Make Room
for Reading

How we got involved

Opening the Book was introduced to The Queen’s Reading Room by Ann Cleeves and the Reading for Wellbeing project in the North-East. Ann recommended us to provide training for The Queen’s Reading Room’s new grassroots initiatives, to be used by staff to introduce reading for pleasure and wellbeing into their work.

We planned to create a shorter course based on our successful Reading for Wellbeing mentored training — this would be piloted by staff at St Mungo’s charity in London. Then we met the staff at St Mungo’s and they gave us a real challenge: we must create something that takes only one hour to do! From these early discussions our exciting new Toolkit concept was born.

The Make Room for Reading Toolkit

Our Toolkits are designed to be read or listened to on a mobile phone — they are really easy and convenient to use. They explore how to talk about books and stories in ways that connect with other people, whether they think of themselves as readers or not. Four short sections can be completed in just one hour.

This Toolkit has been updated after piloting through 2025 and 2026 with two of The Queen’s Reading Room partners: St Mungo’s and The Elm Foundation, a charity working with those affected by domestic abuse.

The Launch — June 2026

The Make Room for Reading Toolkit was launched by Her Majesty Queen Camilla at a St Mungo’s site in South London in June 2026. It was a lovely event bringing together Opening the Book, The Queen’s Reading Room, publisher Pan Macmillan and the staff and clients of St Mungo’s.

You can read more about the event on The Queen’s Reading Room news page.

Rachel Van Riel meeting Her Majesty Queen Camilla. Photo: Hayley Bray

Rachel shows Her Majesty the Toolkit on tablet and phone, with screenshots from the Toolkit in the background. Photo: Hayley Bray

Her Majesty tries a book cover interactive from the Toolkit. Photo: Hayley Bray

Her Majesty Queen Camilla with Rachel Van Riel, Lucy Hale (Managing Director, Pan Macmillan) and Vicki Perrin (CEO, The Queen’s Reading Room). Photo: Hayley Bray

Elif Shafak, whose book features in the Toolkit. Photo: Hayley Bray

Elif and Rachel sharing the Toolkit ideas. Photo: Hayley Bray

Her Majesty launches The Queen’s Reading Room Bookshelf at St Mungo’s. Photo: Hayley Bray

Staff and clients of St Mungo’s with Her Majesty. Photo: Hayley Bray

All event photography © Hayley Bray.

What people said

Feedback from pilots with St Mungo’s and The Elm Foundation shows the Toolkit making a real difference — for staff, volunteers, and the people they support.

“It looks incredible, it’s super accessible and very easy to both understand and take learnings from. The play out loud feature is also such a bonus and so helpful for us and our front-facing staff.”

Billie Powell, Corporate Volunteering Assistant, Partnerships Engagement Team, St Mungo’s

“You can tell how much care, thought and experience had gone into this new training for our book champions. One thing that I noticed was the language used throughout the training is matched very similarly to the language we use in our work — I shared this back to our CEO, who was very impressed.”

Eleanor Morphew, Partnerships Engagement Lead, St Mungo’s

“The toolkit is great; it’s really made me think outside the box of what a book club can look like.”

Frontline Assessment & Reconnection Worker, St Mungo’s

“I have rediscovered my joy for reading and I’m even the founder of one of the many book clubs now running in St Mungo’s services. They are a great way to interact with people and to bond over a love for reading.”

Client at St Mungo’s

“It has been tailored perfectly to our clients and so carefully considers inclusivity and accessibility. A huge thanks again for this toolkit, it will be invaluable. There are so many areas here I would never have considered that open conversations and ensure it engages everyone equally.”

Fundraising and Communications Manager, The Elm Foundation

“It gave me so many questions to ask & ways to explore books — I found listening while following the text helped it to bed in. I am now excited to get going on sharing the joy of reading with others.”

Community Outreach Worker, The Elm Foundation

“Myself and our lovely volunteer are excited to set up our own Book Club at our charity as part of The Queen’s Reading Room. We found the toolkit really helpful. We were very much under the impression that a Book Club would be a bit like doing English Literature at school! After completing the Toolkit, we can now see that a Book Club is very much a starting point for conversation and bringing people together to gain or regain a love of books and reading — and the benefits reading can bring.”

Rachael Dammarell, Community Engagement Officer, at WORTH, sister charity to Elm, providing support & wellbeing to aid the healing of women affected by domestic abuse.