Queen Camilla encouraged an affair with Charles III as a hostage

The book was selected for discussion in secular society

Queen Camilla of Great Britain decided to take a novel for her book club on social networks in which her husband King Charles III and other members of the royal family are held hostage.

Queen Camilla took the novel “The Day of the Lords”, which was published in 2007, for her book club. Its author, Michael Dobbs, told British publications that he was “extremely surprised, overjoyed, very excited and quite deeply grateful” that his thriller had been selected. He added that the move showed the Queen has a “fantastic sense of humour”.

Recall that in the book, the late Queen Elizabeth II and the then Prince Charles are among those held captive during the siege of the House of Lords. According to the author, when it took a place on the bookshelf of stores, it aroused the interest of the reading public with its “ambiguity” and “contradiction.” But he was glad when people eventually realized that he had not “written a terrorist manual.”

“I wrote a novel that proposed solutions for the security of government institutions, and this helped to strengthen the minimization of risks from possible criminals and point out the shortcomings of the system,” he says.

The writer’s book was inspired by an informal tour of the House of Lords, during which a friend showed Dobbs, who was not yet a peer himself, the grounds and the door behind the golden canopy and thrones. Upon further inspection, it turned out to be a cleaning cabinet.

“I was so stunned by the contrast between the splendor of this magnificent throne and the mops that I thought that one day I should find a way to make a story out of this,” the novel’s author recalls.

Pondering the story of a modern Guy Fawkes, he turned to the public record of the state’s discovery and security, finding such significant shortcomings that he attempted to raise concerns with the authorities. Lord’s Day is billed as a “unique and breathtaking thriller” in which “the boundaries of parental love and filial devotion are explored to the extreme.”

In addition to being a writer, Dobbs is a member of the House of Lords. His most famous work is House of Cards, on which the famous TV series starring Kevin Spacey was based.

In a conversation with British publications, Michael Dobbs shared that about a year ago he sent a copy of “The Day of the Lords” to the new monarchs “for fun,” not expecting them to read it. He learned of his book’s inclusion in the Queen’s Reading Room list, first reported by The Telegraph, from his publisher.

“I was amazed when I found out,” he says. “If you look at her previous drafts, the list includes the likes of Dickens, Tolstoy and some of the greatest modern authors, and the inclusion of my novel was completely unexpected.”

The Queen’s Reading Room launched as an online book club on social media before becoming a charity in February 2023. Book recommendations on the list include Chemistry Lessons by Bonnie Garmus, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, and The Year of Dangerous Food: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes by the Queen’s son from her first marriage, Tom Parker Bowles.