The Queen delighted guests at the third annual Queen’s Reading Room Festival by recalling Colin Firth’s “infamous” lake scene from the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Speaking at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire – long thought to have inspired Jane Austen’s fictional Pemberley – Her Majesty referred to the moment when Mr Darcy emerges from the water in a clinging wet shirt, a scene that became one of the most celebrated in period drama. She joked that perhaps the moment could be re-enacted at the venue later in the day to add to the festivities.
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The 78-year-old monarch, who has been a lifelong advocate of reading, also addressed the importance of literature in her speech. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that books make life better,” she said, echoing Austen’s famous opening line. She spoke of her pride in the Queen’s Reading Room, which began during the pandemic as a simple list of her favourite novels and has since grown into an online community of over 180,000 members, reaching an annual audience of around 12 million readers across 183 countries.
An array of authors, including Dame Jilly Cooper, Richard Osman, Jojo Moyes and Alan Titchmarsh, joined the event at Chatsworth. Many are due to host talks throughout the festival, which celebrates the written word and highlights the work of local charities. Guests also enjoyed a performance of Austen’s writing by Gill Hornby and Fiona Shaw, before the Queen personally donated books to the festival’s collection point. She apologised for her hoarse voice, explaining that she was still recovering from acute sinusitis, which had forced her to miss the Duchess of Kent’s funeral earlier in the week.
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Away from the main stage, Her Majesty greeted Dame Jilly Cooper warmly, reminiscing about the success of Rivals, the novel said to have been partly inspired by her former husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles. Dame Jilly spoke affectionately of her long friendship with the Queen, while fellow author Helen Fielding reflected on how younger readers were “rediscovering” Jilly’s novels. The Queen also joined a discussion on the role of reading in supporting mental health, with contributions from local charity The Elm Foundation and neuroscientist Professor Sam Wass.
