Queen Camilla has revealed that she and King Charles share a daily ritual of reading together before dinner. The 79-year-old Queen shared the intimate detail in a new BBC documentary, The Book That Changed My Life, which explores the power of reading to transform lives.
Camilla also disclosed that Charles has a fondness for biographies and often begins “roaring” with laughter while enjoying a novel. She quipped: “It’s very off-putting and I can’t get back into my book.”
Stories of survival and escape
The one-off episode follows four Britons who credit books with helping them overcome difficult times. Omar, from London, served over seven-and-a-half years in prison and described how the World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed helped him through his darkest days. “The first time I ever read a book was in that place,” he said. “To be out of that cell and in the scene, that was amazing. I read it straight out of survival instinct. I read it because I needed to escape that cell. I needed to escape my own thoughts, and that helped me do it.”
Sarah, from Killin, Perthshire, credited the novel Tracks – a young woman's journey through the Australian desert – for encouraging her to keep going after the sudden death of her husband, Steve. “I was absolutely side swiped. I couldn't think straight at all. [Tracks taught me] you just don’t give up – you just keep going, putting one foot in front of the other, day in and day out. I thought, I’ve lost enough and I’m not giving up.”
Camilla on her father's wartime reading
Later in the episode, Camilla discussed how reading helped her father, Bruce Shand, during his time as a prisoner of war. “A sniper shot [my father] through his face. He was incredibly lucky because the bullet went in one side, out the other and didn’t touch his tongue or his teeth. He was taken to a prisoner of war camp and incarcerated for two and a half years. Those places, there’s not much to do unless you’re plotting your escape, so he educated himself. He read every single book from the bible to the encyclopedia, whatever was there, he just sat all day long and read and read and read. And I think that’s how he survived it.”
In the UK, almost eight million adults struggle with basic reading. Truck driver Peter, who was born partially deaf and learned to read as an adult, shared his experience. “School for me was one of the worst times in the world. They [fellow pupils] were putting their hands up answering the questions and I would think: ‘What are you on about?’ It got to the point where I sat at the back of the class and thought, why bother?”
Finding inspiration in books
Joining a reading class and discovering Harry Potter changed things for Peter. “It [Harry Potter] means the absolute world to me. It has been up and down the motorway with me, it’s battered. It's given me a fantastic base. I can read things with my son and have a laugh. It’s given me the inspiration to believe in myself.”
After an intruder broke into the home he shared with his elderly mother, Ian fell into a dark place. Discovering Carrying David – which charts boxer Glenn McCory's career and relationship with his terminally ill brother – changed everything. “This was the book that truly truly changed my life,” he said. “It [the book] really spoke to me. Somebody who was suffering so much could still find the joy in life, could still find why they wanted to live each day. I felt there was a message that, above all else, I needed to carry on.”
People in England spend over seven hours a day staring at a screen, but only 24 minutes reading a book. Some 40% of us have not read a single book in the last year. The documentary concludes with the four contributors enjoying tea with Camilla at Clarence House. She told them: “The proof is in the pudding - it’s [reading has] changed your life and I suspect it's changed a lot of others too. It’s like having a pile of friends - and you can pick them up when you need them. Books really do change people’s lives.”
In 2021, Camilla launched charity The Queen’s Reading Room to celebrate and promote the lifelong love and benefits of literature. The Book That Changed My Life airs on BBC 2 on October 14.
