Heir. Prince. King. Discover the real Charles - our King - in the definitive biography from the bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen

'Brilliant, startling. The royal biography everyone's talking about' Daily Mail
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His destiny was to become King. But for 70 years, he was a Prince.

From his declared heirdom aged three to his years spent fulfilling royal duty in support of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Charles has spent his entire life serving the nation. But there is still so much we don't know.

In this fascinating exploration of his public and private lives, Sally Bedell Smith - the acclaimed, bestselling biographer of Elizabeth the Queen - has drawn extensively on her access to the Royal Family's inner circle to reveal a portrait of a misunderstood prince.

Beginning with his lonely childhood, Smith details his intellectual quests, his entrepreneurial pursuits, and his love affairs, from the tragedy of his marriage to Diana to his eventual reunion with Camilla, as well as his relationship with the next generation of royals, including Will, Kate, Harry, and his beloved grandchildren.

As this sweeping and definitive biography shows, Prince Charles is more than a king - he is a son, father, husband, servant, prince - who spent his life preparing to follow in his mother's footsteps.
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'For all we know about Prince Charles, there is so much we didn't know - until now' Tom Brokaw

A ground-breaking new biography of Prince Charles from bestselling author, Sally Bedell Smith.

About the Author
Sally Bedell Smith is the author of the bestselling biographies of Diana, Princess of Wales, John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Pamela Churchill Harriman and Bill Paley. A contributing editor at Vanity Fairsince 1996, she previously worked at Time and The New York Times, where she was a cultural news reporter. Sally is the mother of three children and lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Stephen.

Reviews

Brilliant, startling. The royal biography everyone's talking about

* Daily Mail *
What a story. To read this book is to feel... immense pity and sympathy for the man * The Times *
Prince Charles: The passions and paradoxes of an impossible life is the first major biography of Prince Charles in more than two decades, with new insights into his family and his two marriages, from the bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen. * From the publisher's description *
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



Book Information
ISBN 9781405932790
Author Sally Bedell Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 624
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 473g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 38mm