Royal family member Queen Camilla is launching a podcast about books

The royal family has started to expand its digital reach with one of its most senior members officially launching a podcast. Photo / Getty Images

Queen Camilla is launching a podcast.

The 76-year-old royal launched her online book club, The Reading Room, in January 2021 and she’s expanding on the success of the venture with a new weekly literary series, in which she will let listeners in on her “all-time favourite reads”.

Each of the eight episodes will include a segment from the queen, as well as an interview with guests including Dame Joanna Lumley and Sir Ian Rankin about their favourite books, while novelists Elif Shafak and Bonnie Garmus will share what life is like as book lovers on the move, and children’s authors Joseph Coelho and Frank Cottrell-Boyce will celebrate the “special magic” of literature.

Other guests will also include Countdown lexicographer Susie Dent, comedian David Baddiel and author Ann Patchett.

The Queen’s Reading Room podcast will be hosted by Vicki Perrin, who is also CEO of the queen’s charity of the same name.

She said in a statement: “There is nothing quite like a brilliant book recommendation from a friend; but it’s even better when that person is one of your favourite authors or most admired persons.

“I hope that this podcast will inspire listeners to new literary adventures and help those wishing to love books a little more find the books which set their imaginations alight.”

In addition, The Queen’s Reading Room also confirmed that its literary festival will return to Hampton Court Palace on June 8 next year, following a successful debut over the summer.

Camilla - who is married to King Charles - was recently praised for making reading “sexy” when she hosted authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize at Clarence House ahead of the ceremony last month.

Author Sir Ben Okri paid tribute to how the queen’s love of the written word has inspired others to pick up a book.

Okri was quoted by the Daily Telegraph newspaper as saying: “She sets a very good public example, she makes reading sexy, and makes it appealing to the public, and makes it something that you ought to do.

“It’s very, very important, reading, literacy needs all the help it can get... We know that stories told well and truthfully can shake the world and bring quiet liberation. We know literature is a force for good in an ever-darkening world.”

During his speech, the novelist hailed Camilla as someone who “loves reading and who also champions the rights of writers to write freely and unfettered, for a fairy tale is not an unreal fact, taking place in a real world”.