Queen Camilla Recalls Secret Teenage Reading of Lady Chatterley's Lover

Queen Camilla has revealed she secretly read Lady Chatterley’s Lover under her pillow by torchlight as a teenager in the 1960s. Speaking ahead of a new BBC documentary on the transformative power of reading, the Queen also shared details of King Charles’s literary habits and her own father’s wartime experiences.

Queen Camilla Recalls Secret Teenage Reading and School Years

Reflecting on her youth in the 1960s, Queen Camilla recalled how she and her friends devoured passionate and controversial literature in secret. 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, she recalled of DH Lawrence’s novel, which was the subject of a landmark obscenity trial after being published in full in 1960.

She explained that books formed the core of her education because she left school at age 16 during an era when women did not typically attend university. Recalling her introduction to literature, she noted that reading is like the best tonic in the world and that she grew up transported into all sorts of other worlds when her father read to them. She noted that people who do not read miss out so much, and emphasized that getting children reading early is essential.

Queen Camilla Recalls Secret Teenage Reading of Lady Chatterley's Lover — Photo: The Independent

King Charles Shares Quiet Evenings with Biographies and PG Wodehouse

The Queen described quiet evenings spent reading before dinner, noting that the King’s literary tastes lean heavily toward biographies and the comic novels of PG Wodehouse.

My husband and I actually read before dinner, we just like sitting quietly and reading, Camilla said. She added that the King’s reactions to his reading material can occasionally disrupt her own concentration. I occasionally, when I’m deep in a book, hear him roaring with laughter about something. It’s very off-putting. But it’s a lovely, quiet time. I think it would be a complete and utter tragedy if books went forever, she stated in the documentary.

Major Bruce Shand Endures World War Two and Prisoner Camps

“He said he educated himself. He read every single book, from the Bible to the encyclopedia, whatever was there, he just sat there all day long and read and read.”

Queen Camilla, via Yahoo

Like many of his generation, Major Shand did not talk about the horrors he witnessed because he had been so traumatized by the conflict that he couldn’t speak to his own family about it. It was only after reading his account of his years as a prisoner of war that Camilla fully understood his experiences. I found it so moving, because I didn’t know anything about it and reading managed to get him through it, she reflected, noting the parallels to her father finding reading in a prisoner of war camp.

Clarence House Hosts Book Club for Former Prisoners Omar Mentesh and Ian Kirby

The documentary culminates in a unique book club meeting at Clarence House, where the Queen hosts tea for four individuals whose lives were transformed by literature: former prisoner Omar Mentesh, former prisoner Ian Kirby, and others. The gathering builds upon the success of The Queen’s Reading Room. Speaking about the initiative, the Queen noted the power of books to give experiences never experienced before and act as an inspiration, concluding that books change people’s lives.

The Queen’s Reading Room, launched five years ago, now reaches 12 million people in 184 countries. Research shows 10 minutes of reading a day cuts stress by 20%.

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