The Queen has urged children to put down their phones and pick up reading instead. Queen Camilla made one of her most candid literacy interventions to date amid the reading for pleasure crisis facing young people with the rise of smartphones. Speaking at the grand final of BBC 500 Words, the children’s writing competition, she told hosts Alex Jones and Roman Kemp: “Anybody who hears these stories will see how inspired these children are, and I think to get children reading and writing stories,