A new BBC documentary will explore Queen Camilla's lifelong passion for reading, inherited from her late father, Major Bruce Shand. The announcement was made at a Clarence House reception celebrating the fifth anniversary of her Queen’s Reading Room book club, attended by the King and celebrities including Stanley Tucci, Sigourney Weaver, and Sir Ben Okri.
The documentary, produced with Blink Films, will showcase the transformative power of books, featuring Camilla's reflections on her childhood and her father's influence. Major Shand, a decorated Second World War veteran and author, instilled in her a love of literature. The Queen recalled: 'He read to us as children. He chose the books, and we listened.'
During the event, the inaugural Queen’s Reading Room medals were awarded: Selina Brown won the national prize for promoting black British literature, and Liz Waterland received the local award for community literary work in Lincolnshire. Camilla noted that her book club, launched during lockdown, has grown into a festival and donated thousands of books, partnering with charities combating domestic violence and homelessness.
Sigourney Weaver, a guest at the reception, highlighted a statistic that only 50% of UK adults read a book annually, calling the problem worse in the US. She praised Camilla's encouragement of reading as a 'personal' message. The documentary is due to air in autumn.
