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During her passionate solo engagement in Scotland this week, Queen Camilla made an impassioned call to conserve and encourage literacy.
During Holyrood Week, the Queen visited the newly restored Ratho Library in Newbridge, Edinburgh, to formally open the space and meet with library workers, writers, and people of the local community.
Clearly impressed by the efforts behind the library's rebirth, the Queen used the opportunity to highlight a matter close to her heart: the future of libraries across the United Kingdom.
"I wish a lot of other people would follow your example and open more libraries all over the country," she told me.
"Unfortunately, many of them have been closing down. So seeing something as amazing as this reopened is all because to all of you who helped make it possible."
Queen Camilla, a long-time literacy enthusiast, is the patron of various reading projects and organizations, and she continues to campaign for equal access to literature for people of all ages.
Her statements in Edinburgh reflected a larger call to action, as she praised the Ratho Library crew for their efforts to create a welcome, dynamic facility for the local community.
The 77-year-old monarch met with famous novelist Paula Hawkins, famed for The Girl on the Train, and openly said, "I'm very partial to crime novels."
"They manage to inspire a love of reading of books, from toddlers to pensioners," she remarked, emphasizing libraries' ability to connect generations.
The old Ratho Library had closed for reconstruction, so people relied on a mobile library in the meantime.
The new facility, which opened earlier this spring, has received strong support from the local community.
