Sir Philip Pullman called the Duchess of Cornwall’s work championing literature a “great initiative”.

The His Dark Materials author accompanied the Duchess on a tour of the Weston Library, part of the Bodleian Library, in Oxford this morning.

She was there to view the library's new exhibition and the Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxfordshire, which is on display for the first time in a century.

READ MORE: LIVE UPDATES: The Duchess of Cornwall is visiting Oxford today

She also met organisers of Oxford Literary Festival which is taking place from March 25 to April 23.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall loves reading and regularly promotes the benefits of literacy, particularly through her ‘Reading Room’ book club on Instagram.

Sir Philip described the tour as “very interesting” and said the library is “one of the great libraries of the world”.

He said: “It was nice to meet the Duchess, who is very interested in books and reading, which is a great thing. Also to see some of the treasures at the Bodleian Library - the manuscript of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein for example.”

"You do not always see them like that, they are not on any shelves you cannot just go and borrow them for a week. It is a great pleasure to see things like that."

Sir Philip felt the Duchess enjoyed her time at the library and noted some of the rare works they looked at were an “an extraordinary thing to see”.

He added he enjoyed “meeting the Duchess and being able to say to her how much I agree with what she is doing with books and reading. It is a great initiative.”

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