Queen Camilla had a particularly special literary meeting at Chatsworth House when she spoke with BBC News presenter and author Reeta Chakrabarti.
Reeta’s debut novel Finding Belle has been selected for the Queen’s Reading Room Book Club.
She looked delighted by the royal recognition, later sharing her excitement on social media after meeting her in Derbyshire.
“Utterly thrilled to have Finding Belle chosen by the Queen as one of her four autumn Reading Club books,” Reeta wrote, she was “in great company” alongside Ann Patchett, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Oscar Wilde.
Queen Camilla unveiled her four autumn recommendations during the festival, selecting Reeta’s Finding Belle alongside Ann Patchett’s Whistler, Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Sashenka and Oscar Wilde’s classic The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The Queen was particularly complimentary about Reeta’s novel, telling festival-goers: “It’s a very good book, I highly recommend it to everybody.”
The book follows Mivvi, a young woman trying to make sense of her complicated relationship with her mother, Belle, and takes readers from Mombasa to England and Kolkata as long-held family secrets begin to emerge.
2026-09-20 23:16:00
