A Speech by The Queen at a Literary Reception to mark the fifth anniversary of Her Majesty's Reading Room

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a huge pleasure to welcome you all to Clarence House tonight, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of my Reading Room and to thank you for being part of our work.

I find it hard to believe that it is five years since I founded it, at the height of lockdown, with the simple aim of sharing my lifelong conviction that books make life better. Since then, it has expanded beyond my wildest dreams: filling over 22,000 seats at our annual festival; becoming a charity; forging partnerships with local organisations that combat domestic abuse and homelessness; donating thousands of books; and creating literary content for our global digital audience of 12 million from 184 countries.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without a host of wonderful friends and supporters, to whom I am deeply grateful. In particular, a huge thank you to the brilliant writers who have done so much for us all. I recently came across an interesting quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that I thought might make you smile, “The authors’ trade ought to be scheduled among the dangerous trades”. You are indeed dangerous people: you look into our hearts and souls to expose the unvarnished truth, with all the strengths and weaknesses of the human condition. You allow us to experience life through another’s eyes, you encourage us, you make us laugh, you make us cry, you take us on magical journeys and you create a community of book lovers that transcends almost any barrier. In short, as I said just now, you, and your books, really do make life much better. 

Speaking of Conan Doyle – exactly 140 years ago this year, he created the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. I hope it won’t depress those of you struggling with the dreaded writer’s block to learn that he wrote his first book, “A Study in Scarlet”, in 3 weeks at the tender age of 27. Incidentally, if you are battling writer’s block, you could do worse than take the advice of another crime fiction novelist, Raymond Chandler, who once offered this counsel to his fellow authors: “When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand”.

But back to Sir Arthur. We are in distinguished company in our admiration of him. My husband’s great great grandfather, King Edward VII, was a fan and, when he had the opportunity, requested that he was placed next to him at a dinner. Queen Mary enjoyed his novels too and in the display next door, we have “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” from 1894 and the tiny book that he wrote for the Dolls’ House, “How Watson Learned the Trick”. We also have King George VI’s copy of “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. This was a childhood gift from his younger brother and is one of the first entries in his reading log, which he kept from 1907 to 1934. Next to the title, he wrote the comment, “Good detective story”. 

Sherlock Holmes, being a good detective, would surely have approved of the ground-breaking research of my Reading Room (even though he could not have described it as “elementary”). We now know much more of the transformative benefits that reading has for our mental health and were invited to present the keynote speech at the British Neuroscience Association’s Festival to an audience of world experts last year. I’m also delighted to announce that we have partnered with the BBC and Blink Films for a major new documentary that will showcase the life-transforming power of books – my father’s and my own experience included – for which the cameras are filming here today. 

Now, those of you who were here last year will remember that we have created the Queen’s Reading Room Medal, to shine a light on the importance and impact of volunteering. Nominations were received from all over the UK, with truly inspiring stories of people helping others to access books, spreading the joy of reading and using it as a tool to improve even the toughest of lives. In a minute, we will hear from Vicki who the winners of the first Medal are. 

So let me end with a final word from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods”. 

Thank you