Royal Watch News

Duchess of Cornwall launches reading campaign

Feb 22, 2013, 12:27 GMT

The Duchess of Cornwall

Britain's Duchess of Cornwall has kick-started a campaign to get fathers reading to their children.

The royal joined author James Patterson to launch the event at West Greenwich Library in London yesterday (21.02.13).

As James read from children's book 'Where The Wild Things Are' to a group of small children, duchess Camilla donned a hand puppet to act out parts of the story for them.

The Duchess made a joke before reading AA Milne's famous poem about changing the guard at Buckingham Palace.

She said: 'It's a poem my father used to read to me - that was about 100 years ago.'

Camilla, 65, is patron of Booktrust, which has launched the campaign, while US thriller writer James - creator of the fictional detective Alex Cross - is a founding partner of a fund run by Booktrust to get disadvantaged kids reading.

Speaking at the event, James emphasised it was parents' responsibility to get their kids reading.

He said: 'We are here to save lives, that's my role, because if you cannot read your life will be severely disadvantaged.

'This is not about reading Charles Dickens or Shakespeare but learning to read with confidence and if you can do that you can make your way through school, college and work.

'America is ahead in getting kids to read, the UK is behind America - something's going wrong here.'