Senior royals could join ‘TikTok and become influencers’

Queen Camilla could join TikTok in a bid to become a book influencer, her friend has said.

The head of the Queen’s Reading Room recently hinted that King Charles’ wife could take a leaf out of Gen Z’s book-sharing book collection and create a TikTok account to talk about books.

Talking with The telegraphVicki Perrin, chief executive of charity Queen’s Reading Room, said she was delighted to see the growing interest in reading as more readers turned to the app to talk about their passion.

He added that there is nothing more important than engaging people in reading, no matter what type of books they read.

She said: ‘The wonderful thing about BookTok is that you have people from all walks of life saying, ‘This is a book that touched me,’ and that’s so much more important than anything else.’

The 77-year-old grandmother, Camilla, would be the first royal to join the app publicly, after launching her podcast, The Queen’s Reading Room, in January.

The podcast was among the top 1 percent in the world at the time of its launch, with royal fans eagerly tuning in to hear the Queen interview different guests.

Some of the people who took part in the popular podcast include Dame Joanna Lumley and Richard E Grant, who were interviewed by Camilla about the books they can’t live without.

The Camilla podcast currently reaches 12 million people in around 171 countries.

If Camilla were to take her device and launch a TikTok channel, she would likely attract a younger audience, who already use the app for similar purposes as she does.

This charity-reading club promotes reading among generations around the world, with the aim of promoting and fostering interest in books and literacy.

The club, which started during the Covid pandemic in 2021, aims to improve mental and brain health by not only promoting reading, but also “social connection.”

The Queen decided to widen her reading network after an overwhelmingly positive response to a list of recommended readings she posted on Instagram during the UK lockdown.

A note from the Queen can be read on the Queen’s Reading Room website: “With their extraordinary power to educate and inspire, books, by authors from all over the world, have enriched my life since I was a child.

‘It has been a great joy to watch my reading room grow over the years into a thriving literary community.

‘Now that we are a charity, I hope that together with our partners we can foster a lifelong love of literature in adults and children alike and connect more people with that special magic that can only be found within the pages of a book.’

Speaking to the Mail earlier this year, the charity’s chief executive Vikki said: “Her Majesty has been really involved, she is an extraordinary supporter of the arts and understands the value of literary festivals and how precious they are in the UK.”

Camilla, known for her love of books, is said to have worked all year for the charity which Vikki called her “baby”.

Ahead of the Reading Room festival at Hampton Court in July, Vikki said Camilla had been very dedicated to the festival. She said the Queen “cares a lot about getting it right and making it accessible and open to as many people as possible”.

To expand its empire, the charity has even joined forces with researchers at the University of Cambridge to assess the impact of reading on the brain.

Earlier this year, research conducted in conjunction with Camilla’s charity found that five minutes had benefits equivalent to walking 10,000 steps.

Camilla will be recording two more episodes of her podcast this weekend while at the third annual Braemar Literary Festival in Aberdeenshire.