Catherine Mayer's book (pictured) is set to be released next Thursday A picture of one of the world’s ‘least understood figures’ emerges in a new biography of Prince Charles. It quotes actress Emma Thompson, a close friend, as saying: ‘We talk a lot about the guilt of privilege. Sometimes I think he’s driven by guilt.’ It describes Charles as a prince who will ‘never be remote and silent like his mother’ and is driven to improve the human condition. He’s quoted as saying: ‘I want to raise aspirations and recreate hope from hopelessness and health from deprivation.’ Author Catherine Mayer talks of a prince who ‘rarely recognises his own achievements’ and is described by one of his inner circle as ‘a glass-half-empty man’, a ‘Prince of Wails’.
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Catherine Mayer's book Prince Charles set to be released next Thursday
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She says his despondency at his darkest moments 'has been profound'
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Ms Mayer also writes that he 'rarely recognises his own achievements'
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Extracts of the book, Charles: The Heart Of A King, released on Kindle
Ms Mayer describes him wanting to be @placeholder as ‘the least of his ambitions’ but, confusingly, goes on to say he is ‘gnawingly impatient’ to accede to the throne.