Camilla visits jail with more cooks than crooks

The Duchess of Cornwall was a visitor to the establishment next to Styal prison, where women with less than 18 months to serve are given the chance to earn City & Guilds qualifications in food service and preparation and then helped to find employment in the hospitality industry.

Opened three years ago, it is one of four such restaurants to be open to the public.

Camilla, who is a patron of the National Literary Trust, also learned how the jail’s Books Unlocked programme was helping prisoners develop a love of reading and improve their basic literacy skills.

Prisoners are able to engage with Man Booker Prize-shortlisted titles which are sent out to reading groups. They are also serialised as audio books on National Prison Radio, which is broadcast to around 80,000 cells.

In the restaurant, general manager Wendy Unsworth said she was proud of the recognition and added that none of the women who had left The Clink had returned to prison.

Camilla met kitchen staff preparing the day’s menu, which included venison and sea bream.

Meanwhile, the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge heard about the impact that mental health illnesses can have on new mothers, as she visited a research facility.

Kate was told by academics at King’s College London’s Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute that at least one woman in five was affected by mental health problems in their first year after birth.