Publish Date: 2019
WELCOME to the QUEEN'S READING ROOM
Discover new books each season and meet the extraordinary people who create them
With their extraordinary power to educate and inspire, books – from authors around the globe – have enriched my life since I was a child. It has therefore been such a joy to watch my Reading Room grow over the years into a thriving book community. Now a charity, I hope that we, together with our partners, can foster in adults and children alike a lifelong love of literature and connect more people with that special magic that can only be found in the leaves of a book.
~ Her Majesty The Queen Consort
The Queen’s Reading Room is a charity working to provide opportunities for the appreciation of literature among adults and children in the UK and around the world. We seek to advance education by closing the gap between writers and readers through accessible, educational and free literary content available year-round. Our purpose is to help more people find and connect with books which enrich their lives and turn them into lifelong readers. You’ll find on this website reading recommendations, author interviews, never-before-seen archive and lots more, carefully selected by our board of trustees and their expert advisors for their educative, literary and historic merit.
Join us in reading the selected books each season, or delve into this website to discover more about the books and authors selected by Her Majesty The Queen Consort to inspire your curiosity and delight your imagination.
Find out more here.
Season 9
Season 9 of The Queen’s Reading Room has taken us on a wondrous journey of discovery of Medieval France in ‘Labyrinth’; the birth of Christian Dior’s revolutionary New Look in ‘Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris’; the history of the British Raj in ‘The Far Pavilions’; and the pioneering women pilots who first dared take to the skies in ‘Great Circle’. Click on each book below for author interviews, historical background and more. And follow along with the current season on Instagram @thequeensreadingroom
Kate Mosse
Labyrinth
Paul Gallico
Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris
M. M. Kaye
The Far Pavilions
Maggie Shipstead
Great Circle
Season 8
Season 8 of The Queen’s Reading Room saw us learning about prisoners of war in Dorset during World War II in ‘The Whalebone Theatre’; the history of the epistolary form, as used by Bram Stoker in ‘Dracula’; book burnings in Nazi Germany in ‘The Book Thief’; and the history of theatre on Broadway in ‘The City of Girls’. Click on each book below for author interviews, historical background and more. And follow along with the new season on Instagram @thequeensreadingroom
Joanna Quinn
The Whalebone Theatre
Bram Stoker
Dracula
Markus Zusak
The Book Thief
Elizabeth Gilbert
City of Girls
Books keep our minds fresh and our hearts open.
There is perhaps no greater exercise in empathy than reading a book: placing oneself in another’s shoes, travelling the world and meeting its people. Reading teaches us the value and power of our imagination, as our minds paint pictures to the words and conjure new worlds we may never have dreamed of. And when we realise that power, young or old, who knows what we can achieve. Finding a great book is special; but coming together over a shared love of a story is a very precious thing indeed.
Check out our Books page for stories to make your soul soar, expand your horizons, or simply provide a gentle comfort in times when the world seems dark. Read along with us on our Instagram page, where writers and readers interact, where the reading experience is enriched by education, and where the love of a great story is shared.
Conversations with Her Majesty The Queen Consort
On the importance of books, the value of literacy, and the legacy of authors
Watch
In Conversation
An introduction to The Reading Room
Watch
Edna O’Brien
In Conversation: On writing ‘Girl’
©
Watch
In Conversation
The Camilla Club
Watch
Edna O’Brien
In Conversation: On Writing ‘The Country Girls’
Watch
In Conversation
Who inspired HM’s love of books?
Watch
In Conversation
Books Unlocked
Watch
Peter James
In Conversation: On Roy Grace
Watch
In Conversation
Hopes for The Reading Room
Watch
Peter James
In Conversation: On writing crime
Watch
In Conversation
Why should we read to children?
Treasures from the Library
Explore some of the UK’s most important and rarely seen books and manuscripts
Find your next book
Click on each book to access background and exclusive content to enrich your reading experience.
Enjoy interviews with authors, historians, academics and experts.
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Publish Date: 1897
A tale which has fascinated readers for over a century and filled them with terror, Dracula is a masterpiece of Gothic fiction narrated through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. The mysterious Count Dracula, a vampire from Transylvania who survives…
Friends of The Reading Room Recommend
Stay on your reading journey and be inspired by reading recommendations from your favourite authors and these lovers of literature
His Majesty King Charles III
Delia Owens
Kazuo Ishiguro
William Boyd
Pick of the week
Jack Aubrey Novels
Adventurous and gripping, the Jack Aubrey novels comprise twenty completed volumes and one unfinished set during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin. In 2004, O’Brian’s unfinished novel was published posthumously. The series received international acclaim and was adapted into the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Read more
Book Club Kits
Have you introduced your book club to The Queen’s Reading Room?
Download our book club kits for conversation starters…
which may turn into bookish debate!
Children’s Books
Explore this selection of brilliant titles, as chosen by Her Majesty The Queen Consort for The Reading Room.
Friends of The Reading Room recommend…
Charlie Mackesy’s
Reading Recommendations
Michael Morpurgo’s
Reading Recommendations
Anthony Horowitz’s
Reading Recommendations
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
Reading Recommendations
Maggie O’Farrell’s
Reading Recommendations
Peter James’
Reading Recommendations
Victoria Hislop’s
Reading Recommendations
Susan Hill’s
Reading Recommendations
Antoine Laurain’s
Reading Recommendations
Edna O’Brien’s
Reading Recommendations
Elif Shafak’s
Reading Recommendations