Queen Camilla's Newest Book Club Pick Imagines King Charles as a Hostage


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Queen Camilla's newest book club pick is an interesting choice: The Lords' Day, a 2007 novel by Michael Dobbs. The plot is about a security breach at the House of Parliament, and imagines Queen Elizabeth and then-Prince Charles held hostage. Yes, really.

<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857208063?tag=syn-yahoo-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C10067.a.46363991%5Bsrc%7Cyahoo-us" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Shop Now;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Shop Now</a></p><p>The Lord's Day (Harry Jones)</p><p>amazon.com</p><p>$15.05</p>

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The Lord's Day (Harry Jones)

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Dobbs told the BBC he was "utterly surprised, overjoyed, very excited and rather deeply humbled" that The Lords' Day was selected, and the choice demonstrated that Queen Camilla has a "fantastic sense of humor."

Last year, he says, he sent the King and Queen a copy "for a chuckle," adding "I didn't expect them to read it, they are busy people." But Queen Camilla clearly did—and selected it for her Queen's Reading Room book club.

"I was bowled over when I found out," Dobbs said. "If you look at her previous choices, you have the likes of Dickens, Tolstoy, and some of the greatest modern authors on the list, and to have a Dobbs novel included was totally unexpected. The Queen is very serious about getting people to read, and opening up people's minds, which is what books do best."

In 2021, Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, launched The Duchess of Cornwall's Reading Room, a book club born out of sharing reading recommendations during the pandemic. "I think I’d like it to be something that everybody could delve into and find something that suited them and enjoy it," she said. "I just think it’s because I love reading myself I think a lot of other people also get a huge amount of pleasure from it."

When Charles became King and Camilla became Queen, the book club rebranded to the Queen's Reading Room. It's since expanded—and earlier this year, the Reading Room launched a podcast.

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