Charles: The Heart of a King

Charles: The Heart of a King

Summary

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller

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


He 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 Prince 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 heir to the throne 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. 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.

Poignant, funny and often surprising, the first significant study of the Prince in over a decade reveals 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 access to Charles himself during research lasting more than a year, this biography explores the Prince’s philanthropy and his compulsive interventionism, his faith, his political leanings 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.

Reviews

  • 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

About the author

Catherine Mayer

Catherine Mayer is the co-founder of the Women's Equality Party and Primadonna Festival. During more than three decades as a journalist and editor, most recently of TIME Europe, she covered politics and the royal family in depth and at first hand, securing unusual levels of access to leading figures including Prince Charles and the Queen. Her other books include Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly; Attack of the Fifty Foot Women: How Gender Equality Can Save the World! and the memoir, Good Grief: Embracing Life at a Time of Death, written with her mother. After the death of her husband, the musician Andy Gill, she took on his unfinished projects, releasing two EPs by his band Gang of Four, and acting as executive producer for a tribute album, The Problem of Leisure: A celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four
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