The Duchess of Cornwall has spoken about a book by her late brother as she recommends good reads for those wanting solace during the coronavirus outbreak.

Camilla said Travels On My Elephant by Mark Shand “always brings a tear to my eye” and she has listed him among nine authors picked for readers.

The duchess said: “My late brother’s tale of his love affair with Tara, an Asian elephant, on their journey across India – it always brings a tear to my eye.”

Mr Shand was a conservationist and travel writer who died in 2014 after falling and hitting his head in New York.

His rescue of Tara, a female elephant he saved from the streets of eastern India and rode 600 miles across the country, led to his best-selling book and the foundation of the conservation charity Elephant Family.

Camilla said: “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’, I hope you all enjoy them as much as I have and can I wish you all a very happy Easter.”

The books chosen by Camilla range from the modern fantasy novel The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman, which she called “storytelling at its best”, to A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

She rates the Victorian novel highly: “This is a wonderful story of romantic and familial love set against the violence of the French Revolution.

“It is one of my favourite books by Charles Dickens and, in my humble opinion, one of his best.”

Her selection also includes William Boyd’s wartime thriller Restless and The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak, which she described as a “magical, colourful tale set during the height of the Ottoman Empire”.

Camilla had high praise for The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

She said: “A multi-generational saga by this brilliant author, of a British family before, during and after World War II.”

Here are the nine authors and their books chosen by the duchess:

– Restless by William Boyd
– A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
– The Simon Serrailler series by Susan Hill
– The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
– The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
– A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles
– The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain
– The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak
– Travels On My Elephant by Mark Shand