Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life

by Sally Bedell Smith

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “masterly account” (The Wall Street Journal) of the life and loves of King Charles III, Britain’s first king since 1952, shedding light on the death of Diana, his marriage to Camilla, and his preparations to take the throne

Sally Bedell Smith returns once again to the British royal family to give us a new look at the man who was the oldest heir to the throne in more than three hundred years. This vivid, eye-opening biography—the product of four years of research and hundreds of interviews with palace officials, former girlfriends, spiritual gurus, and more, some speaking on the record for the first time—is the first authoritative treatment of Charles’s life.

Prince Charles brings to life the real man, with all of his ambitions, insecurities, and convictions. It begins with his lonely childhood, in which he struggled to live up to his father’s expectations and sought companionship from the Queen Mother and his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten. It follows him through difficult years at school, his early love affairs, his intellectual quests, his entrepreneurial pursuits, and his intense search for spiritual meaning. It tells of the tragedy of his marriage to Diana; his eventual reunion with his true love, Camilla; and his relationships with William, Kate, Harry, and his grandchildren.

Ranging from his glamorous palaces to his country homes, from his globe-trotting travels to his local initiatives, Smith shows how Prince Charles possesses a fiercely independent spirit and yet spent more than six decades waiting for his destined role, living a life dictated by protocols he often struggles to obey. With keen insight and the discovery of unexpected new details, Smith lays bare the contradictions of a man who is more complicated, tragic, and compelling than we knew, until now.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400067909
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Pages:	624
Sales rank:	681,534
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Sally Bedell Smith is the author of bestselling biographies of Queen Elizabeth II; William S. Paley; Pamela Harriman; Diana, Princess of Wales; John and Jacqueline Kennedy; and Bill and Hillary Clinton. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 1996, she previously worked at Time and The New York Times, where she was a cultural news reporter. In 2012, Smith was the recipient of the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence. She is the mother of three children and lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Stephen G. Smith.

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PREFACE 
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Excerpted from "Prince Charles"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Sally Bedell Smith.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Map xi

Preface xiii

Chapter 1 The Lonely Schoolboy 3

Chapter 2 Cold Showers in the Morning 17

Chapter 3 Heir to a Fortune 31

Chapter 4 Nixon Plays Matchmaker 51

Chapter 5 The Shadow of Camilla 67

Chapter 6 Wild Oats 77

Chapter 7 Searching for Meaning 93

Chapter 8 Prince without a Princess 111

Chapter 9 Diana Snares Her Man 123

Chapter 10 Glamour and Heartache 145

Chapter 11 Naming and Shaming 161

Chapter 12 A Marriage in Shambles 173

Chapter 13 Dangerous Liaisons 195

Chapter 14 Butterfly Mind 205

Chapter 15 Midlife Melancholy 217

Chapter 16 Timeless Principles 231

Chapter 17 Love Tape 241

Chapter 18 Diana's Revenge 251

Chapter 19 Wounded Feelings 271

Chapter 20 Scarlet A 283

Chapter 21 Three in a Marriage 295

Chapter 22 Breathing the Same Air 303

Chapter 23 Tragedy in Paris 317

Chapter 24 No Ordinary Pilgrim 329

Chapter 25 Media Makeover 339

Chapter 26 Out of the Shadows 349

Chapter 27 Cracking the Ice 359

Chapter 28 Deaths in the Family 367

Chapter 29 Blackadder's Revenge 377

Chapter 30 Hitched at Last 391

Chapter 31 Camilla Joins the Firm 403

Chapter 32 Royal Infighting 413

Chapter 33 A Prince in Full 427

Chapter 34 Rising Sons 439

Chapter 35 On the Defensive 449

Chapter 36 The Magnificent Seven 459

Chapter 37 Rehearsing New Roles 471

Chapter 38 The Shadow King's Legacy 483

Chapter 39 "Don't Ever Stop" 495

Acknowledgments 509

Source Notes 515

Bibliography 563

Index 571

Editorial Reviews

The details of Charles's public life over the years are well known—and it should be said that Sally Bedell Smith's new biography covers them in diligent and exemplary fashion—but it's the private man we're interested in, the individual behind the numerous grand titles…It's a real compliment to Smith, an American…to say that she understands the British upper classes and aristocracy (including the royals) very well indeed. This country is obsessed, dominated and shackled by class to a still unhealthy degree, and that obsession is focused on the royal family, with the consequent trickle-down effect through the social strata. Smith's narrative conveys the system's unthinking superiority, the lazy morality, the philistinism, the sense of demanded privilege and analyzes it cannily. What's remarkable about her portrait of Prince Charles is that he emerges as a man not deeply tainted by the complacent values of the world in which he was raised. Her Charles is a complex, somewhat troubled, sincere and questioning individual…Charles may, as Smith points out, be "the oldest heir to the throne in 300 years," but her book suggests that we can look forward to the reign of Charles III with quiet confidence.

The New York Times Book Review - William Boyd

03/15/2017
Born Charles Philip Arthur George in 1948, England's Prince Charles is arguably one of the most recognizable people in the world. If asked about him, many might immediately mention his late first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, and describe the scandals and tragedy that enveloped them both in the 1990s. Or they would know about his unshakable love for Camilla Parker-Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall, whom he finally married in 2005, and who seems to have brought him happiness. Readers also are familiar with Charles as the heir apparent to the throne, patiently waiting to ascend to king, but whose mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned for more than six decades. In this biography, historian and frequent biographer Smith (Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch) presents a multidimensional portrait of a complex, sensitive, and often visionary man (his ideas about sustainable living were once considered eccentric), who has carved out a dynamic public role as he waits his turn to govern. VERDICT Intimate but not gossipy, this highly accessible and thoroughly researched volume would do well in all collections. [See Prepub Alert, 10/17/16.]—Penelope J.M. Klein, Fayetteville, NY

Library Journal

2017-02-13
A sympathetic psychological study of the prince who has been working tirelessly all his life to be taken seriously.Having written previously on other members of the modern English dynasty (Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, 2012, etc.), British biographer Smith provides plenty of astute observations in her biography of the Prince of Wales, who is now 68. His 90-year-old mother, Queen Elizabeth II, is finally slowing down and deputizing some of her tasks to her eldest son, although she has no intention of abdicating. After espousing vociferously and often controversially throughout his life on causes he is passionate about—organic farming and other environmental issues, traditional architecture versus modern, creating opportunity and education for disadvantaged youth, alternative medicine and homeopathy, among many others—Charles seems to be toning down his rhetoric in preparation for the establishment of a more disciplined tone, à la his efficient, well-loved mother. Smith is not the first biographer to depict the young prince as love-starved, lonely, and emotionally vulnerable, although her portrait is enormously touching and supported by wide-ranging interviews and research. Elizabeth's hands-off approach to child-raising, Charles' father's bullying, the hypercriticism of the press, and his position of impotence within the royal succession all colluded in pushing him into a disastrous first marriage with a far-too-young, inexperienced, and emotionally damaged soul, Diana Spencer. In fact, he always loved and needed the one woman who bolstered his confidence, listened to him, and shared his pursuits, the married Camilla Parker-Bowles. Indeed, Smith portrays Camilla in a very generous light and Diana as seriously psychologically impaired. Throughout, the author traces the roots of Charles' many fascinating and beneficial "obsessions"; he was a prescient prince who scorned the playboy label and tried valiantly to do something good with his wealth and connections. A thorough, timely biography of the man likely to become king in the next decade or so.

Kirkus Reviews

[Sally Bedell Smith] understands the British upper classes and aristocracy (including the royals) very well indeed. . . . Smith makes many telling, shrewd points in pursuit of realigning the popular image of Prince Charles.”—William Boyd, The New York Times Book Review

“[A] masterly account.”—The Wall Street Journal
  
“Thoroughly researched and insightful . . . In this profile, it is clear [Smith] got inside the circular barriers that protect the man and his position. The Charles that emerges is, as the subtitle suggests, both a paradox and a creature of his passions.”—The Washington Times
  
“[A] compellingly juicy bio . . . Windsor-philes will be mesmerized.”—People
 
“Prince Charles paints an affectingly human portrait. . . . Smith writes about [Charles’s life] with a skill and sympathy she perfected in her 2012 biography of Charles’s mother.”—The Christian Science Monitor
  
“A multidimensional portrait of a complex, sensitive, and often visionary man (his ideas about sustainable living were once considered eccentric), who has carved out a dynamic public role as he waits his turn to govern. Intimate but not gossipy, this highly accessible and thoroughly researched volume would do well in all collections.”—Library Journal

“Comprehensive and admirably fair . . . Until his accession to the throne, Smith’s portrait will stand as the definitive study.”—Booklist (starred review)
 
“Astute . . . a sympathetic psychological study . . . [Smith’s] portrait is enormously touching and supported by wide-ranging interviews and research. . . . A thorough, timely biography.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Prince Charles is an eighteenth-century gentleman with a twenty-first-century mission. His love of tradition combines with an outlook that can be bracingly avant garde. Sally Bedell Smith captures his contradictions and his convictions in this fascinating book that is not just about a man who would be king, but also about the duties that come with privilege.”—Walter Isaacson
 
“For all we know about Prince Charles, there is so much we didn’t know—until now. Sally Bedell Smith has given us a complete and compelling portrait of the man in the shadow of the throne. It’s all here, from the back stairs of the palaces to the front pages of the tabs. Read all about it!”—Tom Brokaw
 
“No one writes about life at the top with more panache than Sally Bedell Smith. Her Prince Charles is a delicious blend of glamour and grandeur, jealousy and rivalry, greatness and human foible. Smith writes with wisdom and sympathy—and a sharp and knowing eye—about the struggles and maturation of the man who would be King.”—Evan Thomas
 
“This great biography is an indispensable guide for anyone eager to understand Prince Charles and the British monarchy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What an achievement—what work went into it, and all of it presented with such ease. It is so fair, while suggesting so much.”—Peggy Noonan

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