The Duchess of Cornwall fought off her hay fever as she was reunited with some of the life-sized elephant sculptures she helped to home during the pandemic.

Camilla launched the Elephant Story Trail in central London on Tuesday, which features a string of elephant sculptures along the route from Green Park to St James’s Park, with families able to complete reading challenges along the way.

The project is a collaboration between the National Literacy Trust, which the duchess has been patron of since 2010, the Bupa Foundation, and Elephant Family, a conservation charity co-founded by her late brother Mark Shand in 2002.

The duchess told National Literacy Trust chief executive Jonathan Douglas at the beginning of the event that she was having “hay fever struggles” and was “red-eyed” due to the high pollen count.

Despite this, she read the classic children’s book Elmer by David McKee to a group of 60 youngsters from Vauxhall Primary School surrounded by the sculptures, and was momentarily upstaged by a performer in an Elmer costume who entertained the children.

Camilla has a particular affinity with the elephant sculptures after homing some of them at the height of the pandemic after plans by Elephant Family to put them on display were delayed.

The duchess housed some of the sculptures – made by a group of artists and conservationists in India – at the Highgrove estate, while others were homed by her friends including the author Jilly Copper and investment banker Jacob Rothchild.

Families can follow the Elephant Story Trail from Green Park to St James’s Park until July 12, before the sculptures will all be together in Green Park from July 16 until July 23.

Mr Douglas said: “Today has been an amazing moment because we’re coming together with her in person, and celebrating these fantastic elephants and the fact that they’re inspiring children’s imaginations and creativity.

“We want to get children out and about. They’ve been home-based for long enough and this is a fantastic opportunity to get into the open air, and read a story.”

Trustee and creative lead of Elephant Family, Ruth Ganesh, said: “It’s a very special thing because Mark (Camilla’s late brother) dreamed of bringing elephants to London and he always used to talk about how he hadn’t ever met anyone that didn’t love an elephant. So it’s like fulfilling old conversations of many years ago.”

The launch event also heard readings from Petr Horacek, author of children’s book Elephant, and Nizrana Farook, author of The Girl Who Stole An Elephant.

Earlier, Camilla celebrated her passion for literature with pupils from Griffin Primary School, in Nine Elms, south London, telling them: “I’m a big, big reader.”

The school is one of six primaries taking part in Waterstones Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell’s Life-changing Library project, and its reading space is now stocked with 1,000 titles selected by the Book Trust which the duchess supports as patron.

Camilla cut a ribbon to launch the library and read to the children The Tiger Who Came To Tea with Cowell, whose popular book How To Train Your Dragon was made into a movie series.

Before leaving, the duchess presented the school library with three books: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse by Charlie Mackesy; Swallows And Amazons by Arthur Ransome, and The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame.