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  • Published: 5 February 2015
  • ISBN: 9780753550809
  • Imprint: Virgin Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 544
Categories:

Charles: The Heart of a King




The bestselling and authoritative biography of Prince Charles - now updated with two new chapters - by Catherine Mayer, royal expert and correspondent

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller

'Breathtaking' The Times

'[The book that] made headlines around the world.' Independent

The former Prince of Wales has lived his whole life in the public eye, yet he remains an enigma. He was born to be king, but he aims much higher. A landmark publication, Charles: The Heart of a King reveals Charles in all his complexity: the passionate views that mean he will never be as remote and impartial as his mother; the compulsion to make a difference and the many and startling ways in which the Prince and now King of the United Kingdom and fifteen other realms has already made his mark.

The book offers fresh and fascinating insights into the first marriage that did so much to define him and an assessment of his relationship with the woman he calls, with unintended accuracy, his 'dearest wife': Camilla, now Queen Consort. We see Charles as a father and a friend, a serious figure and a joker. Life at court turns out to be full of hidden dangers and unexpected comedy.

Now, updated and revised with a new preface and two new chapters - covering details of Harry and Meghan's exit and its implications, the cash-for-honours scandal, Prince Andrew, and more - this significant study reveals a monarchy threatened and a man in sight of happiness yet still driven by anguish and a remarkable belief system, a charitable entrepreneur, activist, agitator and avatar of the Establishment who just as often tilts against it.

Based on multiple interviews with his friends and courtiers, palace insiders and critics, and rare access to Charles himself, before his kingship, this biography explores his philanthropy and his compulsive interventionism, his faith, his significant impact on politics and the philosophy that means when he seeks harmony he sometimes creates controversy.

Gripping, at times astonishing, often laugh-out-loud, this is a royal biography unlike any other.

'A must-read ... this important book is nothing short of a manual to our future King's world-view' GQ

'A sustained piece of higher journalism' Independent

  • Published: 5 February 2015
  • ISBN: 9780753550809
  • Imprint: Virgin Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 544
Categories:

About the author

Catherine Mayer

Catherine Mayer is Editor at Large at TIME magazine and has been writing about current affairs – and the Windsors – for more than three decades. She is married and lives in London. She is also the author of the 2011 book Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly

Also by Catherine Mayer

See all

Praise for Charles: The Heart of a King

A sustained piece of higher journalism based on diligent research, it is respectful, sympathetic and surprisingly positive. But it does not omit uncomfortable facts or polite criticisms.

Independent

Breathtaking stuff … leavened with some sly jokes: "To know the Prince is not necessarily to love him," [Mayer] writes, "whatever love means" ... A glimpse into Charles's world.’

The Times

A must-read … this important book is nothing short of a manual to our future King’s world-view ... and Mayer's book is the first comprehensive attempt to explore and explain what may lie ahead.

GQ

Primarily a celebration of a very special man.

Sunday Times

A vivid and entertaining account of the extraordinary life of the man born to be King … provides us with a new picture of the heir.

Daily Express

[On Catherine Mayer] Shrewd, respected and notably well-disposed.

Observer

Exhaustive yet entertaining.

Will Self, Guardian

What does distinguish Mayer's book from many others on the same subject is its intelligence, wit and compassion. She is not uncritical of Charles – she is republican after all – but she is sympathetic to him and tries hard to understand him.

Sunday Herald