The Queen attends the 'Big Lunch' as part of the National Year of Reading

The Queen, as Patron of both the National Literacy Trust and The Big Lunch initiative, joined volunteers from across the UK at the British Library to celebrate the power of sharing stories and food to bring communities together. 

On arrival, The Queen visited the 'deep dark woods' section of the British Library’s ‘Fairy Tales’ family exhibition to explore items related to the heroes and villains from magical tales, including ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. 

Her Majesty watched a dress-up and storytelling activity rooted in how sharing stories can reflect the values of the changing world and connect people to the things they care about.

In the Library's Piazza, The Queen met young people, community and corporate volunteers taking part in The Big Lunch.

The Big Lunch is the UK’s annual celebration bringing millions of neighbours and communities together in a nationwide act of friendship on the first weekend in June every year since 2009. 

Her Majesty has been Patron of The Big Lunch since 2013, and was recently joined by The King to launch this year’s Big Lunch and Big Help Out campaign at the Eden Project on 24th March.

Today's guests included pupil librarians from primary schools in London. These schools have benefitted from the National Literacy Trusts’ ‘Libraries for Primaries’ campaign, co-founded with Penguin Books in 2021 to ensure every state primary school in the UK has a designated library space by 2029. 

All pupils have undertaken training as part of the programme to come up with creative ways to encourage their peers to explore their new school library and discover a love of reading through their different interests, hobbies and passions.

The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage CBE recited a short poem on the power of stories and introduced the two newly appointed Young Poet Laureates for London - Maya and Latifah - who each performed poems they have written especially for the day. The young poets have completed the National Poetry Centre x National Literacy Trust programme which provides children and young people with new opportunities to explore and discover poetry in their schools and communities.

Before departing, The National Literacy Trust unveiled Paddington Bear as the new National Year of Reading Ambassador and The Queen was invited to cut a celebratory cake.