weekly; all of series one is available now
