// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Queen reflects on reading 'forbidden' Lady Chatterley's Lover under the pillow
"It's like the best tonic in the world": Queen Camilla on why she loves to read
Queen Camilla has recalled secretly reading Lady Chatterley's Lover, the passionate and controversial novel by DH Lawrence, as a teenager in the 1960s.
"As teenagers you read a lot of romances. It was the moment of Lady Chatterley, under our pillows, reading that by torchlight. You know the minute something is forbidden, you want to get hold of it," she said about the novel that had been at the centre of an obscenity trial.
The Queen spoke about memorable moments in her own reading for BBC documentary The Book That Changed My Life, and about the life-changing power of literacy and books.
She gave a glimpse of how regular reading is part of her royal marriage: "It's like the best tonic in the world. My husband and I actually read before dinner, just sitting quietly and reading.
"He loves biographies, and PG Wodehouse. I occasionally, when I'm deep in a book, hear him roaring with laughter about something," said the Queen about the King's affection for the author of the Jeeves and Wooster comic novels.
"It's very off-putting, I can't get back into my book, or I'll suddenly start weeping. But it's a lovely, quiet time. I think it would be a complete and utter tragedy if books went forever," she said.
The Queen also revealed more of her own youthful reading, saying she was "mesmerised" by Charles Dickens's Tale of Two Cities and its depiction of those watching the guillotine during the French Revolution.
"Those ghastly women sitting there knitting while everybody had their heads chopped off," she said.
The Queen, who is 79 years old, said she was part of a generation of women who missed out on higher education, which made reading and books even more important.