Queen Camilla meets JK Rowling to open Royal Week
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- Queen Camilla met JK Rowling at the Palace of Holyroodhouse to mark Royal Week's start, with the Royal Family saying the pair discussed a 'deep commitment to children reading for pleasure' and ensuring young people have access to books.
- King Charles III took part in the Ceremony of the Keys — receiving the keys on a red cushion from Lord Provost Robert Aldridge — and opened the seventh session of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, with the Crown of Scotland escorted down the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle.
- JK Rowling, best known for the Harry Potter novels, wrote part of the series at Edinburgh's Elephant House café, which reopened in December after a 2021 fire, and has a personal fortune of £975m according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
- Holyrood Week — also called Royal Week — celebrates Scottish culture, community and achievements every July in Edinburgh, and will include an investiture ceremony and garden party at Holyrood Park alongside Queen Camilla, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal.
- Honours recipients included forensic scientist Lorna Dawson (damehood), New Seekers singer Eve Graham (MBE for services to music) and Simon Milne (knighthood for services to botany, conservation and horticulture).
Why it matters: Royal Week is the monarchy's annual Scottish showcase, and this year's meeting leveraged Rowling's global literary profile — £975m fortune, Harry Potter fame — to spotlight literacy while her long-running public row with the SNP government over gender identification policies runs in the background of the ceremony.
