"Prince William: Born To Be King - An Intimate Portrait" by Penny Junor (2012)


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'Prince William: Born To Be King: An Intimate Portrait'
by Penny Junor

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444720414, 9781444720419

Descriptions

Amazon
His face is recognized the world over, his story is well known. But what is Prince William really like?As Diana's eldest son he was her playmate and her confidant. While the tabloids eagerly lapped up the lurid details of his parents' divorce, William lived painfully through it. He suffered the embarrassment, the humiliation and the divided loyalties. He watched his father denounced on prime time television; he met the lovers. And when he was just fifteen his beautiful, loving mother was suddenly, shockingly snatched from his life forever.The nation lost its Princess that day and its grief threatened the very future of the monarchy. What was almost forgotten in the clamour was that two small boys had lost their mother.His childhood was a recipe for disaster, yet as he approaches his thirtieth birthday, William is as well-balanced and sane a man as you could hope to meet. He has an utter determination to do the right thing and to serve his country as his grandmother has so successfully done for the last sixty years. The question is how? Who stopped him going off the rails, turning his back on his duty and wanting nothing to do with the press - the people he blamed for his mother's death? Where did the qualities that have so entranced the world come from?

In the last thirty years, Penny Junor has written extensively about both his parents and the extended family into which he was born. With the trust built up over that time, she has been able to get closer to the answers than anyone before.This is the first definitive, in-depth portrait of the man who was born to be King and of his relationship with the woman who will be his Queen.

ABC Shop
The definitive portrait of the man who will be King, written by the bestselling royal biographer Penny Junor.

Prince William has emerged as the people's prince, surfacing from a lifetime of scrutiny and speculation as a discerning and charming young man, determined to serve the nation he loves. His wedding to long-term sweetheart Kate Middleton last year was watched by over two billion people around the world. Protective of his new bride, William has emphasised that he's keen to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. William has inherited her instinctive empathy for others and in both his professional and personal life he has demonstrated a rare ability to get on with people from all walks of life.In BORN TO BE KING acclaimed royal writer Penny Junor tells his fascinating story - from growing up in the spotlight; the tragic death of his mother; his career serving in the RAF; the love story with Kate and their fairytale wedding. This is the definitive portrait of a remarkable young man.

Review
Kenilworth Books
‘Prince William’ is a wide-ranging and fascinating biography of this intensely private man and a glimpse into his world and the impact that his traumatic childhood and adolescence have had on him. The talk, by famous royal biographer, Penny Junor, will look at how he sees the future and the kind of monarch he might be and how he will contribute to the society that ‘keeps’ him.

Penny Junor has had access to a wealth of material and the biography has been eagerly anticipated. It will include fascinating new anecdotes and stories of the Prince growing up, about his university years, his life in the military and his emergence as a fully-fledged working member of the family firm. Penny has also had unprecedented access to the Prince’s household and drawn on her experience and contacts built up in over thirty years of writing royal biographies. Key to this man, and to his future, is his relationship with the media. This has played a major part in his psyche since childhood and the biography looks at this at length. The other important relationships in his life: with his mother, his father, the Queen, his brother Harry, and of course, Kate and the Middleton family, are also examined at length and given psychological analysis.

William is a highly complex and fascinating character who accepts the future that fate has mapped out for him but who is determined to remain in control of his life. He is a born leader with very firm views on how he might use his position for the good of the world. And he will lead with Harry by his side. They are a formidable duo and, according to Penny, as delightful, charming, funny, and unpretentious a pair as you could hope to meet. Kate herself has, of course, brought a new dimension to the relationship that is proving successful and popular around the world.

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I'm always skeptical when the statement "unprecedented access" is used. I need to look up the author and see what she has previously written based on unprecedented access.
 
I'm always skeptical when the statement "unprecedented access" is used. I need to look up the author and see what she has previously written based on unprecedented access.
I believe she was one of the journalists who was fed stories from Charles's camp during the Charles and Diana feud days as opposed to those who were fed things from Diana's side.
 
I don't think there is anything especially new or shocking in what has been exerpted . So far it all seems to have been stuff that has been written or talked about for years.
 
I don't think there is anything especially new or shocking in what has been exerpted . So far it all seems to have been stuff that has been written or talked about for years.

I think this is the trouble with trying to do a biography of someone in their 20s or 30s - with very few exceptions most people just haven't had time to do enough to flesh out a whole book on their own merits, so the author is forced to use a lot of filler, in this case a rehashing of events we all know about relating to Prince William's family. I don't want to judge the book just on a couple of short excerpts, but so far it seems like it's just another retelling of Charles and Diana's saga, thrown in with some references to William's emotional state that are so obvious they tell us nothing, (he didn't like it when his parents screamed at each other, he was embarrassed by his mother's television interview, he initially felt awkward around Camilla, etc).
 

No she didn't. She wrote a biography of Prince William, based on her contacts and her experience, of which we have only seen tiny snippets. The fact that the Diana fanatics can't bear even the slightest criticism of her, and are choosing to ignore the fact that Ms Junor is equally hard on Charles, is not her fault.

You need only read some of the comments on the DM website to see the vile abuse she's been getting. One even accusing her of being in cahoots with the Queen to try and hide the fact that HM had Diana killed!
 
I am not among the ardent fans of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and think that all Windsor clan totally lacks everything royal. Ms. Junor was fully aware of possible public reaction. So the wailing appears to be cheap.
 
If you think the Windsor 'clan' lack everything royal, why bother reading excerpts from books about them?

I believe that any author should be able to have their work detailed in the press without people abusing them, and accusing them of being accessories to murder! We have a right of free speech here, including Ms Junor. People can disagree with it, but the vitriol has been truly disgusting. The way people have behaved you would think Penny Junor had just told the world's children that Santa Claus doesn't actually exist.
 
I like reading Russian and English articles because reading is good. I read an article, expressed my opinion, and posted it to increase my post count in the TRF. If you happen to dislike my posts, you are free to ignore them. I believe that is all.
 
I have serious reservations about Penny Junor's motivations for writing this book. Whilst I accept that this is a landmark year as William's 30th birthday is coming up, I do not find acceptable that this book is being used to drive a hatchet into the memory of someone who has been dead for fourteen years and is not here to defend herself against malicious gossip. Neither Charles or Diana are entirely innocent in terms of how their warring behaviour during their split and subsequent divorce affected their children and I am sure that at times she did behave in a way that some people might find reprehensible. However it might have been more appropriate and more sensitive of Miss Junor to only include factual details instead of her personal opinion regarding Diana's mental state. She is not a qualified psychologist and therefore any such speculative commentary is ill founded and irrelevant to the subject of the biography.
 
You can't really talk about William without mentioning his parents, it's almost impossible. But that doesn't mean that everything that's written about him is because of them. This is a big year for William and it's almost a shame the Jubilee events overshadow his birthday because turning 30 isn't easy, so i've heard.
 
...I do not find acceptable that this book is being used to drive a hatchet into the memory of someone who has been dead for fourteen years and is not here to defend herself against malicious gossip...
Well said :flowers:! I think what disturbs me is the fact that the author is choosing to basically bring up the issues that have been buried and are not in need of re-digging. The person that is being targeted is indeed not here, and cannot explain why she did what she did and what her feelings were at the time. While it is true that one cannot write about William and not mention his parents, I think it's safe to say that one can say things in such a manner that will not bring up any nasty memories for the subject of the work. William has lived the entire sequence of events, and I'm sure he doesn't have the desire to go back to that part of his childhood anytime soon, but with this book coming out, he may have no choice but to revisit, even if it'll be done by hearing all about it on the news, and not necessarily going back and doing some serious dwelling, which I'll bet he is not eager to do.
 
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Writing a book on William is going to include his parents. The public war between his parents is a big part of his childhood. Many people feel it is the reason he dated Kate for so long.
I view the comments on Diana as being in the same category as some author's bringing up the alleged abuse Francis suffered from Johnny Spencer in books about Diana. Or the affect the abdication had on George and Elizabeth in books about Elizabeth II.
 
Interesting and well written review, CarolynHarris. Thank you for posting. I have not bought this book because it does sound like it focuses too much on Charles and Diana's marriage. However, I don't criticize Ms. Junor for that: It is an important part of Prince William's history, but I just haven't felt the need to read about it again. It would have been interesting if Ms. Junor had added more about his family's history and how that impacted his character.
 
:previous:
That's one view; I suspect Princess Peach was interested in seeing what others who'd read the book had to say. :)
 
I just finished this book, and I initially thought that I was going to end up regretting the money I spent on it because so much of the beginning of it was nothing more than rehashing the Charles & Diana story, but once Penny Junor moved past that and on to William's life after his mother's death, I did find that learnt more about William than I had known before. Now whether that comes from the fact that I'm an American and therefore don't see these stories about him every day or that the British royals are not always my primary focus when I go onto message boards such as this one, I don't know. But in the end, I found it a rather enjoyable read.
 
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