![\"\\u200bQueen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/u200bqueen-camilla.jpg\")
<\/p>\nQueen Camilla revealed what genre of book she “hates” during an engagement in Mayfair this afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Queen marked a significant milestone for one of London’s most cherished independent bookshops on Tuesday, visiting Heywood Hill as the establishment celebrated 90 years in business.<\/p>\n
Camilla, who patron of numerous literary organisations, took part in the shop’s renowned reading consultation service during her visit.<\/p>\n
The bespoke service invites customers to discuss their reading preferences, enabling staff to curate a personalised year-long book subscription.<\/p>\n
Deputy manager Harriet Bibby guided Her Majesty through the consultation, asking the Queen to identify her most treasured literary works.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles topped the Queen’s list, which she described as her “absolute favourite”, followed by Alexandre Dumas’s classic The Count of Monte Cristo.<\/p>\n
“Goodness me, there are so many after that. I’m thinking of them all, but they all seem to come up at the same time,” she remarked.<\/p>\n
Her Majesty also expressed admiration for Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow, calling it “just wonderful”, alongside works by William Boyd and Anthony Horowitz.<\/p>\n
Queen Camilla revealed what genre of book she ‘hates’ during an engagement in Mayfair this afternoon<\/p>\n
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The Queen estimated her reading habits comprise roughly 80 per cent fiction and 20 per cent non-fiction.<\/p>\n
When asked about genres she avoids, Camilla responded without hesitation: “I hate sci-fi.”<\/p>\n
Pronouncing it “sky-fi”, she added with a laugh: “That, I’m afraid, is not my favourite. I’m sure a lot of people love it, but, um… No science fiction. No, I can’t do that, you have to have some things you love and some things you really don’t love, and that really is one I don’t love.”<\/p>\n
One fortunate customer will receive their purchase wrapped by royal hands, as the Queen assisted the shop’s two full-time packers.<\/p>\n
![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/queen-camilla.jpg\")
One fortunate customer will receive their purchase wrapped by royal hands, as the Queen assisted the shop’s two full-time packers<\/p>\n
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![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784080877_338_queen-camilla.jpg\")
When asked about genres she avoids, Camilla responded without hesitation: ‘I hate sci-fi’<\/p>\n
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Her Majesty was listed on the staff rota as “CR” with a crown symbol, displayed on the packing room door.<\/p>\n
She carefully folded brown paper around The Renoir Girls by Catherine Ostler before finishing with a blue ribbon bow.<\/p>\n
Following her tour of the shop’s four rooms, Camilla unveiled a plaque designating one space the “Queen’s Room”.<\/p>\n
The visit held particular personal resonance for the Queen, whose late father Major Bruce Shand was himself a Heywood Hill customer.<\/p>\n
![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784080877_382_queen-camilla.jpg\")
Following her tour of the shop’s four rooms, Camilla unveiled a plaque designating one space the ‘Queen’s Room’<\/p>\n
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Major Shand, who penned military history and published his war memoirs, passed his passion for literature to his daughter.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Nicky Dunne enquired whether Camilla had visited the shop as a child, to which she replied: “I’m sure I did come here when I was much, much smaller.”<\/p>\n
Departing with Mr Dunne, the Queen crossed to Shepherd Market, where she met and conversed with local business owners and traders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queen Camilla revealed what genre of book she “hates” during an engagement in Mayfair this afternoon. The Queen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[27,18,1518,2707,16],"class_list":["post-83180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-london","tag-news","tag-queen-camilla","tag-royal","tag-sgg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116921531317109795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}