Queen Camilla has made the exciting announcement that her annual Reading Room Festival will return for its third year this September. However, in a change from the previous two years, the event will be held at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, rather than at Hampton Court Palace.
As with the first two celebrations, the festival will have a star-studded line-up, which includes the likes of Bridget Jones author, Helen Fielding, romance novelist Dame Jilly Cooper and author of the popular Bridgerton series, Julia Quinn. Also making appearances this year will be comedian Richard Osman, historian Peter Frankopan and gardening legend, Alan Titchmarsh.
The festival will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen and will feature a special screening of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in the garden at Chatsworth.
The festival, which will also take place across two days for the first time between the 19th and 20th of September, will see the likes of crime writer Peter James, author Rupert Everett, Lady Anne Glenconner and Gyles Brandreth make special appearances.
Legendary actor Celia Imrie will also join the line-up to interview Thursday Murder Club author Richard Osman, while journalist Reeta Chakrabarti will interview Assembly author Natasha Brown.
The star-studded appearances don’t stop there as ITV’s Lorraine Kelly will interview Dame Jilly Cooper about her career and how her work was transformed into the raunchy series Rivals on Disney+. Meanwhile, Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding and Me Before You author Jojo Moyes will discuss the process of writing stories full of love and hope.
Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton series, will take part in a special Bridgerton discussion panel – something Queen Camilla will surely find interesting after previously admitting that she was a fan of the Netflix series.
The Festival, which sold nearly 20,000 tickets in its first two year tenure at Hampton Court Palace, will this September move to the magical setting of Chatsworth in Derbyshire, the famous backdrop for the film adaptation of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’, released twenty years ago almost to the day.
The charity – which was previously known as The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room – has grown rapidly since it was launched in January 2021 and the initiative is, in Queen Camilla’s own words, “a resource, a reassurance and a refuge to all book lovers”.
Talking about what reading means to her, the Queen has said it’s often been her salvation through challenging and trying times. She said, “If you learn to read, however difficult your life is at the time, you can pick up a book and you can escape. You can laugh, you can cry, it just takes you out of the real world and it gives you a different dimension to life.”
Tickets for the festival go on sale at 10am on 14 May.
