Customer Reviews

Charles & Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I picked up this book expecting the advertised insight into the relationship between Prince Charles and his long-time mistress Camilla, who at long last became his wife and is now known as the Duchess of Cornwall.

It took perseverance.

The flashes of insight are scattered through a narrative that begins with the monarchs of England and their mistresses from about the year dot. Or 736. Or something. And meanders down to the present day with endless details about the ancestors and descendants of kings, princesses, mistresses, near-mistresses, cousins, courtiers, generals, admirals, and probably a few of their horses.

Reading this book is like a Sunday afternoon visit with a gossipy old uncle who knows everybody - and their dogs and cats. He rambles and rummages among a lot of boring history, can't resist going off on tangents, and yet if you listen long enough he does eventually dish the dirt. When you leave, you have learned something new, and you feel you've cheered up the old boy by engaging in the visit. Even if most of the begats and ranks and titles went in one ear and out the other.

I agree with another reviewer: this book cries out for some charts to help the reader follow all of that genealogy described in such excruciating detail.

This isn't a fast read. Nor is it uncritically admiring of anyone, including Charles and Camilla. On the subject of Charles' ill-starred first marriage, it's nowhere near as comprehensive and gifted as Tina Brown's The Diana Chronicles. But Brandreth leaves us with a portrait of Prince Charles as an intelligent, sensitive, dutiful boy who didn't respond as well as his sturdier sister to the often harsh regimens of his school days. Who grew into a dutiful and complex young man, still oddly diffident with women, and working hard to fulfill the duties of the unique lifelong role he was born into. Although it ended in tears - and worse - he began his first marriage in good faith, retained some affection and concern for Diana long after the marriage died, and was always an involved father.

The portrait of Camilla is less complete, but then she wasn't famous from birth so information is harder to obtain. Brandreth presents her as a naturally happy person who likes to have fun. She's intelligent but not an intellectual, and is devoted to horses, hunting, gardening, and her close-knit family. And, for much of her life, to the Prince of Wales. Camilla grew up in a close and happy family, and her stability, warmth and optimism no doubt play a strong counterpoint to some of Charles' more skittish tendencies. She sounds like a good person to have as a friend: ready to have fun, loyal, and unlikely to make a fuss about a little mud tracked into the house.

In Camilla, from the beginning, Charles found his soulmate. Brandreth eventually gives us a portrait of a deep and strong relationship that has survived against all odds. Whether you like these two people or not, they clearly belong together. I wonder what would have happened if they could have married each other first.

As a "portrait of a love affair" this book is cluttered with too much information, both irrelevant and intimate. I didn't need the transcript of the entire "Camillagate" phone call, but it's in there. And I don't care who begat whom in 14th Century Britain. I'll take it as read that kings have historically married for duty and taken mistresses for everything else. Some historical perspective is helpful, but Brandreth piles on too much detail.

You might while away a long plane flight with this book, but better also pack something else to read when you get fed up with Brandreth's incessant fussing and fidgeting.

After reading a previous biography on England's current monarch and spouse by Gyles Brandreth, I was keenly keeping an eye out for his next book, this time talking about the current Prince of Wales and his second marriage, this time to his long-time mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Along the way, Brandreth takes a look at the history of royal mistresses, the ancestry of the couple in question, and reveals that there's quite a bit more going on than meets the eye.

The custom of a prince or king having several mistresses -- what can be called 'girlfriends' today -- is a custom as old as when the first monarch plopped a crown on his head. Until recently, most royal marriages were arranged, where King A was available, or his son was, and King B had an unmarried daughter, and would exchange daughter in return for say, a peace treaty or financial support or whatever it was that they needed at the time. History rarely records what the poor girl thought of the match, and what was expect of her was to be fruitful, bear several heirs, and if she was lucky, there would be genuine affection in her marriage. For fun, royal men have turned to other women, an arrangement that winked at, but so long as they didn't make a fool of themselves, the men got away with it. It was only recently, with the union of England's Queen Victoria with a minor German princeling by the name of Albert, that romance -- and fidelity -- began to be the norm. For the first several chapters of the book, Brandreth discusses the various peccadillos of England's royal families, and shows how the standard came to be.

The first cracks showed up with England's Edward VIII and the notorious Mrs. Simpson, a woman who was divorced, twice, and certainly not the virgo intacta that was expected of a royal wife. But Edward VIII stepped down for the woman he loved, and his younger brother Bertie -- George VI -- took the throne, and did a pretty good job of a task he never wanted. Stress and smoking made his reign a short one, and his elder daughter, Elizabeth II, is now England's queen. Which brings us to the current royal heir, Charles, the Prince of Wales, a young man of rather nervous temprament and the resources to live a life of a popular playboy.

Unfortunately, he had those ears, and somehow the good looks of his parents skipped a generation. At a polo match, he met a young woman of aristocratic stock, funny, and just as interested as he was in polo and horses.

She was Camilla Shand, somewhat pretty, and when she met the Prince, she commented, "My great-grandmother was your great-great-grandfather's mistress, so how about it?" The story, whether true or not, has entered myth, and it was rumored that the pair became lovers, and at least friends. But Charles was a bit uncertain about asking anyone to be his wife, and that lack of confidence let Camilla slip away to another man, a dashing Army officer by the name of Andrew Parker-Bowles. Camilla got married, raised some children, and remained a good friend of the Prince, while Charles went on to his chase after women, and finally, when he was in his thirties, asked another aristocratic young woman to marry him, and this time, he was accepted.

This is where Brandreth's book gets interesting. Besides all of the gossip about who's sleeping with whom, a tanscription of the notorious 'tampon' conversation, he paints a very telling portrait of the Prince of Wales. As well as looking at the outside, he also attempts to look at the why as well. This is where the book becomes the most interesting, and there's quite a few AHA! moments there for the reader who isn't numbed and dazed by all of the various begats and mudslinging.

And yet -- this isn't nearly as good as the biography that Brandreth wrote about Charles' parents. For one, it gets a bit too intimate in spots, and I was downright embarassed. It's one thing to read about someone who has gone on to their eternal reward, but quite another when they're alive and kicking. Diana Spencer doesn't come off too well in this one either, showing her as a very naive, not-too-bright young woman, who was just as emotionally needy as her husband, and didn't have the wits to be quiet about it. There's plenty of venom being flung about, and at times, it's not much more than a scandal sheet, and not too objective.

Still, out of all the various books out there (and no doubt will continue to appear), it's not too bad, and better than most. For anyone who enjoys eavesdropping on royalty, it's not a bad read at all. There are some problems -- Brandreth is a cackling hen of a writer, flooding the pages with footnotes and smirking connections among Europe and England's elite. One thing that this book really needed was a genealogical chart or several to show all of the connections and help to keep everyone straight. I had to be constantly backing up now and then to make sure I was thinking about the right person he was discussing. Too, by scattering the footnotes throughout the book, instead of lumping them at the end as most histories do, makes it very distracting to follow along.

On the other hand, there are quite a lot of photographs in several inserts, several appendices that talk about the various duties and organizations that the Prince is involved with, along with various sources and an index to track down minor royals.

Summing up, this one is actually better than what I make it sound. It's a very solid four star read, despite the problems, and one that I suspect I will reread again in the future. What it does do is help to understand a very complex relationship, and finally, a love story that managed to survive scandal, death and publicity to finally come to a settled, and maybe even a peaceful resolution.

Four stars. Recommended.

The book was published after the marraige of Prince Charles and Camilla on April 9 2005 and almost 8 years after the death of Diana,Princess of Wales. With his good connections, the author was able to check the sources of information which has been published in previous disclousures about Prince Charles, Camilla and Diana. The author is not in either Charles, Camilla and Diana's camp, he praised their strengths, but also pointed their shortcomings and mistakes as well.

I do not mind the history part, but I am not very into it. But the genelogy of Camilla did showed the mixture of her colourful character and grow up background which helped readers to analyze the reasons why she was the love of Prince Charles which made him so hard to give up and the reasons why Camilla has been accepted finally by the royal family even the British people. She has a very British character.

The author in fact mapped out a clear comparsion between Charles-Camilla and the duke and duchess of windsor,therefore write his own theory about the evolution of the monarchy- follow the change.

Although the words in this book is more gossip and juicy than his previous book for Prince Charles' parents, but this may be the reason why Charles and Camilla's affair could be so fasinating depsite the great tragedy of Diana.

In my view, the author made a great efforts to be objective in his judgment of Charles, Camilla, and Diana. He learnt Charles's side and Diana's side stories, but he not only mentioned the facts but he also had a position in their extramartial affairs and their profound effect on the stablity of the monarchy. The author presented a fair true picture of Charles and Diana's marriage. Not a fair tale marriage but a mistake.

Charles and Diana both had good intentions to get into the marriage, but with the character difference and lack of common interest and among other reasons, the marriage did not work. While Charles always a person like Camilla who could offer support, stregths,companionship, and friendship almost selfishless and constantly.

There are someone called soulmates and there are Charles and Camilla about. If you wish to like the most complex royal love story in near 40 years, this is the book you should pick. But you should be a fan of Diana, Princess of Wales, please do not read it.

While visiting Scotland and Ireland, our very knowledgable tour guide recommended this book for a true view of Charles and Camilla, especially for those of us who were Dianna fans, and didn't want to "know" the other side of the story. I love reading narrative history, true stories that grab my interest. This one does, and has tons of pictures including Charles and Camilla's ancestors, their childhoods, and their wedding day.

My, oh my. I got stuck with this dreary drivel about murdering misfits at a book club's book swap. I read about 15 pages. Needed to use the loo, and discovered their was no toilet paper. This book has found it's proper calling. No paper refill will be required in that stall for a good while.

Good Lord, how boring. Seriously? Trying to link the past with today's values by going waaaaay back in history to destigmatize royal adultery? In the context of this book, who cares about all that? It certainly does not justify the behavior of any of the parties involved. Nor does it excuse Charles' jealousy of Diana, nor his absolute self-absorption in denying his responsibility for the naive girl he married. She did her job. Heir and spare, done. And Diana was not "dim"...she was extremely savvy at manipulating hordes of British media folks into portraying the version of things she chose. You shouldn't make the mistake, as Charles and Camilla did, of thinking that people who don't do well in school are stupid; lots of them have emotional issues that get in the way. And Camilla is his "soul mate"? Who the hell cares? He made choices. She made choices. It wasn't Diana's fault that she was wedged in between the True Lovers, nor that she fell apart when she figured out what was going on. She was duped. And don't think for a minute it was someone other than Camilla who engineered the whole thing. She's conniving and contemptible, and she kept Charles firmly tied to her apron strings as she set up "their" court, while he was unfortunately still married. And 400 years of royal mistresses does not make up for that fact. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!!