One of the many likeable characteristics of Queen Camilla is that she has a clear, full-throated passion for literature. She has taken her husband, the King, away from his usual diet of intellectually respectable but slightly stuffy authors – such as his mentor Laurens van der Post – and introduced him to the likes of Jilly Cooper, Elizabeth Jane Howard and E. F. Benson. Yet for all her bookish associations, the latest meeting that she had with the country’s bestselling – and most controversial – author is likely to arouse strong passions on both sides of the political divide. It has also prompted a particular question: is Camilla herself a Terf?

The picture that was posted on the royal family’s social media accounts yesterday was innocuous enough. The Queen met J.K. Rowling in Edinburgh at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the two of them were photographed looking comfortable in one another’s company. The accompanying caption suggested that:

With a shared passion for books and a deep commitment to children reading for pleasure…Her Majesty and Ms Rowling discussed the importance of ensuring that young people have access to books and the vital part reading plays in opening doors for future generations.

Those who have suggested that Rowling should be cut loose by the monarchy are deluded

Under normal circumstances, this would be uncontroversial, even commendable. However, there is a vocal minority for whom Rowling is little less than the antichrist thanks to her gender-critical views. These people express themselves with considerable passion that often turns into straightforward fury. They are aghast at the way that Rowling, far from being cancelled and stripped of her livelihood, continues to prosper, and is likely to do so for the rest of her life. Adults and children alike enjoy reading her books, whether the Harry Potter series or the Cormoran Strike novels. Many also agree with her views on biological sex: an issue that she has done more than anyone alive to bring into the mainstream.

However, there will also be those who suggest that the royal family should stay out of such controversial matters, and, by extension, avoid public association with authors who have the slightest taint of divisiveness about them. Could not, these people say wistfully, Camilla have chosen to meet the unimpeachably nice likes of David Nicholls and Maggie O’Farrell – both of whose books have been recommended by her in the past – rather than risk alienating those who would otherwise support her literary tastes by what amounts to a tacit endorsement of Rowling and her views? Does this mean – be still my beating heart – that the Queen might share Rowling’s opinions?

While Camilla has never offered any public perspective on the matter either way and is unlikely to do so either, I suspect that it is more likely than not that she has a degree of sympathy with Rowling’s beliefs. This is hardly an unpopular view these days, and even if even Rowling’s supporters might wince at her full-throated denunciation of her enemies on social media – which, to be fair, she at least does with a degree of literacy and wit that her detractors often lack – they are likely to think more, rather than less, of Camilla for this gesture of solidarity. Their meeting will not have been arranged without careful consideration beforehand. Very little that is made public on the royal family’s social media accounts is done so without a great deal of thought, especially after the more notorious examples of getting it wrong.

Those who have suggested that Rowling should be cut loose by the monarchy are deluded. The author is a Companion of Honour and, therefore, an intimate associate of the senior members of the royal family. It has even been suggested, following the death of David Hockney, that Rowling should be appointed to the even more exclusive Order of Merit, limited to a mere 24 men and women who are thought to have offered exceptional service to the fields of science, art, literature or other culture. Rowling might be a superbly talented storyteller, but few would claim that she is an author on a literary par with Tom Stoppard, Graham Greene or E.M. Forster, to name a few previous holders of the office.

What she has done, however, is to be courageous and carry on speaking out when it would have been easier to stay silent. Orders of Merit are, of course, handed out for being outstanding in your field, not for standing out from the herd. But, nevertheless, perhaps something more consequential than beach reads was discussed at Holyroodhouse yesterday after all. The thought of the outrage that the words ‘J.K. Rowling, OM’ would trigger in a certain sector of the online literati is too delicious to contemplate – as, undoubtedly, would be the author’s robust replies to the abuse she would inevitably receive. Let us see if Queen Camilla concurs.