Camilla praises ‘life-enhancing power’ of books amid Earl Spencer memoir controversy

Queen speaks of love of reading at festival for charity she founded after success of her Instagram book club

Queen Camilla has spoken of her love for books with a “life-enhancing power” after a series of allegations were made about King Charles in extracts from Earl Spencer’s memoir about the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Camilla was welcomed to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire for the first day of the festival for the Queen’s Reading Room, a charity she founded after the success of her Instagram book club during the pandemic.

She told the guests: “I created my Reading Room simply because, like all of us here, I love books and their life-enhancing power and I want to share that love with others.

“In those early days, I had no idea if anybody would be interested but six years on, we are a global community of millions from over 180 countries, swapping recommendations, undertaking research and donating thousands of books to women’s refuges and homeless shelters.”

Camilla’s speech about her love for reading comes after Spencer made a series of damning claims about the king in a new memoir chronicling the life of his sister, Diana, that prompted an “unprecedented” response from Buckingham Palace, which said: “The pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.

In further developments on Saturday, Spencer accused Charles of “gaslighting” in the palace’s response to the claims and said “Diana would be cheering from the rafters at this book”.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Spencer said “it was not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the king”.

He added: “It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the king being able to deny what I’d said.

“I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place.”

The BBC is scheduled to broadcast its full interview with Spencer on Sunday.

Camilla will also feature in the BBC Arts programme The Book That Changed My Life, which is due to air next month as part of the National Year of Reading 2026 .

The BBC has said the documentary film will follow Camilla as she meets four remarkable people whose lives have been changed by books at moments when they most needed them. The latest details of the show were revealed on Saturday at the Reading Room festival.

During the event, she spoke to Ian Kirby, one of the contributors to the documentary, asking him about his experience of finding community and hope through reading.