The Duchess of Cornwall has joined actress and television producer, Joanna Lumley, for the launch of the new Commonwealth Poetry Podcast hosted by Gyles and Aphra Brandreth.
In the first episode, The Duchess warmly welcomes famed English broadcaster Gyles Brandreth and his daughter, Aphra, into Clarence House’s enchanting Garden Room.
The new podcast will see the father-daughter duo “explore and celebrate the poetry, heritage and people of each Commonwealth country”, as described by Clarence House.
Posted to the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall’s official social media pages, Camilla looked radiant in a floral blue dress as she posed elegantly between a beautifully dressed Aphra and a colourful Lumley.
In another photo shared by the royal couple and posted to the official Commonwealth Poetry Podcast, The Duchess was pictured smiling widely as she conversed with Lumley and the Brandreth’s around a table in the Garden Room.
According to the post, the podcast can be listened to “through your usual podcaster provider” or through the podcast’s official website, commonwealthpoetrypodcast.co.uk.
In a snippet of the podcast shared by The Daily Mail, The Duchess is heard describing the sentiment behind her special Reading Room hub, a channel that “offers new seasons of book recommendations, as well as exclusive insight from the authors themselves”, and how it came to be.
“Well it is a book club, it’s something that I conjured up in lockdown when a lot of people wrote to me after I’d recommended a few books for them to read and it went so well, I got so many letters, that I thought, why not start to put it on a bigger scale”, Camilla said.
In the first episode, Camilla revealed her belief that learning poetry could help children increase their concentration levels.
“If you have to learn something by heart you look at it properly and don’t just read through it,” she said.
“And I think it’s a lovely thing to store. You can have a little store where you have got all these poems in you for the rest of your life, and at some point, rather like today, you can bring them out and talk about them.”
Despite Camilla’s undeniable book club success, she revealed many had initially expected her to fail in the endeavour.
“There were a few people who were convinced that it wasn’t going to go anywhere and it would be a total flop, but luckily I’ve been able to prove them wrong,” she said.
The podcast also featured The Duchess reading poems aloud alongside Lumley, Gyles and Aphra as they inspired viewers to gather their own intimate groups of friends and enjoy quality time over poetry and tea.