Charles: Victim or Villain [Hardcover]

Penny Junor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 1998

Charles, Prince of Wales, has long been the subject of intense scrutiny and speculation. Everyone assumes that they know the story of the Prince's life and his failed marriage to Diana. Diana herself told the world in no uncertain terms about her unhappiness with the British Royal Family, leaving no doubt as to whom she held responsible.

But Diana's version was only part of the story.

Penny Junor's new biography, Charles: Victim or Villain?, reveals the startling complexities and contradictions of a man born to a position of unique privilege. On the occasion of the Prince's fiftieth birthday it provides fresh perspective and entirely revolutionizes the way we think about Charles, his marriage and his mistress.

Drawing on the memories, experiences and observations of those closest to the Prince, the Princess and Camilla some of whom have never spoken before Penny Junor is in an unrivaled position to explode and explain the popular myths. Her analysis of the Prince's marriage to Diana, a vulnerable but difficult young woman, and his relationship with Camilla, earthy and independent, results in a provocative new portrait of the man who will be King.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you want to hear nice things about Princess Diana, listen to England's Rose: Tribute to Diana or read Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words. Penny Junor's controversial bestseller tells another tale. "[Charles] had to put up with years of tantrums and abuse," writes Junor. "Charles cut his friends out of his life at Diana's insistence, and even gave away the dog he loved in an effort to make Diana happy." Junor charges Diana with tricking Charles into marriage; cruelty to her children's nanny; refusal to see the psychiatrist Charles worriedly recommended for her anorexia; beating Charles to the punch in the adultery department; and making phone calls to Camilla in which Diana "would say things like, 'I've sent someone to kill you.... Look out of the window; can you see them?'" Junor quotes Prince William as saying, "Papa doesn't embarrass me. Mama does." While she doesn't paint Charles in fully glowing colors, Junor's portrait of Diana is startlingly harsh. Regarding the "Camillagate" tapes of Charles's crude love talk, which will humiliate the whole family forever, Junor darkly notes that: "The Princess was one of very few people who knew the Prince's mobile telephone number, and it was known that she had been worried about bugging on her own account and had installed some sophisticated equipment at Kensington Palace." How upsetting is this book? Newspapers report that Junor is herself besieged by paparazzi and hate mail and travels with a bodyguard. --Tim Appelo

Review

'A fair-minded rejoinder to Andrew Morton's credulous Diana book' Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1st edition (November 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060193867
• ISBN-13: 978-0060193867
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,157,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Biased and sexist view of the Royal family, December 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Charles: Victim or Villain (Hardcover)

Penny Junor feels the need to apologize for Charles and defend the coldness exhibited by the Royal family. To do this, she seems to find it necessary to downgrade Diana. Personally, I like Charles. He seems abundantly human, a good father, and how many people could wake up their children and have to break their hearts? He did an impossible job very well. However, on page 51, Junor writes "Apart from the companionship,... Charles had no need for a wife. His life was ordered, his meals were cooked, his clothes bought, laundered and laid out for him; his every whim catered for...". Is this what Junor thinks a wife does? If so, it's no wonder the marriage failed. There are far better books in this genre.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A needed antidote to the gush about Diana, November 25, 1999

By 

Eric Oppen (Iowa Falls, IA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Charles: Victim or Villain (Hardcover)

As a lifelong Anglophile, I've always been interested in the royal family, and sympathetic to the fact that they have to live in a fishbowl, forbidden the common rights that any Fred Bloggs takes for granted---the right to marry whom they will, the right to walk down the street in peace, to name two. So, when Charles' marriage went on the rocks, I felt sorry for both of them and felt that the endless coverage couldn't have helped---could anybody have worked out problems in their marriage with Fleet Street all but crawling down the chimney to report every bit of tittle-tattle they could? The majority of coverage took Diana's side, so I always did kind of lean toward Charles, if only because I'm suspicious of one-sided coverage of anything. Junor's book, although not wildly well-written and prone to gush over Charles' virtues, is a needed antidote to a lot of the sentimental pishposh that came out in the wake of the accident. BTW, one thing that really, really disgusted me in the wake of the accident was the cold-blooded way the news media in the UK whipped up the mob at the royal family. How _dare_ they not be in London? Never mind that they had two boys on their hands who had just lost a mother they loved! We, the people, _demand_ that they mourn, and mourn _our_ way! Okay, so the royals showed the stiff upper lip---what was expected of them? To gash their cheeks like Huns mourning the death of Attila, mourning with blood instead of water? To howl and wail like Chinese professional mourners?

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charles and His Predicament, November 20, 1998

By 

Roderic Fabian <[e-mail]> (Galveston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles: Victim or Villain (Hardcover)

Years ago, as the story of Charles and Diana was unfolding, some of my friends and I knew that what the public generally believed about their relationship was not true.

All of the chaos of their marriage was familiar to us -- the suicide gestures and threats, the self abuse, the obsessive fantasies of abuse and abandonment, the wild mood swings, all of the signs were there.

We knew that the marriage of Charles and Diana could only end in one way, with her leaving Charles, whom she would inevitably began to hate without reason or bounds.

There was nothing that Charles could have done that could have changed that outcome. From the moment he married her he was doomed.

My friends and I also knew that the truth of their relationship and Diana's nature would never come out. It did not surprise us that Diana was generally regarded as a victim of the heartless Charles, so effective was Diana's portrayal of herself as such.

But, as it turns out, we were wrong. Finally, someone has had the courage and intelligence to tell the truth about Charles and Diana, and that truth is revealed in this remarkable new book.

No new facts are brought up in the book, but the author interprets the facts in a very novel way.

The public cry of outrage from Diana's fans about this book is predictable -- Diana's fans did not really know her. Only a person who lived with her and has lived with people like her, day in and day out, could even begin to understand her and her Charles' predicament.