The Queen reveals how she secretly read Eastwood author's most famous book 'under the pillows'
Eastwood author DH Lawrence’s most famous – and controversial – book, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, was a favourite of a young Queen Camilla, the monarch has revealed.
The Queen has recalled secretly reading the passionate and controversial novel by Eastwood-born Lawrence, by torchlight in bed as a teenager in the 1960s.
Speakng to the BBC for the documentary The Book The Changed My Life, Queen Camilla said: "As teenagers you read a lot of romances.
"It was the moment of Lady Chatterley, under our pillows, reading that by torchlight.
"You know the minute something is forbidden, you want to get hold of it.
The novel was notorious for having been at the centre of an obscenity trial.
The Queen also spoke of how regular reading is a big part of her’s and King Charle’s lives.
She said: It's like the best tonic in the world.
"My husband and I actually read before dinner, just sitting quietly and reading.
"He loves biographies and PG Wodehouse and occasionally, when I'm deep in a book, I hear him roaring with laughter about something.
"It's very off-putting, I can't get back into my book, or I'll suddenly start weeping.
"But it's a lovely, quiet time.
"I think it would be a complete and utter tragedy if books went forever.”
Queen Camilla, who also recalled she was ‘mesmerised’ by Charles Dickens's Tale of Two Cities when she was younger, has been running her Queen's Reading Room project for five years, a kind of mega book club, with festivals and events and outreach projects, such as bringing books to homeless shelters.
It's part of her campaign to promote and protect the value of reading and to prevent the British becoming a nation of screen addicts.
The Queen recalled that she was part of a generation of women who missed out on higher education, which made reading and books even more important.
She said: "I left school quite young.
"In my day, women didn't go to university, so I think reading has been most of my education,.”