In a rare highly personal moment, the Duchess of Cornwall gave her late brother a public “shoutout” which was praised as “sweet” by royal commentators. Camilla had released a reading list of her favourite books for everyone stuck in the coronavirus lockdown including Charles Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and Philip Pullman’s ‘The Book of Dust’. HeirPod host Omid Scobie spoke to ABC News foreign correspondent Maggie Rulli about why the insight was “so exciting”.

He told listeners: “I thought it was really sweet to see a recommendation on there for the book ‘Travels on My Elephant’ by Mark Shand, who of course is her brother and well-known BBC conservationalist.

“So there’s sort of a little family shoutout on there too.”

The book tells the story of Mr Shand’s adventures with his elephant Tara across India.

He died in 2014 at the age of 62 after falling in New York and sustaining fatal injuries.

Speaking to The Press and Journal, Camilla said: “My late brother’s tale of his love affair with Tara, an Asian elephant, on their journey across India always brings a tear to my eye.

”Ernest Hemingway, famously, once said ‘there is no friend as loyal as a book’.

“In these challenging times when we are isolated from the ones we love, many of us are finding comfort in reading, to fire up our imaginations, to take us on journeys and to make us laugh.

“With that in mind, here is a list of my dearest ‘friends’.”

Ms Rulli praised the royal: “It’s fun because we’re learning more about Camilla, I think, than we really have before.

“It was published in a local paper in Scotland first so it wasn’t leaked to a big press outlet, it really was sort of this grassroots movement that she had for her local readers.

“It was very exciting because she actually recommended a bunch that a lot of people have probably read before and also ones that are, for lack of a better word, kind of fun.”

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The Duchess of Cornwall herself had to spend time self-isolating after Prince Charles tested positive for the coronavirus.

Clarence House had confirmed that she had tested negative for the disease.

However, because she had not displayed any symptoms, she was made to self-isolate for two weeks as a precaution.

After Charles’ recovery and her own isolation, the couple were reunited just in time for their wedding anniversary.

They’re currently staying on the Balmoral estate in Scotland.

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