Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall welcomed school children to Clarence House for a garden party to celebrate a literacy competition that will see 70 books presented to 70 schools.
Books by well-known authors like Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Ted Hughes were chosen by children across the country, and two schools which took part were invited to Clarence House, as were writers Jacqueline Wilson and comic actor David Walliams, who both made it on to the book list.
The Duchess is an avid reader and patron of a number of literacy charities and organisations.
Her Royal Highness was presented with a set of the 70 books for her five grandchildren and said: "I know most of the books backwards because I read them to my grandchildren, and we're going to have a terrible time because they're going to be fighting over these bookshelves - if I can plonk it somewhere in the middle they can come and borrow books."
"The school children arrived to Clarence House in a vintage bus with David Walliams acting as the conductor. The Duchess greeted them as they stepped off the red single-deck vehicle."
David Walliams, whose books The Boy In The Dress and Gangsta Granny made the list of 70 books being presented to schools, said: "It's really important kids have access to books and what I like about this list is it's a fun list chosen by the kids, it's not a list we think they should read, it's a list of books they like reading and want to share with other kids."
The Duchess is patron or has had a close association with six organisations involved in the 70 books for schools project - the National Literacy Trust, Beanstalk, BookTrust, First Story, Roald Dahl Literary Estate and the Wicked Young Writer Awards.
