Dench, Gregory and Follett to headline inaugural The Queen’s Reading Room Festival

The inaugural The Queen’s Reading Room Festival has unveiled a raft of headliners including Dame Judie Dench, Phillipa Gregory and Ken Follett.

The Queen’s Reading Room charity was formed from the Instagram book club established by the former Duchess of Cornwall in 2021. It was relaunched as a charity by the Queen Consort in February with the aim of “advancing education by promoting and providing opportunities for the appreciation of literature among adults and children in the UK and around the world". Its inaugural literary festival will be held this year at Hampton Court Palace on 11th June, with tickets now on sale. 

Organisers say the festival will gather authors, experts, actors and literature lovers for a day “celebrating the written word”, and that visitors can explore the palace on literary-themed tours and enjoy shows from headliners including Dench, Gregory and Follett.

Gyles Brandreth will be in conversation with Dench, talking about her life, her career, and her special love for William Shakespeare. Ben Macintyre, Follett and Robert Harris will "share their innermost spy secrets and reveal what it is like to inhabit the mind of a secret agent for 300 pages or more". And David Olusoga and the Royal Society of Literature will explore the life and legacy of Hilary Mantel with the help of authors Gregory and Kamila Shamsie and actors Ben Miles and Dame Harriet Walter.

The festival will also see The Queen’s Reading Room join forces with The Royal Society of Literature to stage a memorial event for Mantel in the fitting setting of the palace, overlooked by Anne Boleyn’s Gateway. 

Chief executive of The Queen’s Reading Room Vicki Perrin said: “I am thrilled that The Queen’s Reading Room is staging its first literary festival this summer in the awe-inspiring and atmospheric setting of Hampton Court Palace. There is a special kind of magic to be found in a book, and great wonder in listening to authors speak about their work. I have no doubt that visitors will find themselves inspired by these great minds, enjoy connecting with fellow readers and I hope that they will come away transformed into lifelong literature lovers.” 

John Barnes, chief executive of Historic Royal Palaces, said: “We are delighted to be hosting The Queen’s Reading Room Festival at Hampton Court Palace, which has witnessed important literary events in the past — William Shakespeare and his company performed in the Great Hall and the King James Bible was commissioned at Hampton Court in 1604 — and we are looking forward to continuing its long connection with literature by welcoming a stellar line of up speakers from the arts and literary world to the palace in June.”

Tickets and the full programme can be found here.