Queen Camilla has unveiled her dream destination, which, for book lovers, remains a work of fiction.
Her Majesty, aged 76, was questioned about the place she would most like to visit from a book while making a surprise appearance at the Charleston Festival in East Sussex on Thursday.
“The one place I won’t be going to is The Cat In The Hat,” Camilla said, prompting laughter. “But the one place I think I’d love to go to is Hogwarts.”
Camilla’s affection for children’s books is well-known. In the inaugural episode of The Queen’s Reading Room Podcast, launched in January, she shared the book series she most enjoys reading with her grandchildren.
“I think the one I enjoyed reading more than anything else was Harry Potter,” she said.
And she previously shared her husband King Charles’ at doing voices for all the different characters.
Speaking in a documentary around his 70th birthday in 2018, the then Duchess of Cornwall said of Charles: “He will get down on his knees and crawl about with them for hours, you know, making funny noises and laughing and my grandchildren adore him, absolutely adore him. He reads Harry Potter and he can do all the different voices, and I think children really appreciate that.”
Camilla, who wed Charles in 2005, is grandmother to Tom Parker Bowles’ two children, Lola, 16, and Frederick, 13, as well as her daughter Laura Lopes’ three children: Eliza, 16, and 14-year-old twins, Gus and Louis.
The Queen participated in the opening event at the 2024 Charleston Festival, titled “The Power of Reading,” which celebrated the influence of reading on children and young people.
Camilla was joined by author Joseph Coelho, Francesca Simon, Jacqueline Wilson, and actor and comedian Lenny Henry, with schoolchildren in the audience invited to answer questions.
Her Majesty has long advocated for the importance of literacy and serves as patron of several organizations, including the National Literacy Trust, First Story, Coram Beanstalk, and Booktrust.
