Crime author given unprecedented access inside Buckingham Palace to feature King and Queen in his murder mystery

British author Peter James was given unprecedented access to Buckingham Palace and members of the royal household to write his latest novel, which features King Charles and Queen Camilla as central characters.

The 77-year-old, who has written more than 30 books including 21 Sunday Times number ones, said it was thanks to the Queen being a fan of his work that he was able to go where very few members of the public are allowed to venture during research for his latest novel, The Hawk is Dead.

"She helped me so much on the book, I had huge help from both Queen Camilla and King Charles and members of the household who were very willing to talk to me," James told nine.com.au from his home in Jersey, in the Channel Islands.

He and the Queen first had contact about 10 years ago after he saw a photo in the newspaper of her bookshelf with two of his popular Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novels in the background.

After he wrote a thank you note to the then-Duchess of Cornwall, she responded with a two-page letter of her own, expressing her appreciation for his books and revealing she had read everything he'd published so far.

"She said I was one of her two favourite authors, the other was Jane Austen," James said.

"We then had this correspondence over the next few years and she'd write to me after every book.

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"In 2018 she wrote to me and said, 'Your new book kept me company on that interminable flight all the way to Australia and I was bereft when I finished it because I thought, What on earth am I going to read on the flight back?'"

Queen Camilla is a passionate reader and has used a significant portion of her royal work promoting literacy and the joy of books. She also supports a number of literary charities.

During COVID-19 lockdowns, Camilla started what is now known as The Queen's Reading Room – an online book club to help those in isolation deal with the loneliness.

The club, which is also now a charity, has around 12 million readers across 173 countries with a podcast and festival.

James was chosen as one of the club's featured authors, such was Her Majesty's love for his work.

In 2021, Camilla met with James on the set of the ITV drama Grace, starring John Simm, as the fictional detective in the show based on the book series.

"Jokingly I said to her, 'Maybe you'd like to be an extra one day' and she said, 'Perhaps I can be a dead body'."

It was on that day that James was able to closely observe Camilla and the precision of royal engagements, where things are timed to the minute.

They had a conversation over lunch where he saw the Queen's companion (a role previously called a Lady-in-Waiting) pull out a thermos of hot soup and a banana for Her Majesty – just one of many small, but insightful, details about the royal and its inner workings he has woven throughout his new novel.

It was Queen Camilla who suggested James set one of his Roy Grace novels in Buckingham Palace.

The fictional detective is usually based in the coastal town of Brighton and James had to work out how to get him to the capital.

"I'd always been fascinated by the royal train," James said, so he decided to feature it in the book.

The nine-carriage train, which was beloved by the late Queen Elizabeth II, is to be decommissioned in 2027.

James said his book, in part, would help to immortalise the train – which has become a national treasure.

In the book, Queen Camilla is travelling on board the royal train for engagements in Brighton when it derails.

She then helps her staff and others out of the damaged cars to safety when a trusted aide is shot dead by a sniper. Grace is brought in to investigate and he is summed to the palace by King Charles.

The best-selling author was insistent the King and Queen's real names be used instead of "King Eric or Queen Doris", he joked.

"Although I gave members of the royal household fictitious names, I could not give the King and Queen fake names," he said.

Real-life events inspired parts of the book, including the 10-year, £369m refurbishment (approx. $714 million) of Buckingham Palace.

Some areas within the palace are currently closed as it undergoes the biggest restoration in its history, due to end in 2027.

James described the palace renovations as "chaos".

"And when I heard art was being moved, I saw an opportunity," he said.

Although some articles about James' novel claim it was Queen Camilla who asked to be a character in his book, the author said she did not.

Instead, she suggested – on more than one occasion – he write a book that would bring his fictional detective to London and specifically, to investigate a murder at the palace.

He wrote a brief outline of a possible story and sent it to the Queen (who loved the idea) and soon after the Buckingham Palace communications team gave their seal of approval.

James is known for being meticulous with his research – he learned how to drive a train for a key section of the book – and spent a lot of time inside Buckingham Palace making sure he got all of the details correct.

"There's a big chase scene in the book and I had a three-and-a-half-hour tour to get it right," he said.

Before submitting his final draft, he returned to the palace and re-did the three-hour tour to ensure complete accuracy.

He asked one of the staffers how they managed not to get lost.

They suggested he kept a close eye on the paintings and use them as navigational markers.

It was how Prince Philip learned his way around the vast building, James said.

That is yet another detail he includes in the book.

James said he had a fitness tracker on at the time and clocked around three miles (about four kilometres) walking through the palace's corridors, visiting its basement and rooms members of the public normally don't see – including the private swimming pool and the secret passage that allowed Elizabeth II to move about unseen.

"I had various members of the royal household reading the book as I was writing it as I wanted it to be accurate, and one said, 'You've got the King standing up with both hands in his pockets, but he'd only ever put one hand in his pocket'."

When he finished the book, Queen Camilla was among the first to read it.

"We got to February this year and I thought, 'I've got to let her read a copy because if she doesn't like anything, now I can change it'," James said.

The Queen was presented a special edition copy bond in gold with '001' on the cover.

"I had it hand-delivered to her and I said, 'Your Majesty, if there's anything in this book you want changed, now is the time'."

He was invited to Clarence House about a week later to get the Queen's verdict.

"I walked in and she came over with this big smile and she said, 'I absolutely love it'."

Was anything changed?

"Not a word," James said, admitting he was touched by the Queen's praise.

"She later told me she's been calling members of the royal household by their character names in the book," he laughed.

During his research, James was surprised to discover just how old and tired parts of Buckingham Palace were.

He described the basement as looking like that of a old hotel carpark, while he was shocked to find out a section of corridor used by the Queen Elizabeth II was nearly falling apart.

The late Queen used the corridor to walk from her state apartments to her meeting rooms several times a day and underneath its carpet, the wooden floorboards were very worn – so bad in some sections, James was surprised no-one had fallen through them.

James was also shocked to find out a number of "hierarchal jealousies" that exist amongst some palace staff, particular between those who wear a uniform and those who don't.

However, the majority of employees of the royal household were "very loyal, very proud" he said.

The author said writing the book brought many incredible experiences, including an in-person conversation with King Charles. He described the King and Queen as "lovely employers".

But James has had other brushes with royalty before.

His mother, Cornelia James, was the official glovemaker to Queen Elizabeth II and the family company holds a Royal Warrant.

When the Queen, who was known as Princess Elizabeth at the time, married Prince Philip in 1947 she wore a pair of gloves made by Cornelia James as part of her 'going away' outfit.

James said he had vivid, and fond, memories of his mother "mending pairs of the Queen's gloves while we were watching television" in the family's living room when he was growing up.

"My mother was the only one allowed to handle the Queen's gloves, she wouldn't let anyone else [who worked at the company] touch them."

During an event inside the palace celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens in 2012, James told Her Majesty it was his mother who made the gloves she frequently wore.

She was "delighted", he said.

James also asked the Queen whether she enjoyed reading: "[She said] 'Oh I do, but it's hard to find the time'. She told me she enjoyed Rudyard Kipling."

The Queen, he said, "was much tinier" in person than how she came across in photographs and on television.

His latest novel, which is now available in bookstores and online, is James carrying on his family's royal legacy, in a way. But did he ever imagine he'd be where he is today?

"Never in a million years, absolutely not."

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