King and Queen attend literary festival with actors and authors at Hampton Court Palace
Her Majesty Queen Camilla hosted her first Queen's Reading Room Festival at Hampton Court Palace on Sunday with a surprise appearance from The King and a host of famous authors and actors.
It was a spectacular inaugural event for the Queen yesterday dedicated to reflect her love of literature and to encourage more people to read, especially children.
The Queen arrived slightly late because of the afternoon thunderstorm but the King stood in for her at a champagne reception where he mingled with guests as well as Dame Joanna Lumley and Richard E. Grant and host Gyles Brandreth. The two actors read excerpts from Shakespeare and Alfred Tennyson.
Earlier in the day there were various events with the highlight of the afternoon being a panel discussion called an Eye for a Spy with top selling novelists Ken Follett and Robert Harris and spy writer and Times columnist Ben MacIntyre. The discussion was facilitated by the Queen's Reading Room CEO Vicki Perrin and featured readings of their books by Homeland actor David Harewood.
There was also a short improvised play based around Jane Austen's novels by a theatre group called Austentacious.
Other guests included David Olusoga, Kamila Shamsie, Philippa Gregory, Ben Miles and Dame Harriet Walter, Kate Mosse and Peter James.
Guests also had the opportunity to tour various parts of the Palace as temperatures soared in the afternoon.
The King departed shortly before the evening's events when The Queen took a front row seat to see Gyles Brandreth in conversations with Dame Judi Dench as she recounted hilarious stories from her distinguished and award-winning career, including where she appeared with Sir John Gielgud and other screen legends as well as recalling a 'phone call from Hollywood star Clint Eastwood' to invite her to appear in J.Edgar with Leonardo Di Caprio, which she thought was a 'joke' and assumed it was a friend of hers imitating Clint's deep voice.
The Queen's Reading Room is a charity which works to provide opportunities for the appreciation of literature among adults and children in the UK and around the world.
The charity launched on Instagram in 2021 during lockdown with reading recommendations from Her Majesty Queen Camilla.
So far, the organisation has ran eight series containing four books from across the genres with additional background and insight from the authors, academics and experts with the aim of enriching the readers experience.
Book enthusiasts are able to find all of Queen Camilla's recommendations on The Queen's Reading Room website and explore each individual series and author interviews.
It is hoped that the Queen's Reading Room will become an annual event at Hampton Court Palace.
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