The Prince Charles Letters

In the summer of 2011, a mysterious gentleman sidled up to the reception of a London publishing house, deposited a memory stick on the desk then melted away. The stick was a revelation; it contained hundreds of letters, all seemingly written by Prince Charles. Dating back to his boyhood and addressed to a far wider range of recipients than hitherto suspected – including the Pope, Celine Dion and a recurring correspondence with former deputy prime minister John Prescott – the Prince of Wales’ epistolary efforts reveal a man unafraid to grapple with the great questions of our time. Whether inviting Lady Gaga to one of his Outward Bound events, advising The Village People on matters naval, or recommending to David Cameron that he and his ministers take turns to pull each other to Cabinet meetings by rickshaw, this is a Prince both ready and willing to think outside the royal box. Moreover, after reading Charles’ attempts to reach out to his future subjects, world statesmen, the plant kingdom and the occasional higher being, few could fail to agree with his heartfelt conviction that, hang it all, something - indeed, almost anything – really must be done.

Printed in Great Britain.

While the letters exchanged between the man who was to become King Edward VIII/ Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson/ Duchess of Windsor have been preserved and published, it had long been thought that many of the Prince of Wales' letters to his earlier mistress, Mrs Freda Dudley Ward, had been destroyed by her some time before her death. But in November 1996, editor Rupert Godfrey came across by chance while holidaying abroad: 262 letters, dating from 1918 to 1921, over 100 photographs and assorted cards and memorabilia. They covered the last year of the First World War and the Prince's official tours of Canada, New Zealand and Australia, when he was in his early twenties. Revealing and touching, the letters will alter our perception of the man born to give up the throne for the woman he later came to love.

Excerpt from A Collection of Original Royal Letters: Written by King Charles the First and Second, King James the Second, and the King and Queen of Bohemia; Together With Original Letters, Written by Prince Rupert, Charles Louis Count Palatine, the Duchess of Hanover, and Several Other Distinguished Persons The following Letters, which are now first published from the originals, which were written by some of the most distinguished personages of the last century, came into the hands of Sir George Bromley, Bart, in consequence of his being descended from Ruperta, natural daughter to Prince Rupert, third son of Frederick, King of Bohemia, and nephew to Charles the First, King of England. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.