Prince Charles; The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life

New York: Random House, 2017. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Max Hirshfeld (author photograph). xxii, 596, [6] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Map. Illustrations (some in color). Source Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Sarah Bedell Smith (born May 27, 1948) is an American journalist and biographer. She has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair since 1996. Previously, she was a cultural news reporter for New York Times and Time. She has written biographies of political, cultural, and business figures in the United States and members of the British royal family. Sarah Rowbotham was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She grew up in the nearby town of St. Davids. She graduated from Radnor High School in 1966 and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in November 2008. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College and Master of Science from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she won the Robert Sherwood Memorial Travel-Study Scholarship and the Women's Press Club of New York Award. Smith spent her early career as a cultural news reporter for Time, TV Guide, and The New York Times. In 1996, she joined Vanity Fair as contributing editor. Smith has written biographies of several notable persons, including television executives, socialites, politicians, and the British royal family. As a result of her 2012 biography of Queen Elizabeth II, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, The book won the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, and the 2012 Goodreads Choice Award for best book in history and biography. She was awarded the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award in 1982. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · The life and loves of Prince Charles are illuminated in a major new biography from the New York Times bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen, perfect for fans of The Crown. Sally Bedell Smith returns once again to the British royal family to give us a new look at Prince Charles, the oldest heir to the throne in more than three hundred years. This vivid, eye-opening biography, the product of four years of research and hundreds of interviews with palace officials, former girlfriends, spiritual gurus, and more, some speaking on the record for the first time, is the first authoritative treatment of Charles's life that sheds light on the death of Diana, his marriage to Camilla, and his preparations to take the throne one day. Prince Charles brings to life the real man, with all of his ambitions, insecurities, and convictions. It begins with his lonely childhood, in which he struggled to live up to his father's expectations and sought companionship from the Queen Mother and his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten. It follows him through difficult years at school, his early love affairs, his intellectual quests, his entrepreneurial pursuits, and his intense search for spiritual meaning. It tells of the tragedy of his marriage to Diana; his eventual reunion with his true love, Camilla; and his relationships with William, Kate, Harry, and his grandchildren. Ranging from his glamorous palaces to his country homes, from his globe-trotting travels to his local initiatives, Smith shows how Prince Charles possesses a fiercely independent spirit and yet has spent more than six decades waiting for his destined role, living a life dictated by protocols he often struggles to obey. With keen insight and the discovery of unexpected new details, Smith lays bare the contradictions of a man who is more complicated, tragic, and compelling than we knew, until now.