Queen Camilla gives Peter Rabbit royal reception at charity event

The Queen met with members and supporters of UK’s largest children’s reading charity, wishing the organisation a “happy 100th birthday” at an event at Clarence House in London

Camilla, who is a BookTrust patron after succeeding the late Prince Phillip in 2011, met a performer dressed in a Peter Rabbit costume and cut a cake in the shape of a book to celebrate the charity's centenary.

She also met prominent authors, including the charity’s president Sir Michael Morpurgo, Richard Osman and Dame Floella Benjamin.

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Following a speech by Sir Michael, Camilla added: "I wouldn't be standing here now if I hadn't been read to as a child.

"We were read to by my father every night and it just shows how important it is.

"It's lodged in my very small brain now forever more, but the job you're doing is ensuring that a great deal of children are going to have the same experience and going to enjoy reading all their lives.

"Especially in this day of phones, where a lot of children aren't reading as much as they should be, as we've seen by the statistics - it's even more important now to start them at an early age and get them reading all the way through their lives."

The Princess of Wales also spoke recently of the danger of smartphones, which she felt had become a "constant distraction, fragmenting our focus", causing families to spend less time together.

Through its programme Bookstart Baby, BookTrust works to provide a book for every child in the UK before their first birthday - with this year's book being a new Peter Rabbit title called Four Happy Bunnies.

Sir Michael said it was "huge" for the charity to have Camilla's support.

Discussing the King and Queen, the author added: "The two of them have been very supportive of what I consider to be the important things in life, whether it's the environment or it's literature."

Camilla also met former Labour politicians Lord Blunkett and Alan Johnson at the reception, with the royal pausing to stroke Lord Blunkett's guide dog, Barley.