Queen meets Peter Rabbit as she wishes reading charity ‘happy 100th birthday’

The Queen met Peter Rabbit as she wished the UK’s largest children’s reading charity a “happy 100th birthday”.

Camilla met authors and supporters of BookTrust including the charity’s president Sir Michael Morpurgo, Dame Floella Benjamin and Richard Osman at a reception at Clarence House on Tuesday.

The royal, who is BookTrust’s patron, also met a performer dressed in a Peter Rabbit costume and cut a cake in the shape of a book to celebrate the charity’s centenary.

Giving remarks following the reception, Camilla wished a “happy 100th birthday to everybody involved in BookTrust”.

Following a speech by Sir Michael, Camilla added: “I wouldn’t be standing here now if I hadn’t been read to as a child.

“We were read to by my father every night and it just shows how important it is.

“It’s lodged in my very small brain now forever more, but the job you’re doing is ensuring that a great deal of children are going to have the same experience and going to enjoy reading all their lives.

“Especially in this day of phones, where a lot of children aren’t reading as much as they should be, as we’ve seen by the statistics – it’s even more important now to start them at an early age and get them reading all the way through their lives.

“So thank you very, very much for all you do.”

Sir Michael said it was “huge” for the charity to have Camilla’s support.

Discussing the King and Queen, the author added: “The two of them have been very supportive of what I consider to be the important things in life, whether it’s the environment or it’s literature.

“They fight the good fight, and I really appreciate that, and I think it’s really good for the country because they realise that those two people care for that side of our lives.

“The Queen has taken it to heart. I think it was always there from the out – she loved books when she was young and she has chosen to focus her enthusiasm on this and it lifts spirits.”

Asked whether it was more difficult for children to get into reading in a world of digital devices, Sir Michael said it was possible to “exaggerate” the challenge posed.

The War Horse author, 82, added: “When I was younger, everyone was saying television would kill it. There’s always something that’s going to kill literature.

“Excuse me, it hasn’t killed it. It goes through phases of being more popular and less popular.

“We’ve always had distractions and the great thing is, there’s been BookTrust here – an organisation like that that’s been here 100 years, has seen parents and teachers through all these things.

“And we haven’t to lose heart, because we have the best writers now we’ve ever had. We have some of the very best teachers.

“I think parents are the people we really have to focus on, because these are the people who start the habit going and they need to be brought into the story.”

Through its programme Bookstart Baby, BookTrust works to provide a book for every child in the UK before their first birthday – with this year’s book being a new Peter Rabbit title called Four Happy Bunnies.

BookTrust co-chief executive Annie Crombie said it “means so much” to have the Queen as a supporter.

Ms Crombie added: “It’s not just her role as a patron of BookTrust, but her broader championing of reading.

“You can see her sense of fun in the way that she is delighted to meet Peter Rabbit, the way that she understands that reading habits start really young with children sharing simple counting books with their parents.

“I think she’s really supportive also of the role that reading plays in family life, in the way that it can support building up relationships.”

Camilla also met former Labour politicians Lord Blunkett and Alan Johnson at the reception, with the royal pausing to stroke Lord Blunkett’s guide dog, Barley.

The Queen became patron of BookTrust in 2011, succeeding the late Duke of Edinburgh.