Overview
- Queen Camilla visited the British Library on Wednesday to tour the Fairy Tales exhibition, take part in a storytelling session and join The Big Lunch where she greeted about 150 volunteers and schoolchildren.
- Paddington Bear was unveiled as the campaign’s ambassador and the Queen cut a cake shaped like a marmalade sandwich to mark the announcement.
- Organisers said the National Year of Reading aims to recruit 100,000 volunteers nationwide and has so far registered roughly 35,000 people to support reading activities.
- The event showcased youth talent and school programmes with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage introducing two new Young Poet Laureates, Maya (11) and Latifah (14), and around 40 pupil librarians trained through the Libraries for Primaries scheme in attendance.
- Launched by the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust, the campaign targets a long-term drop in reading enjoyment among children and relies on partners such as Penguin Books and cultural venues to deliver library spaces and community reading projects.