Overview

• Camilla opened the eighth Cliveden Literary Festival at Cliveden House in Berkshire with remarks honoring her “much‑missed” friend Dame Jilly Cooper.
• She quoted Cooper’s “immortal line” about getting “absolutely plastered” at a past Cliveden party, prompting laughter from the audience.
• The Queen spotlighted Cliveden’s literary and historical associations, from Queen Victoria’s praise to the Profumo affair, as she declared the weekend’s programme open.
• Before the ceremony she met founders Simon Sebag Montefiore, Natalie Livingstone, Andrew Roberts and Catherine Ostler, spoke with Sir Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian Rankin, and later hosted a reception with festival participants and partners.
• Cooper, lauded as the “queen of the bonkbuster” and author of Rivals, Riders and Polo, died last week at 88 after a fall at her Cotswolds home.