Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall believes it is a parent's job to get children reading from a "very young" age.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall is a passionate advocate for literature
The 74-year-old royal - who is married to Prince Charles and has adult children Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes with ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles - is a passionate advocate for literature and she believes a familiarity with the printed word can help shape a child's future.
In an interview with author Daisy Buchanan for her own The Reading Room Instagram channel, Camilla said: “Obviously you’ve got to learn to read first because if you can’t read, how are you going to get on in life? You’re not going to be able to read application forms.
“The earlier you can learn, the better. I think that’s very much a parent’s job, to get their children reading very young.”
Camilla believes reading is a great form of therapy.
She said: “However difficult things are, you can get away from them and go into your own world for a bit. Just take yourself away from everything that's annoying you and read a book. I think it’s the most therapeutic thing you can do.
“After lockdown, especially, when we were all in a world we didn’t understand. What better than to reach for a book?”
The duchess has gone back to Elizabeth Jane Howard's 'The Cazalet Chronicles' "time and time again" over the years.
Asked her "desert island book", she said: “Elizabeth Jane Howard’s ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’. I love a saga and they’re so beautifully written. I think she is a very underestimated writer. I’ve read them I don’t know how many times.”
Camilla even wrote to the author to ask for a sequel and was devastated when the writer died.
She said: “It was the saddest thing. You're slightly left hanging, she never really completed them. Sometimes I wonder if another author will come in and finish them off."
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