Royal Family share Queen's childhood handwriting for World Book Day
The Royal Family has shared an image of the Queen’s handwriting in a favourite childhood book to mark World Book Day.
As children across the country dress as characters from well-loved books, Buckingham Palace shared the fascinating throwback into Her Majesty’s childhood.
Then Princess Elizabeth, the name was scrawled into her copy of Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
The palace also added a quote from a speech she gave in 2006 which celebrated British children’s literature.
She said: “This magic of our childhoods - the characters, the stories, the imagination of it all - is an enduring and essential part of our culture.”
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Buckingham Palace did not say how old the princess was when she had the book.
As a child, Princess Elizabeth was third in line to the throne, but with her uncle Edward still young and expected to marry, it wasn’t thought she would ever be Queen.
However when he abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, she moved up and became the heir presumptive, changing her life forever.
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Later today, The Duchess will join pupils at a school in London to mark #WorldBookDay and help #shareastory. 📖 pic.twitter.com/kPHoUsfvGp
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) March 5, 2020
The Duchess of Cornwall will spend time at a school in London on Thursday to mark World Book Day, where Clarence House say she will help “share a story”.
She will be joined by author Anthony Horowitz, who wrote the Alex Rider children’s books.
Sharing pictures of Camilla on social media, Clarence House said: “The Duchess of Cornwall believes every person, young and old, should be able to share the love of reading.”
The charity behind World Book Day this year is encouraging people to “share a million stories” nationwide.
The challenge involves reading or being read to for at least 10 minutes, and at the beginning of Thursday, more than 180,000 stories had been “shared”.
Research by the National Literacy Trust, published on Thursday, shows that 25.8% of children said they read daily in their free time in 2019, which is the lowest level recorded by the charity since 2005.