Queen admits she's terrible at doing Harry Potter voices when reading to grandchildren
The Queen admits in a new podcast that she is a “hopeless” mimic and could not voice the different characters when reading Harry Potter to her grandchildren.
Camilla, 76, delves into her own literary favourites in her debut podcast series, The Queen’s Reading Room, which is released weekly from Jan 8.
She reveals that the King is a much better impressionist who throws himself into character when reading the stories about the boy wizard.
Asked in the first episode which books she most enjoyed reading to her grandchildren, she replies: “I think the one I enjoyed reading more than anything else was Harry Potter… all the stories.
“I can’t mimic voices for love or money. I’m completely hopeless at it. I was a really bad actor at school and I’ve never been able to master the art of mimicry.
“But my husband, he does it brilliantly, he can do all the voices.”
The Queen, who has five grandchildren, has promised to let listeners in on her all-time favourite reads over the eight-part series.
Each episode will feature a segment from the Queen as well as an interview with a different guest, among them Sir Ian Rankin, Dame Joanna Lumley and David Baddiel.
In the first episode, the Queen chats to bestselling crime author Peter James, from West Sussex, asking how he manages to come up with so many ideas.
Mr James has previously revealed that the premise of his 2019 novel Dead at First Sight was inspired by Sussex Police, which asked him to write about romance fraud as they wanted to publicise it.
As a voracious reader and advocate of the power of literature, her Majesty has long encouraged people to sit down and open a book.
The Queen’s Reading Room podcast evolved from the success of her online book club of the same name, which was launched in December 2020 with the aim of creating a global community in which book lovers could engage and debate.
Vickie Perrin, CEO of the Queen’s Reading Room, an independent charity, told the Telegraph that the Queen was “hands-down the most well-read, most passionate person about books that I’ve ever met.”
She said it had been a “complete joy, privilege and pleasure” to translate her vision for the Reading Room into reality.
“Sitting down to interview the Queen for the podcast, I noticed that she didn’t speak from notes or rehearsed lines, she spoke so eloquently and from the heart, able to metaphorically pull down a whole host of books from a mental bookshelf and quote from them, talk about the characters she loved, the bits that had her on the edge of her seat,” she said.
“Her Majesty’s eyes sparkled when she spoke, as they do whenever we chat about books and what’s next for The Queen’s Reading Room. And of course, she did it all in one take!”
The Instagram book club reaches millions of people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds, only 40 per cent of whom are based in the UK.
Ms Perrin said through its success, they had discovered how much people love connecting with others, particularly when sharing book recommendations.
“One of the loveliest comments Her Majesty regularly receives is that it’s one of the nicest, kindest and most positive places on the internet,” she added.
“One of the things that gives me the greatest pleasure is to hear from people who aren’t regular readers, or have lost their love of reading through a life event like the passing of a loved one; they tell us that The Queen’s Reading Room has helped them find the very first book which has ignited in them a love of reading, or that book which has touched something in their soul and got them reading again. What an immense privilege it is to help do that.”
Ms Perrin said she hoped the podcast would prove the perfect compliment to the online book club by extending the audience to include those who “prefer to consume content through their ears rather than over their screens”.
It is hoped that a second series will be commissioned and the charity – which also has its own literary festival at Hampton Court Palace – has other major projects in the pipeline to be announced next year.
“Let’s just say that we’ve got something coming up which we hope will change the way people think about and consume books,” Ms Perrin teased.
“And that they’ll provide more chances for more people to meet and be inspired by authors and to interact with literature in new and exciting ways.”
The Queen’s Reading Room podcast will be available on all platforms from Jan 8.
