A never-before-seen picture of Queen Camilla has been released by Buckingham Palace alongside an urgent warning from the royal.
The Queen issued an appeal to encourage reading, declaring that "books do make life better" as her charity celebrates a significant milestone.
The monarch released a previously unseen photograph to commemorate the fifth anniversary of The Queen's Reading Room, which she established during the coronavirus lockdown.
Royal photographer Chris Jackson captured the image in July at Raymill, Camilla's private Wiltshire residence, showing her seated on garden steps engrossed in Louise Penny's The Grey Wolf whilst wearing a dark navy floral dress.
A never-before-seen picture of Queen Camilla has been released by Buckingham Palace alongside an urgent warning from the royal.
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The charity has grown into a global community spanning more than 180 countries with over 186,000 book enthusiasts.
However, Camilla cautioned that with worldwide reading rates at their "very lowest, my charity's mission feels more urgent than ever".
The statistics paint a concerning picture of reading habits across Britain and beyond.
Currently, just half of UK adults read a book annually, while 46 per cent report being unable to complete one due to surrounding distractions.
The Queen issued an appeal to encourage reading, declaring that "books do make life better" as her charity celebrates a significant milestone.
|GETTY
The global situation appears even more troubling, particularly for young people in developing nations.
Unicef research from 2022 revealed that approximately 70 per cent of ten-year-olds in low and middle income countries could not read and comprehend a basic written story.
This figure represented a significant deterioration from pre-pandemic levels, when around 57 per cent struggled with the same task, despite progress having already plateaued before Covid-19 struck.
These findings underscore why Camilla believes her charity's work has become increasingly vital.
The Queen's Reading Room has adopted "Make Room for Reading" as its motto for this anniversary year, urging people to incorporate just five minutes of daily reading into their routines.
The campaign draws parallels with other health recommendations, comparing the habit to walking 10,000 steps or consuming five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.
The initiative traces its origins to a modest beginning during the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020, when Camilla jotted down nine favourite books on a scrap of paper.
"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," she said in remarks released to the Press Association.
The Reading Room officially launched on Instagram in January 2021, offering author interviews alongside Camilla's personal selections.
Over five years, the Queen has recommended 76 titles, starting with Dame Hilary Mantel's The Mirror And The Light and including works by William Boyd, Delia Owens and Elif Shafak.
Reader favourites have included Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders, Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet and Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice.
The King, Princess of Wales and Queen Mathilde of Belgium have all contributed recommendations, alongside more than 120 authors.
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