Born to Be King: Prince Charles on Planet Windsor (46 page)

The heart is wherever the home is: Charles and Camilla at Llwynywermod in 2009.

The heir: William at the controls of a Sea King helicopter, 2011.

The spare: Harry serving in Afghanistan in 2008.

Two families, four generations: Kate holds George at his 2013 christening, surrounded, clockwise, by the Queen, Philip, Charles, Camilla, Harry, Pippa Middleton, James Middleton, Carole and Michael Middleton, and William.

Acknowledgments

It is said that two Eds are better than one and I cannot but agree.
Born to Be King
owes its birth to the two best Eds in the publishing business: my agent, Ed Victor, and Ed Faulkner, Ebury’s publishing director, who commissioned the book in London. Stephen Rubin, president and publisher of Henry Holt, understood that Britain’s royals are not exclusively reserved for Britons’ enjoyment and brought the book to the US. Many thanks also to John Sterling, who helped me to refashion the text for American readers—and to bring out the comedy as well as the pathos, grandeur, and substance of the subject.

Hannah McGrath proved to be not only an indefatigable researcher but also an invaluable sounding board. Friends and colleagues gave me all sorts of useful tips and in several cases surprised me by revealing hitherto unsuspected connections to royalty.

Writing is an antisocial process, and I am lucky that my husband, parents, step-parents, sisters, step-sisters, elective sisters, nephew, godchildren, and delightful friends continue to tolerate me. Sara Burns coaxed me out for regular walks. Nicola Jennings spurred me on by regularly updating me on the progress of her own doctoral thesis—reminding me how many hundreds of thousands of words she had banked before I even started—then invited me to join her in France on a writing break. I finished my first draft under her roof, a little before she handed in her own manuscript.

Michael Elliott makes a cameo appearance in these pages, at a lunch with the Prince. Mike and I have known each other since meeting at
The Economist
in the 1980s. Later, as
Time
’s Deputy Managing Editor, he urged me to keep pushing for access to Charles. Several other
Time
editors played key roles in nursing the 2013 cover story that led to this book, in particular Radhika Jones, Bobby Ghosh, and the brilliant and lovely Jim Frederick, who died suddenly in July 2014, at only forty-two. Another death, last April, of an elective family member who was just twenty-five years old, and like Jim a supernova, for a few days made me question whether to stop writing and pay more attention to the people I love. Instead, the process enabled me to forget, for hours at a time. Now I would like to remember. I have no garden in which to erect shrines, as the Prince does. These few words must serve.

There are many people at Clarence House, Buckingham Palace, and Kensington Palace, working for Charles’s charities and among his friends, staff, and acquaintances—even some of his “Bond villains”—to whom I owe a weighty debt of gratitude. All have tolerated me hanging around and bugging them with questions over a long period of time. Some are named in the text; others chose to remain anonymous. Getting to know these people was one of the most enjoyable byproducts of researching this biography. A special mention must go to Kristina Kyriacou for making impossible things possible.

Of course, if Prince Charles were not such an endlessly fascinating character there would be no book. My final and biggest thanks, therefore, goes to him. This is not an authorized biography and he by no means welcomed my efforts, but he didn’t pull up the drawbridge.

Finally, an apology to my crestfallen goddaughter: I’m sorry this book is about
the
Prince, not Prince. Next time.

About the Author

C
ATHERINE
M
AYER
is Editor at Large at
Time
magazine. In three decades of covering European and international current affairs, she has profiled the leading figures in many fields, including royals, presidents and prime ministers, and cultural and business leaders. Or sign up for email updates
here
.

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Contents

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

Author’s Note

Introduction

  
1.
His Life in a Day

  
2.
Mother Load

  
3.
A Prince Among Men

  
4.
The Knave of Hearts

  
5.
Wolf Hall

  
6.
Helping and Hindering

  
7.
Harmonies and Disharmonies

  
8.
A Foreign Asset

  
9.
Happy and Notorious

10.
Kings to Come

Conclusion

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Photos

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Copyright

BORN TO BE
KING.
Copyright © 2015 by Catherine Mayer. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.henryholt.com

Cover design by Rick Pracher; photograph courtesy of REXUSA

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

ISBN: 978-1-62779-438-1

e-ISBN 9781627794398

First U.S. Edition: February 2015