Queen Camilla is marking the fifth anniversary of her Reading Room book club charity, which she initially founded in lockdown, with a new drive to encourage people to get into books

The Queen has described her mission to get people reading as “more urgent than ever” as reading rates are at their “very lowest”. Camilla founded The Reading Room book club charity in lockdown, and as it marks the fifth anniversary, it has reached a community of 186,000 book lovers in more than 180 countries.

However, the 78-year-old has warned that with global reading rates plummeting, the aim of her charity to get people into books has never been more important. Currently, only one in two adults in the UK reads a book in a year, while 46 per cent of people say they struggle to finish one due to distractions around them.

A new image of Queen Camilla reading a book in the garden of her home Ray Mill House in Wiltshire last July (Image: Getty Images for Buckingham Pala)

The Queen’s Reading Room’s motto for its milestone year is “Make Room for Reading”, and its new drive is to encourage people to find easy ways of fitting in five minutes of reading a day – just like getting in 10,000 daily steps or five portions of fruit and vegetables.

It comes as the charity says neuroscience research showed that just five minutes reading a work of fiction can immediately reduce stress by nearly 20 per cent, improve concentration and focus by as much as 11 per cent, and reduce feelings of loneliness.

Camilla said: “Five years ago, I founded a book club in lockdown, in the hope that others might derive as much enjoyment from good literature as I do. Since those humble beginnings, that book club has grown into a global charity, supporting a community of book lovers, united by a shared belief in the power of reading.

“I am so proud of what my charity has achieved, reaching millions of people, staging remarkable events and partnering with incredible organisations to bring books to people who need them most. Its groundbreaking research has confirmed what many of us always felt: reading truly changes how we perceive, how we think and how we connect.

Camilla started The Queen’s Reading Room during lockdown (Image: PA)

“At a time when global reading rates are at their very lowest, my charity’s mission feels more urgent than ever. Books do make life better, and this is only the beginning.”

The book project started life when Camilla shared a list of nine of her favourite books, which she previously described as being “literally scribbled on a piece of paper during the first lockdown” in 2020. Her Reading Room book club officially launched on Instagram in January 2021, serving as a community space for book lovers and featuring Camilla’s recommendations and interviews with authors.

The Queen has personally recommended 76 books over the past five years, while the King, the Princess of Wales and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians have all contributed their own selections, and more than 120 authors have recommended their favourite reads.

In 2023, the book club became The Queen’s Reading Room charity and has gone on to host an annual literary festival, launch a podcast and introduce The Queen’s Reading Room Medal to celebrate unsung local heroes who champion reading, with the first recipient due to be unveiled in the spring.

Camilla is known to be an avid reader

The charity has also donated more than 2,300 books to 11 grassroots locations, including 1,400 to inpatients at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, as well as supporting reading groups at St Mungo’s homeless shelters and working with domestic violence refuges.

The Reading Room’s chief executive, Vicki Perrin, praised Camilla for bringing her “special magic” to the organisation and said the Queen very much still personally chooses its books.

She said: “She founded the charity. It’s very much her baby… She still chooses all of the books that are featured on the book club, and is by far the most well-read person I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.

“Often, when I go in to see her, the defining image of Her Majesty is in her armchair with piles and piles of books on the side table and on the floor by her feet, and she’s talking about this latest one that she’s read, and she’s got a proof of a new book that’s coming out, and that she’s really enjoying.”

Ms Perrin described current reading levels as a crisis and said the charity was “deeply concerned” about the falling rates among children. The National Literacy Trust, of which Camilla is patron, reported that just one in three children and young people aged eight to 18 in the UK said they enjoyed reading in 2025 – the lowest level since the question was first asked in 2005.

Ms Perrin said: “We, as a charity, are obviously deeply concerned about the falling reading rates among children, just as we are among adults.”