Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall has revealed how she was reduced to tears by one of the books she chose for her new online book club. “All is not as it seems in this beautifully written, heartbreaking coming-of-age novel,” she wrote of Delia Owens’s Where the Crawdads Sing. “I couldn’t put it (or my handkerchief) down!”
The Duchess chose the book as one of four titles for the first season of her new online book club, which launched this month. Described by the author in a video posted today on the Reading Room as “an intense love story, a murder mystery and a courtroom drama,” Where the Crawdads Sing is about Kya, a girl forced to grow up alone in the wild coastal marsh of North Carolina. Rejected by society, she finds the strength to overcome her situation in an emotional tale that has struck a chord with readers, Camilla included. (It’s also set for a film adaptation starring Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones.)
Speaking exclusively to Vanity Fair Owens said that she was “thrilled” that her book had been chosen by the royal as a must-read. “I never dreamed that it would get a royal stamp of approval!” she said. “I am so grateful that the Reading Room will give more readers the chance to read my novel. Where the Crawdads Sing is about many different themes; one of those is loneliness. You do not have to live in a wild marsh to be isolated; many people in towns and cities feel lonely, and I believe that is one of the reasons so many people have identified with Kya’s story.”
The Duchess has spoken of her joy at being able to read so much during the lockdown. She came up with the idea to start the club during a previous lockdown in the UK, when she released two of her reading lists online. The response was so positive that Camilla decided to launch the very first royal online book club which has already proved to be a great success.
Sources say the venture has given Her Royal Highness a chance to interact with the public who have turned to the Duchess for inspiration on what to read during the lockdown. In one recent post alongside a picture of Camilla walking with her dog Beth, she asked her followers, “What audiobook are you listening to on your lockdown walks?”
Camilla, who is patron of a number of literacy charities in the UK, has said she wants the Reading Room to be a place for people to “delve into and find something that suits them and enjoy it. I think it’s for people’s enjoyment and I think they get more enjoyment if they can see little snippets of authors and why they wrote the book. I love reading myself and a lot of other people get pleasure from it. And it’s because I had letters from all over the world when I put out my original reading list. Have you read this? You might enjoy that. It’s a lovely way of communicating.”
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