Camilla also spoke of reading “forbidden” Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence, as a teenager under her pillow by torchlight, in the BBC Arts programme The Book That Changed My Life, which is due to air next week.
asserted
which → speak → Life
In the programme, Camilla meets a former prisoner, an HGV driver, a man who became depressed after an incident at home, and a roadside cafe owner for what she called “one of the most unusual book club meetings I have ever attended” in a message delivered to a press preview.
asserted
I → meet → preview
The documentary sees the Queen explore the transformative power of reading, meeting four people whose lives have been changed by books.
asserted
lives → see → books
She tells the documentary about her own love for reading, as well as the King’s and also her late father’s.
asserted
She → tell → reading
The Queen says reading is “like the best tonic in the world”.
asserted
reading → say → world
She says: “My husband and I actually read before dinner, we just like sitting quietly and reading.”
asserted
we → say → dinner
The King loves biographies, the Queen says, adding: “I occasionally, when I’m deep in a book, hear him roaring with laughter about something.
asserted
him → love → something
It’s very off-putting.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
I can’t get back into my book.”
asserted
I → get → book
She adds “it’s a lovely quiet time” and “I think it would be a complete and utter tragedy if books went forever”.
asserted
books → add → ?
Camilla tells the documentary about where her love of reading came from.
asserted
love → tell → reading
She says: “I left school quite young… so I think reading has been most of my education.
asserted
reading → say → education
“We must’ve been very, very young when my father started reading to us.
asserted
father → start → us
I think that’s where my love of reading came from.
asserted
love → think → reading
“We were transported into all sorts of other worlds.
asserted
We → transport → worlds
“I don’t think our childhood would’ve been the same if we hadn’t had books.
asserted
we → think → books
“We started off with Treasure Island and Peter Pan, all those lovely old classics.
asserted
We → start → Island
“And then as teenagers, you read a lot of romances.
asserted
you → read → romances
It was the moment of Lady Chatterley under our pillows, reading that by torchlight, you know, the minute something’s forbidden, you want to get hold of it.”
asserted
you → read → it
She added: “You learn so much about people, about life.
asserted
You → add → life
I think people who don’t read miss out so much.
asserted
who → think → ?
Read More
“That’s why I think it’s so important to get children reading early.”
asserted
children → read → More
Major Bruce Shand served in the Second World War as a 12th Lancer, fought alongside the Desert Rats, received the Military Cross twice and was wounded and taken prisoner while fighting in North Africa.
asserted
Shand → serve → Africa
The Queen recounts memories of her father and his experience being held in a German prisoner of war camp when reading reinforced a lifelong enthusiasm for the written word.
asserted
reading → recount → word
“A sniper shot him through his face, he was incredibly lucky because the bullet went in one side, out the other, didn’t touch his tongue or his teeth,” she says.
“He was taken to a prisoner of war camp and incarcerated for two and a half years.
asserted
He → shoot → years
Those places, there’s not much to do unless you’re plotting your escape.
asserted
you → ’ → escape
“So he said he educated himself because he read every single book, from the bible to the encyclopaedia, whatever was there, he just sat all day long and read, read, read, and that’s, I think, how he survived it.
asserted
he → say → it
“Like all that generation, they never talked about the war.
asserted
they → talk → war
He buried it all because he’d seen such horrendous things.
asserted
he → bury → things
“So we never heard him speaking about his wartime experiences, but he wrote it all down in this book, Previous Engagements.”
asserted
he → hear → book
The Queen reads an excerpt from the book, then says: “It was written from the heart.
asserted
It → read → heart
I mean, I cried through most of it.
asserted
I → mean → it
I found it so moving, because I didn’t know anything about it and reading managed to get him through it.”
asserted
reading → find → it
In a message from the Queen delivered at a preview screening of the programme this week, she said books “have certainly enriched my own life beyond measure”.
asserted
books → deliver → measure
She added: “While I find it impossible to point to a single title or author, or even to a single genre, that stands above others, reading for pleasure has helped entertain, comfort and inspire me in so many ways over the years.
asserted
reading → add → years
“I have long believed that books are in fact the very best form of escapism, transporting us to other places and into other lives – other hearts and minds – in ways that greatly enhance our own.
asserted
that → believe → own
“That is why, five years ago, I launched my Queen’s Reading Room, an online space I hoped would foster in adults and children alike a lifelong love of literature, and connect more people with that special magic that can only be found in the leaves of a book.”
asserted
that → launch → book
Camilla said it is her “fondest hope that this film will build on that work, helping demonstrate to audiences around the world just what a difference reading has made to one particular group of people, each of whom has faced challenge or difficulty in their personal lives, and each of whom has been lifted up by the sheer joy and transformative power of reading”.
asserted
each → say → reading
One of the documentary’s contributors, Ian Kirby, from Gateshead, fell into a deep depression after a traumatic incident at home.
asserted
One → fall → home
He turned his life around after joining a local book club and picking up the autobiography of local boxing hero, Glenn McCrory, which offered a new perspective on his own experiences.
asserted
which → turn → experiences
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
