Royal insider

As The Weekly’s royal correspondent and books editor, it doesn’t get better than an invite to Queen Camilla’s inaugural literary festival at Hampton Court Palace.

- Juliet Rieden

A former home to King Henry VIII, this spectacular baroque palace and grounds (complete with outdoor maze) is normally open to the public, but for one day in June it was transformed into a heady literary wonderland with a program of special events celebrating literature and the arts. Book lovers flocked to the historic royal venue where we all also basked in an early summer heatwave.

As I wandered through the courtyards I half expected to stumble upon any one of Henry’s many wives and their courtiers huddled in conversation – actually not such a wild imagining as Jane Seymour’s ghost is said to haunt the Palace! Jane kept her head, unlike other wives, but died here soon after giving birth to the King’s longed-for son, who also died aged 15. (Early death was an occupational hazard in Henry’s court.)

Speakers included novelist Kate Mosse and crime writer Peter James but the most apt was surely bestselling historical fiction writer Philippa Gregory, who presented a tribute to the late Hilary Mantel, award-winning author of the Wolf Hall trilogy which unpicked the Tudor intrigue within these very walls.

The festival was organised by The Queen’s Reading Room book club, an Instagram-led charity with 160,000 devotees launched in 2021 to inspire “lifelong readers” and share some of Her Majesty’s favourite books.

Camilla was due to host the festival’s star-studded VIP literary reception, at which Dame Joanna Lumley and actor Richard E. Grant read poetry to a packed room. But when King Charles walked in without his wife to greet guests, we knew something was up.