Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you are looking for a comprehensive and sympathetic portrayal of Prince Charles, you may want to pick this book up. It doesn't attempt to camouflage Charles' flaws. And it chronicles Charles' strengths. For too long the Royal Family wasn't able to marry the people who might have been best suited for them such as a divorced person, a commoner, or a woman with a past. Thankfully, in part to Charles and Diana's disastrous marriage, that has changed for William and Harry. My two primary take-aways from this book - and I've read all 600+ pages of it - regarding Charles is that self-pity may triumph over gratitude occasionally over his lot in life. Yes, he's been waiting 60 plus years to be King of England, but he has had extraordinary opportunities. To Charles' credit, he has made much of those opportunities in original ways. And that's the second take-away. I was amazed at the amount of endeavors he has been involved in to benefit others, and most of them have been successful except for when a staff member embezzles large amounts of money. Because Charles is involved in so many enterprises, the oversight has been lacking in a few instances. But the net gain is positive. The enterprise which fascinates me as a designer is the community which Charles has been involved with: Poundbury. Poundbury is an experimental newly constructed town on the outskirts of Dorchester in the county of Dorset. The land is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. If you google images of it, it is charming. We need more Poundbury's in the world. It was inspired by Seaside, Florida. You learn in this book that Charles has funded at-risk youth opportunities. One youth became a multi-millionaire entrepreneur. The actor Idris Elba also was schooled through Charles' programs. Some other interesting observations gleaned from this book: * Charles kept asking Duchess Debo of Devonshire of Chatsworth for some art of Lucian Freud's until she gave in * a PR initiative was undertaken to integrate Camilla into Charles' life publicly so that public opinion would finally approve of their marriage * the experimental community in Scotland near Dumfries hasn't thrived as much as Poundbury due to the economy there * Charles felt let-down when his parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, only stayed 20 minutes to view Poundbury, one of his most successful projects * Charles lays on the floor at Highgrove by an open window to listen to folks' comments upon visiting his beautiful garden * William and Harry approach philanthropy as a team focusing on three main categories: conservation, mental health and the military. Their initiatives are much more short-term compared to Charles's. * There is friction occasionally between Buckingham Palace and Charles' team * Charles doesn't spend much time with Prince George - Charles is too busy What you have to admire is that even though Charles was pretty much straight-jacketed into choices about his life by his parents - especially Prince Philip who is the opposite of his son and chose activities and experiences for Charles which would have suited Philip the best - Charles has eventually carved out a life which suits him. Some of Charles's melancholy is perhaps pent-up from a fairly miserable childhood about which he didn't have much affection or happy experiences. Gourdonstuon School sounds like torture which could have caused a mental breakdown in a less mentally sturdy individual. Charles stuffed most of his early misery, and it comes leaking out occasionally in some of his comments I think. Rejection or criticism now feels like the original pain of criticism in Charles' early life when Philip may have wanted Charles to be more like him kind of thing. Psychologists tell us that our subconscious doesn't distinguish between a hurt now and a hurt from an early life when we were more powerless, so we may respond as we would have liked to when we were a child and fairly defenseless. The good news is that the Royal Family has learned from past mistakes, and William and Harry have benefited to live happier lives which suit their personalities and the 21st century. This book is highly readable, and didn't seem overly-long if you read a few chapters a night. It's not sensational, but it doesn't gloss over mistakes and read like a hagiography either. If you like Charles, or the Royal Family, you should enjoy it.