Overview
- Camilla said her charity’s mission is "more urgent than ever" as The Queen’s Reading Room turns five, declaring that "books do make life better."
- The charity is promoting a Make Room for Reading campaign that urges people to fit in just five minutes of reading each day.
- Recent figures highlight the challenge: only half of UK adults read a book in a year, 46% struggle to finish one, UNICEF estimates 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries could not read a simple story in 2022, and UK reading enjoyment among 8–18s fell to 32.7% in 2025.
- The organisation reports a community of more than 186,000 readers in over 180 countries, with Camilla personally selecting 76 featured books, according to chief executive Vicki Perrin.
- The charity cites neuroscience suggesting five minutes of fiction can cut stress by nearly 20%, improve focus by up to 11%, and ease loneliness, and it has donated over 2,300 books and backed reading groups in hospitals and shelters while adding a festival, podcast and a new medal to honour reading champions.