Queen Camilla was praised for helping revive a prestigious children’s writing competition at a star-studded Buckingham Palace reception.
She rubbed shoulders with Hollywood stars Tom Hiddleston, Luke Evans and Hugh Bonneville, former Strictly star Oti Mabuse, singer Olivia Dean and Matilda star Alisha Weir, after the final of the BBC’s 500 Words competition in the Palace ballroom.
As she chatted to Hiddleston, who had earlier read out one of the winning entries to the 250 guests, she said: “We’ve had a three-year gap and I never ever thought we were going to bring it back again, but the very kind people at the BBC did listen, thought it was a good idea and here we are.”
The Loki star replied: “It’s extraordinary the quality of the writing, and if you think of the number – 44,000 entrants – and how many will people will probably continue to write after this.”
The popular annual writing competition, which was launched by DJ Chris Evans in 2011, was postponed during the Covid-19 pandemic, but returned in late 2023, attracting 44,000 entries from children in two age categories, 5-7 and 8-11.
Fast Show star and author of the Young Bond series of novels Charlie Higson, one of the judges, said of the Queen, “She's genuinely been a huge supporter of this, really keen on promoting literacy and it was really down to her that thecompetition came back - she twisted a few arms and said ‘this is a really goodthing, you've got to carry on’.
“She played a huge part in it.”
Higson said: “It was amazing because it had shut down and gone away and we'd thought it would never happen again. We had meant to have the final here - it would have been in 2020 - and we didn't.
"So to bring it back and do it here was just really exciting. I love the finals, I love hearing the stories but the thing I really love most is seeing the kids, trying to think which one of them wrote which story.”
Asked if the Queen was a fan of the Fast Show, he replied: “I've never asked her,”adding mischievously, “The question everyone always wants to ask, is ‘do youwatch The Crown?’ - I'll probably be put in the Tower for treason.”
