Actress Daisy Edgar-Jones tells Camilla’s book club how she loves chosen novel

Actress Daisy Edgar-Jones has told the Duchess of Cornwall’s online book club that one of Camilla’s chosen novels will “stay with me forever”.

The star of Normal People talked about her forthcoming role in the film adaptation of the bestselling tale Where The Crawdads Sing, saying its portrayal of isolation resonated with her during the pandemic.

Edgar-Jones will play Kya, the abandoned “Marsh Girl”, who seeks solace in nature in Delia Owens’ coming-of-age story set in North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s.

The book was among four titles chosen by Camilla for the first season of her virtual book club, which was launched at the start of the year.

In a video which will be posted to the Instagram-based The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room on Thursday, Edgar-Jones recommends the book, describing Kya as a special character.

“I just feel that this idea of isolation was such a resonant one when I read it because of the climate that we’re currently living in,” the actress says.

“We’ve all experienced such loneliness and disconnect to our friends and our family because of the pandemic, so being able to escape into Kya’s world and see how she finds comfort and solace and love through the connections she makes with the beautiful natural world that’s around her I just found incredibly comforting and moving.

“I just feel so privileged and excited to be able to be playing her.

“I think she’s such a special character and such a special person and I think this book will stay with me forever, so to be able to step inside her world for the next few months, I just feel very lucky and I could not recommend this book enough.”

Edgar-Jones’s connection with Camilla’s book club came about through author Delia Owens, who has been heavily involved with the Reading Room on Instagram.

Where The Crawdads Sing, directed by Olivia Newman, is due for release in 2022.

Edgar-Jones, 22, shot to fame last year after appearing as Irish teenager Marianne in BBC Three’s Normal People, alongside co-star Paul Mescal.

The hit drama – adapted from the Sally Rooney novel of the same name – was BBC iPlayer’s most popular series of 2020 after it was streamed more than 62 million times.

Camilla holds seven patronages related to literature, including the National Literacy Trust, and has presented the prestigious Booker Prize for a number of years.

Her other three choices for her Reading Room are Dame Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror And The Light, William Boyd’s Restless, and The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak.