Rebel King: The Making of a Monarch was originally published under the title Rebel Prince in 2018. Tom Bower updated his biography of King Charles III and I found it to be quite revealing about why his son Harry behaves the way he does. It's a matter of like father like son. Please note that my review contains spoilers.

The publisher's summary:

King Charles III faces many challenges as he succeeds his mother to the throne. Despite his hard work and genuine concern for the disadvantaged, King Charles III has struggled in the past to overcome his unpopularity. After Diana’s death, his approval rating crashed to four per cent and has been only rescued by his marriage to Camilla.

In unearthing many secrets and dramas surrounding King Charles, Bower’s book, relies on the testimony from over 120 people employed or welcomed into the inner sanctum. The result is a book which uniquely probes the character and court of Charles that no one, until now, has seen. It offers an unrivalled and intimate look at King Charles, his many years as heir and how a monarch was made.

What struck me the most was how similar Prince Harry's behavior is to Charles' behavior. The public seems to believe that Harry is an aberration in the royal family. He's not. Charles has behaved the same way his entire life. Charles has never had to pay for his mistakes whether they be personal or professional. Charles has also had his fair share of sex scandals although they have been mostly covered up. Charles is no different than his brother Andrew in that he associated with a pedophile and met women through that association. However, Charles knew to keep his mouth shut and let the coutiers handle it. Andrew didn't.

Tom Bower wrote that Charles suffers from depression and that his grandmother, the Queen Mother, helped him deal with it. The depression began in early childhood when his parents were away on royal tours. I presume there is an abandonment issue here. How could there not be? I was also surprised to learn that Charles had a plan to make Camilla his wife from the day of his divorce from Princess Diana. Many of his coutiers actions in this vain were nullified by continual newspaper accounts of Charles' misbehavior.

This book is an eye opening account of Charles' life with names, dates and details of every significant event in his life. My expectations for the book were low but I found it to be enlightening. ( )

A very interesting book - but not one I'd want to re-read... Bower does his usual in depth research and what a story he tells... Anyone who thinks the royal family is close knit and supportive of each other...my GOD, is that a long way from the truth. Charles has his staff at Clarence House and they seem constantly in battle with Buck Palace and the Queen's staff...staff behind the scenes constantly vie for attention and favour, Charles surrounds himself with people who won't say no or disagree with him - to do so, sees you got rid of pretty quickly. Likewise anyone he asks to work for him in some one off capacity is meant to do it for free. Submitting a bill means they don't get asked again.

Charles is passionate about the environment and the RF sense of duty - and yet flies everywhere at enormous expense, holidays for free courtesy of rich friends he expects favours from, and even commissions the royal train in the UK when the Queen will travel on a regular train to Sandringham, for example. Numerous mentions of staff basically helping themselves to official gifts given to the RF and how its expected as they don't earn a lot. Which tells you everything of how much they value official gifts...

Camilla is painted as lazy and someone who'd not actually ever had to work, and who finds official duties a chore, never mind official duties overseas. Clarence House is at odds with Buckingham Palace. Both retinues sought to outdo the other by planting stories in the newspapers or tv to support their own side.

Diana is also shown as someone who may well have been hard done by in her marriage to Charles but learned also how to manipulate her public image. In fact after the first 100 pages I was left with the impression that they ALL spent more time thinking about how they were perceived than actually living life. I guess when so much is done for you, you find other things to worry about and focus on...thoughts most of us wouldn't have time to entertain in the first place.

Newspapers don't come out of this well - friendly editors happy to tell a story for Charles which will raise his profile and improve his popularity ratings, even if there's little truth to it! And wonder why Anne, Edward, Andrew and the other minor royals rarely appear anymore? Charles has basically done the dirty on all of them to get royal costs down and limit his competition for public attention.

Which seems to be Charles all over - some stuff you agree with but he is a man of contradictions, very insecure and hard to like.

So a good book but at the same time an awful one as reading it made me angry more than once. Sometimes also I got the impression that Bower was reporting a few facts a certain way to justify his negative point about Charles, even if on that occasion it seemed unwarranted. Which makes me think the book was written to an agenda. So while there is some awful stuff in here, and a lot of detail that I don't DOUBT is true...one wonders what was left out as it didn't fit the narrative.

The next book I read will have to be more positive, I think... ( )