The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman

A “Training Plan” was pinned inside each one. The boys’ lockers, as Jonathan Dimbleby observes in his biography of Charles, offered a graphic demonstration of this hearty approach to life. It had been founded with the aim of churning out Plato’s philosopher-kings: men strong in body and mind. The school’s outlook was an eccentric blend of ancient Greek ideals (namely a firm belief in steeping the pupils in culture) and aristocratic English ones (namely a firm belief in steeping them in mud). The queen and Prince Philip chose to send the young Charles to the then infamously grim Gordonstoun school in Scotland – “to toughen him up”, said Prince Harry. The birth of Prince Harry (“Oh God, it’s a boy…And he’s even got red hair.”) Things about which Charles did not complain Interest in his private life (this “national pastime…of prurient speculation”)įountain pens (“I can’t bear this bloody thing.”) Nicholas Witchell, the BBC’s long-suffering royal correspondent (“I can’t bear that man. Illegal fishing of the Patagonian toothfish Things about which Charles has complained When it was his turn, she shook his hand. “No, not you dear,” she said, batting him away. The young Charles tried to jump the queue to reach his mother. Grandees lined the deck of the royal yacht Britannia to greet the queen. In 1954, Queen Elizabeth II returned home from a tour of the Commonwealth, having spent almost six months apart from the five-year-old Charles. (“There was never anything tactile about him,” said Princess Diana.) Not very close, either, if the royal in question was his mother. How close can one come to the king’s skin? Not very, if the king in question is Charles III.

The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman