What’s on the duchess’s nightstand? Camilla shares top reads in new book club

Avid readers gather around because the Duchess of Cornwall has shared her first round recommendations for her new book club.

While the recommendations are yet to be shared on the duchess’s official The Reading Room Instagram page, The Times has gotten hold of Camilla’s highly anticipated reading list. And the first four books are: The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owns, Restless by William Boyd and The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak.

According to the publication, each of the titles will be highlighted for a fortnight on the Instagram account, which will feature information about each book and its author.

A book club kit, consisting of “a set of questions you can use to explore the themes of the book and spark discussions with friends”, will also be made available for each book. Earlier this week, The Reading Room shared a taste of what the book club kit would look like.

“When Season One of The Reading Room launches, each book will be accompanied by a Book Club Kit [BCK],” The Reading Room captioned the post. “Here’s a mini BCK for Charlie Mackesy’s wonderful The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse.”

 

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Clarence House announced the news of the 73-year-old’s new venture earlier this month, alongside a video of the duchess chatting with Mackesy about his bestselling book.

“Following the success of The Duchess’s book lists published in 2020, Her Royal Highness has created a brand-new reading platform,” Clarence House captioned the post at the time.

“The channel will offer new seasons of book recommendations, as well as providing exclusive insight from the authors themselves, in a community space for book lovers of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.”

 

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Camilla’s latest venture comes as no surprise as the duchess has a long history of working with literacy-focused charities and is patron of several related organisations including National Literacy Trust, First Story and Coram Beanstalk.

The news comes after the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, announced she’ll be releasing her first adult fiction novel later this year. Fergie made the exciting announcement on Wednesday via social media, revealing her debut Mills & Boon novel Her Heart for a Compass is based on the life of one of her ancestors.