THE LITERARY TASTES OF OUR ROYAL FAMILY.

Otago Witness, Volume 1851, Issue 3809, 15 March 1927, Page 78

THE LITERARY TASTES OF OUR ROYAL FAMILY.

The Duke and Duchess of York are having a parcel of books sent to them from London every week during, the Royal tour. Both their Royal Highnesses like to keep themselves familiar with .what is going on in the English literary world of to-day, but the Duchess is probably the keener reader of the two. Her taste in books tends towards classical literatures. In the shape of wedding presents from friends who knew what her literary tastes were she became possessed at the time of her marriage of a small library of excellent books.

Among them was a beautiful edition" of Pepy’s Diary, one of Blake’s poems, a complete set of Shakespeare, and a complete edition of Kipling. The lastnamed was a gift from the town of Richmond. There is no modern fiction to be seen in this Royal library, but there are complete editions of Thackeray, Dickens, and Smollett. It is rather interesting to note that whilst the Duchess of York is classical in her literary tastes, her Royal Highness frankly prefers light and popular music to higher kinds. She is a really good pianist, but rarely plays anything but popular music. The Duke has a splendid collection of books on all sporting subjects, especially on hunting and shooting. Next to a firstrate book on some branch of field sports, his Royal Highness likes to read a good detective story. There is probably not an adventure of Sherlock Holmes he has not read. A complete edition of Poe’s works is, by the way,- one of the features of his collection of books. The Duke, like other Royalties, has, however, not much time for reading. His usual time foi - doing so is before retiring for the night; but a long day spent in keeping public engagements, not ending until past midnight, often renders his Royal Highness too tired to do much reading at night. * * * The Prince of Wales at York house liss an extremely interesting collection »f books on travel in various countries, >iost of them dealing with places visited *>y the Prince during his tours. These hooks are nearly all gifts from friends, •nd the Prince enjoys reading—when he

has the time! His favourite author, however, is Kipling. He has a complete edition of Kipling’s works, and there is nearly always one of them to be seen on a table in the Prince’s writing-room. But the Prince qf Wales is not a great reader. He is extremely well-informed on a nrziber of subjects, but he has derived his knowledge from talking with experts rather than from books.

Queen Mary is probably the greatest reader in the English Royal Family. One of her Majesty’s favourite authors is Dickens, and in this connection I may relate a story which was told me on the highest authority. Some little while ago her Majesty was at a lunch party given by Lord and Lady Cowdray at their beautiful seat in Aberdeen. The menu cards at the lunch were decorated 'with coloured sketches of characters from Dickens’s books, but the characters were unnamed. After lunch the guests began guessing the names of the characters. There were 19 in all; it was, of course, fairly obvious who some of them were, hut others were not so obvious. Her Majesty named 14 of the characters correctly; the next best effort was 12 correctly named. Her Majesty was the only guest present who guessed Mrs Sparsit correctly.

Scott’s poems are much liked by the Queen, and so are Tennyson’s works. But apart from authors she especially likes, her Majesty has read a great deal, not only of what is great in English literature, but in French and German also. Modern fiction does not appear greatly to the Queen, and a “best seller” won’d probably not even be heard of by her Majesty unless it was brought specially under her notice.

The Queen of Spain has always been a keen reader of current fiction; and she has read fiction of nearly every class and quality. When she travels she carries with her something in the nature of a small library, which includes Spanish, French, and English current fiction.

Her Majesty reads a book very rapidly if she likes it, and is capable of concentrating her attention in a most complete manner on such a book, but if it does not interest her she would probably not finish it. The Queen of Spain has half-a-dozen of the latest English novels sent, to her from London every week, for her liking for English fiction is as keen -as ever, but it is doubtful if more than two of the books sent to her succeed in interesting her sufficiently to induce her to finish them.

Royalties as readers have one advantage over the more ordinary type of youth to read in at least two languages in addition to their own. The Prince ol W ales and his brothers and sister were reading books in French and German as well as in English before they were seven years old.

One of Princess Mary’s favourite books as a child was a volume of French fairy tales. The Princess, by the way, was up to the time of her marriage fonder of reading than any of her brothers, out since her marriage, and especially since the birth of her sons, her Royal Highness has found her time so fully occupied with various duties that she has had little time to give to books. The ex-Kaiser was well read in history, the only branch of literature that had any interest for him. When he went to stay at Windsor Castle in pre-war days he used to ask that certain books on historical subjects should be sent up to his private apartments from the library. His request was granted, but he was the only Royal personage who ever made it, and is probably the only person who has ever had books taken from the splendid library for his benefit.—W. T. Roberts, in John o’ London’s Weekly.