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Charles at Fifty [Hardcover]

Anthony Holden (Author)
2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 27, 1998
Charles, Prince of Wales, turns fifty on November 14, 1998. Since the tragic death of Princess Diana, his public and private lives have been in more turmoil than ever. Britain's leading authority on the prince is Anthony Holden, who has written two previous biographies of Charles. The first, published when Charles was thirty, was a number one bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic; the second, published ten years later, caused huge public controversy for suggesting--four years before Andrew Morton's book--that the Waleses' marriage was in trouble.
        
Now Holden continues this unique series with a third, even more dramatic portrait of the ever-changing prince. Holden's first book was a portrait of a lonely, confused bachelor still living at home with his parents; his second was about a driven but still troubled man, the father of two sons, trapped in an unhappy marriage and losing public goodwill. His third book presents a divorced prince, now a widower, facing a stark choice: his children, the love of his life or the throne--or, by trying to have all three, playing a dangerous long-term game that could threaten the future of the monarchy itself.
        
The tragic triangular love story of Charles, Diana and Camilla has never before been told in such compelling detail. Once close to Charles, and later to Diana, Holden is uniquely placed to present both sides of their marital argument. Offering unparalleled insights into the dramatic events of the last decade, Holden traces the seeds of Charles's adult character in his childhood and youth but does not flinch from criticism in recounting how Charles reached his current dilemma as a single parent in love with a woman he may never be able to marry. Though Diana's death has created a wave of public sympathy for him--which may yet see him a popular king--can the private Charles ever find happiness without the help and support of the woman he loves?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Every 10 years, Anthony Holden writes a biography of Prince Charles, and they keep getting better as Charles's life gets worse. When Charles quit talking to Holden, Diana opened up. "Why must the British pride themselves so on their emotional restraint?" she asked Holden. "Look what it's done to Charles: he's an emotional cripple. It's not his fault, it was the way he was brought up." Holden tells the whole story of what one source calls "the most unnatural ... and loathsome family since Manson's," though he mostly blames Charles's emotionally AWOL mother and harsh father, and he coolly assesses Diana's calculating, actressy side. Holden shows how they assaulted each other via journalists: Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story being answered the next day with a Di-bashing by Penny Junor (whose 1998 book Charles: Victim or Villain? is said to bash Di posthumously).

Holden offers delightful one-stop gossip shopping for dirt on the sordid, sometimes funny royal soap opera. Did you know Camilla, Charles's true love, is descended from Charles's ancestor's tootsie, known as "La Favorita" and described as "the most perfect mistress in the history of royal infidelity"? Or that Camilla's alleged line with Charles was, "My great-grandmother was your great-great-grandfather's mistress--so how about it?" Besides Diana's sorrow, consider Charles's second-most-beloved mistress, "Kanga," who withered away and died after Camilla lured Charles away for lifelong al fresco sex. Holden says a cache of Kanga's letters may spark another scandal. Perhaps we'll read them in Holden's Charles at 60. --Tim Appelo

From Publishers Weekly

The latest in Holden's series of biographies of the Prince of Wales published to coincide with his 30th, 40th and now 50th birthdays, this is a chatty, personal look at a man with whom Holden no longer has anything like a personal relationship. Pulling off this feat may only be possible with a subject who has been as widely scrutinized as the prince?often with unparalleled bias. Journalists of every stripe have divided themselves into two camps?pro-Diana (like Holden) and pro-Charles?as they dig through every last detail of their lives. But as a result, the bulk of this book chronicles well-known facts of Charles's first 40 years as background for the last 10, and then offers little that is about the decade that brought "Camillagate," "Squidgygate" and Diana's death and memorials. Loosely chronological, Holden's account traces Charles's early childhood of rigid traditions and high expectations, which he seemed fated to disappoint, whether in school or, more publicly, in marriage. Holden concludes with a discussion of the choice Charles may be forced to make between the true love of his life (Camilla Parker-Bowles) and the throne he has spent all his days preparing to inherit?a conundrum Holden claims has been made doubly difficult by Diana's death, though increasingly the two don't seem mutually exclusive. Although probably appealing to royalty gawkers, the book is not likely to satisfy those looking for deeper understanding of the Prince of Wales. Agent, Gill Coleridge.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 412 pages
  • Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (October 27, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375501754
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375501753
  • Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,746,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother: nothing new, even for the ultimate Royals fan, October 29, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Charles at Fifty (Hardcover)
Really no new info here. Stick with Dimbelby account, even if Charles himself regrets having participated in its production. Far too little about life without Diana; the author may have moved out of Charles's circle by the time of the Paris accident, and his information seems decidedly second-hand. For revelations, however tawdry and perhaps even untrue, save up for Penny Junor's new tome.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this book; you've heard it all before., January 5, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Charles at Fifty (Hardcover)
I was extremely disappointed with "Charles at Fifty" for three reasons. First, the title is grossly misleading. It implies that most or all of the book will examine the Prince of Wales as he is today (i.e., how he's handling Diana's death; his relationship with his sons and Camilla, his parents, etc.) Instead, almost all of it is a biography of Charles, going back all 50 years. Relatively little focuses on Charles after the divorce. Second, there's very little here that we've not already seen or heard somewhere else. (Readers are forced to sit through yet another rehashing of the Waleses' maital woes.) Third, the book is terribly one-sided. Diana is portrayed as the innocent victim of a cold, heartless, selfish man who used her. Little effort is made at telling his side of the story. Far superior to Holden's book is Penny Junor's "Charles: Villian or Victim;" however, be warned that Junor is VERY pro-Charles.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Blatantly biased against Charles, September 6, 2007
By 
Wayne Engle "Wayne Engle" (Madison, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Charles at Fifty (Hardcover)
I've always believed that a biographer should strive to be as evenhanded about his subject as possible: Show the person "warts and all," as Oliver Cromwell once said, the bad with the good, and let the reader decide on the noted person's merit or lack of same.

Anthony Holden apparently would not agree with that belief -- at least, not when it comes to Prince Charles. Despite his protestation in the prologue that he has "attempted to tell the tale as objectively as possible," he also refers to "my informed disillusion with the prince to whom I once warmed." Holden also acknowledges that he and Charles no longer speak to each other, and that Charles's office was not cooperative with him in the preparation of "Charles At Fifty."

Wonder why? Could it be that he had already burned his bridges with the Prince of Wales with the tone of the first two biographies of him he wrote, when Charles turned 30 and 40? I haven't read those books, but anyone who has worked his way through "Charles At Fifty" might guess that the others were hardly fair, either.

In this book, Holden plain and simply trashes Charles's reputation in every way he can. In addition, he seems to detest the monarchy in general, as well as Charles in particular.

The earlier chapters of this book at least make a passing swipe at objectivity here and there. But once Princess Diana enters the picture, it is evident by Holden's writing that he positively adored her; he takes her side in every conflict the couple had during their unhappy marriage, in a manner so obvious that a blind man could see it.

Holden's malicious glee in relating every incident in which Diana got the better of Charles in their public relations battle -- or should I say every time that Holden believes she did -- is palpable. One can almost hear him smacking his lips with relish at Charles's discomfiture with his out-of-control, publicity-seeking wife.

Holden's obvious belief voiced in the book's final pages, that with Diana divorced, then dead, Charles must choose between the throne and Camilla Parker-Bowles, is not likely to be fulfilled. Charles and Camilla were married, and the House of Windsor did not fall; I predict that one day he will sit on the throne, and his son Prince William will have to wait his turn.

And Mr. Holden will have wasted all that bile for nothing.
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