Queen Camilla has announced that she will celebrate her 79th birthday by giving away books to children across the UK.
Camilla has made children’s literacy one of her key issues and is patron of the National Literacy Trust.
Buckingham Palace announced on Friday that she had arranged for a special edition of Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell to be given to every year 6 and P6 child this Christmas.
In the fantasy novel, the first in a series, a boy named Christopher and a girl named Mal team up to save a chain of magical islands from a villain.
Impossible Creatures was named Waterstones Book of the Year in 2023 and won the British Book Awards Children’s Fiction Book of the Year award in 2024.
Buckingham Palace also released a new photo of the Queen on Friday to mark her birthday.
The photo, taken in June in the State Drawing Room of Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, shows her wearing a blue dress and a diamond and sapphire butterfly brooch that once belonged to her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth.
It was presented to the late Queen at the Birmingham Spring Fair in February 1977.
Kensington Palace, the office of Prince William and Princess Catherine, shared the photo on social media, along with a message that read: “Wishing Her Majesty The Queen a very Happy Birthday!”
The Queen plans to spend her birthday celebrating privately, although there will be a 41-gun royal salute in Green Park to mark the occasion.
The book giveaway will be delivered in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
It celebrates the National Year of Reading 2026, which the trust said aims to inspire the joy of reading and make it part of everyday life.
Impossible Creatures will be delivered to children through schools, libraries, and community outreach.
Each book will have a royal stamp on the cover and feature a message from Camilla inside, which describes the book as a “brilliant fantasy” by “one of my favourite writers”.
As well as the National Literacy Trust, Camilla is patron of the BookTrust and Coram Beanstalk, other charities focussed on literacy.
She also founded The Queen’s Reading Room, a charity which started as an Instagram book club during the Covid lockdowns and now hosts events and provides free educational content.
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