A speech by Her Majesty The Queen at 'The Queen's Reading Room Festival' at Chatsworth House

Thank you very much, William, for your kind words and for allowing my Reading Room, once again, to gather here for our 4th Festival. 

There could hardly be a more fitting location for a literary festival than Chatsworth: a house that has inspired and hosted countless authors, including Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and William Makepeace Thackery, among many others. Future generations will, no doubt, boast of the day when William Boyd, Elif Shafak, Robert Harris and Kate Mosse were guests here too! It is, moreover, home to a stunning library of over 17,000 books from across six centuries. Perhaps some of you might not know that there is also a so-called “invisible library” here, containing about 100 titles. The joke, of course, is that they are the spines of fake novels. A selection were suggested in the 1960s by the genius writer, war hero and explorer, Paddy Leigh Fermor, whom I was lucky enough to have met here at Chatsworth several times. His brilliant titles include “Canine Diet” by Norah Bone; “In The Soup” by A Crouton; and “Military Dilemmas” by Major Crisis. 

I am quite glad that I did not commission a book about the beginning of my Reading Room, back in 2020. Given the initial response of a handful of sceptics, it might have been called “The Long Shot” by Dee Featist. Or, even worse, “Don’t Do It” by that dreary author, Les Stopper. But my feelings would have been better captured in “How Books Can Change Lives” by Mustafa Hope. 

I created my Reading Room simply because, like all of us here, I love books and their life-enhancing power and I want to share that love with others. In those early days, I had no idea if anybody would be interested, but 6 years on, we are a global community of millions from over 180 countries, swapping recommendations, undertaking research and donating thousands of books to women’s refuges and homeless shelters. 

Now, none of this would have happened without a wonderful array of friends. I was recently reminded of a rather beautiful proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. The fact that we have “gone far” is due to the incredible support by a huge number of book lovers: writers, actors, publishers and, above all, readers. Thanks to all of you, if something were to be written about my Reading Room today, I think the author would be much more likely to be Mr Cliff Hanger, Mrs Paige Turner or even Miss Bess Seller…and, for that, I am deeply grateful to every person in the room. 

I shall stop now, as it is time for me to hand over to the Poetry Pharmacy for their performance. By way of encouragement, remember Paddy Leigh Fermor’s wise words: “Poetry is a field where England can take on all challengers”. Hear hear and thank you!