Royal fairy tale has Silver lining
THE DUCHESS of Cornwall spoke of the loneliness faced by many older people as she was treated to a story from two schoolchildren.
Camilla has taken on the role of patron at Silver Stories, a charity which encourages youngsters to read to elderly people. Covering Cornwall,wales and other parts of England, it has eight schools involved with 42 “Silver Readers” speaking from their homes to dozens of “Silver Listeners”.
The Duchess listened to a telephone tale from two readers – 10-year-old Tegen and 11-year-old Ollie – who called her at Clarence House from their school in Nanpean, Cornwall.
Camilla, who is known for her love of books, chatted to the children after listening to their renditions of excerpts from Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and David Walliams’s The Ice Monster, which she said were two of her favourites.
And highlighting the importance of Silver
Stories in bringing joy to the older generation, she told the youngsters:
“When you are sitting by yourself you get a bit lonely, don’t you?
“It must be so cheering for them to hear your voice reading these lovely stories and I think you are doing an absolutely brilliant job.”
Praising both children, she then told Ollie: “You should be an actor.you do all the voices so well.”
Camilla, who has been a member of the Royal Family for 16 years, confided that she had adjusted her own public speaking style after Ollie told her he used to read more quickly but has changed since becoming a Silver Reader.
The Duchess said: “I used to read very, very fast. When I made a speech, I used to talk very, very fast and then you have to take a deep breath and slow down and look at the commas and full stops.”
Camilla is not the only royal to alter her public speaking techniques over the years.
In the early days of her reign, the Queen worked on her style of delivery, with the Duke of Edinburgh encouraging her to lower the high pitch of her voice.
Silver Stories was founded in 2016 by retired headteacher Elisabeth Carney-haworth and her husband, retired police sergeant David, in response to concerns about the loneliness felt by older people, the importance of inter-generational relationships and a desire to develop the love of reading in children.
‘It must be so cheering
to hear your voice reading the
stories’