The Queen shares her comments in an upcoming BBC documentary

NEED TO KNOW

• Queen Camilla has said that she and King Charles spend quiet time together reading before dinner
• “I occasionally, when I’m deep in a book, hear him roaring with laughter about something. It’s very off-putting, I can’t get back into my book, or I’ll suddenly start weeping,” she shared in an upcoming BBC documentary
• Camilla has spoken openly about her love of books through the years, launching her Reading Room book club in 2021

Queen Camilla is opening up about her and King Charles’ pre-dinner routine.

Speaking during the upcoming BBC documentary, The Book That Changed My Life, Camilla, 79, shared that she and Charles, 77, love to sit down with a book before eating in the evening.

“My husband and I actually read before dinner. We just like sitting quietly and reading,” the Queen said in the documentary, which airs on Wednesday, Oct. 14.

She added, “I occasionally, when I’m deep in a book, hear him roaring with laughter about something. It’s very off-putting, I can’t get back into my book, or I’ll suddenly start weeping, but it’s a lovely, quiet time.”

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“I think it would be a complete and utter tragedy if books went forever,” Camilla shared.

She continued, “It’s part of our heritage, if there’s no reading, personally [I think] we might as well all give up. Because I don’t think we’d even be human any longer.”

Camilla has spoken openly about her love of books through the years. She launched a book club called the Reading Room in January 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s continued ever since.

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During the upcoming BBC documentary, the Queen also spoke about how she would secretly read English novelist D.H. Lawrence’s once-controversial book, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, as a teenager in the 1960s.

“As teenagers you read a lot of romances. It was the moment of Lady Chatterley, under our pillows, reading that by torchlight. You know the minute something is forbidden, you want to get hold of it,” Camilla shared, per the BBC.

She also described reading as “like the best tonic in the world,” according to the outlet.

Camilla explained that when she was younger, reading was very important, as she and many others would leave school at quite a young age.

“I left school quite young. In my day, women didn’t go to university, so I think reading has been most of my education,” she shared in the documentary, per the BBC.

Camilla said of her love of literacy and books, per the Queen’s Reading Room website, “With their extraordinary power to educate and inspire, books — from authors around the globe — have enriched my life since I was a child.” 

“It has therefore been such a joy to watch my Reading Room grow over the years into a thriving book community,” she added of her organization. 

“Now a charity, I hope that we, together with our partners, can foster in adults and children alike a lifelong love of literature and connect more people with that special magic that can only be found in the leaves of a book,” Camilla continued.

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