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Prince Charles

IN 1978, royal photographer Reginald Davis began his pictorial record of Prince Charles's life with a brief resume of how drab life had been in post-war Britain. Rationing, the threat of yet more conflict, the spectre of the atom bomb, and Sir Stafford Cripps exhorting the nation to tighten its belt another notch, had turned British skies permanently grey.

''What would bring a touch of brightness to this drab land?'' Davis asked. The answer was the news that Princess Elizabeth, heir presumptive to the throne, was expecting a baby. ''Now here, at last, was a reason to be alive in 1948 - just to be in Britain for the arrival of her future monarch!'' trilled the author.

In the two decades since Davis tapped out his breathless prose, attitudes could be said to have changed a little. The royal photographs snatched by the paparrazzi in the intervening years have eclipsed the rather more staid style favoured by Davis, for one thing. For another, few people are likely to respond to an opinion poll in the affirmative if asked whether the very presence of Prince Charles makes them glad to be alive in Britain in 1998.

It is difficult to remember being quite so enthusiastic about the Prince as Davis, even in what seems now to have been the naive 1970s. He was, however, undoubtedly a more handsome chap then, seemingly a lot more derring-do, and the fact that he was seen with a succession of attractive aristocratic blondes on his arm seemed to indicate he had quite a lot going for him. Or was that orb and sceptre love?

We know much more about the Queen's oldest son now. Next month, he will celebrate his 50th birthday in the company of a former Spice Girl and a footballer. His mother probably won't be there, however, and it is doubtful if crowds will gather as they did outside Buckingham Palace to welcome Charles Philip Arthur George when he arrived at 9.14pm on Sunday, November 14, 1948.

A royal birth may have been the next best thing to Horlicks in the late 1940s, but in the late 1990s, who knows whether Charles will ever sit on the throne? A failed marriage, a mistress, a woolliness about religion, a remoteness from real life, and a mother who is as fit as a fiddle in her seventies have done little for Prince Charles's prospects, and he will celebrate his half-century without a proper job, wondering what his pension rights would be if he simply took a redundancy package and let his son William succeed as chairman of the board when the time comes.

Charles Philip Arthur George (or Charles Arthur Philip George as his bride would have it during her marriage vows), KG, KT, GCB, was created Prince of Wales in 1958. He is also Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Great Steward of Scotland.

It may be hard for those who do not know him to reconcile his astrological qualities with the public persona, but as a Scorpio, he is ruled by his sexuality, and the opposite sex are drawn to his darkly passionate energy. His loved ones adore him for his loyalty, and his rivals envy his magnetic personality.

This is the man who, asked on his engagement to Lady Diana Frances Spencer, an attractive blonde some 13 years his junior, if he was in love, said yes, but had to question ''whatever that is''. It is the man who is said to have demanded of his rather troublesomely bourgeois wife: ''Do you seriously expect me to be the first Prince of Wales not to have a mistress?'' It is the man whose phone sex with Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles included the rather bizarre longing to be a sanitary tampon so that he could be near her. Presidents have been threatened with impeachment for less, and certainly, Charles's standing with the nation as potential monarch did take a nosedive after the tapes of these conversations were put into the public domain. President Clinton might take heart from the fact that, half a decade on, no-one so much as sniggers at the word Tampax in relation to the Prince of Wales, and with

Mrs Parker Bowles ensconced on a part-time basis at St James's Palace, the world moves on.

Prince Charles in 1994 gave writer and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby free rein to write a biography and to produce a television face-to-face with him. The book reveals that Charles felt his mother was a remote figure in his childhood, and that his father was brusque, seemed to prefer his sister Princess Anne, and often reduced him to tears in front of guests. There were few surprises in the television interview: had we not known, as Princess Diana did, that there was more than friendship to his friendship with Mrs Parker Bowles?

When his wife took to the air and spoke of their crowded marriage, she suggested that Prince Charles had doubts about being king. What else is there for him, though? The boy was christened at the silver-gilt lily font made for Queen Victoria in 1840 in the White and Gold Music Room at Buckingham Palace, and was mixing with the king and his Privy Councillors at the age of three-and-a-half months.

He had an hour's quality time with his mother every evening - when she was around - from five until six, but of course, when she became Queen, she was off to foreign parts and opening factories and young Charles had to make do with a handshake when she came home, which in the case of an Australian tour was not for six months.

Tutored by Katherine Peebles ('Mispy') from the age of five, he learned geography from his parents' postcards. In the Palace ballroom, he learned, with a dozen children imported from the outside world, how to do musical marching, formation steps, bowing, and curtsying. At the age of six, they put brilliantine on his hair, taught him to box, and sent him in to do five rounds with the American Ambassador. ''I found your country on the map today,'' he said manfully. Perhaps there was never a time when he really wanted to be king. ''Other little boys' mummies are not queens,'' he was heard to say as he grasped the full import of his family situation.

But then, there must be some perks in owning the Duchy of Cornwall, Dartmoor Prison, the Oval cricket ground, London real estate, Devon quarries and agricultural land, and oyster beds on the Helford River. Is there all that much angst involved in being patron of 25 Church of England livings, having first claim to the cargoes of wrecks off the Cornish coast, and falling heir to the property of intestate Cornishmen? We must suppose that there is.

FOR why else does Prince Charles approach 50 with more lines on his face than his father at almost three decades older? It could be the result of the cold showers and early morning runs at Gordonstoun, which we are told he hated. It could be the result of a misspent youth: pubescent boys should note what an illicit cherry brandy can do for you. That misdemeanour at the Crown Hotel in Stornoway cost Prince Charles far more than the 2s 6d till receipt.

It could just be because he is so sensitive. At Cheam, the prep school at which he made history by being the first heir to the throne to be educated outside Palace walls, he used to stop during football games to pick up his friends who got knocked down during the game, and gave up boxing because he didn't like hurting his friends.

Or it could be all that fresh air. Hunting, shooting, fishing, dabbling al fresco with the watercolour box, sailing, polo, and in the early days, parachuting and other dare-devil escapades. These earned him an Action Man tag to cancel out being called a wimp by his father, but it is doubtful whether the prince remembered his factor 15 before Princess Diana came on the scene.

He got no furrows in his brow in academe. He left Gordonstoun with five O level passes (French, History, English Language, English Literature, and Latin), and two A levels after a break at Geelong Grammar School in Australia. He proved himself to be a competent actor and singer, could play the trumpet and cello, throw a pot, and clean out fly traps. Had his future not been mapped, for what would these fine attributes have qualified him? At Cambridge, he rode a red bike, complained about the noisy dustbinmen, and frolicked his way to stardom in undergraduate theatricals. He got a BA with second class honours in 1970, having experienced the distraction of his investiture as Prince of Wales at Caernarvon in 1969.

There were bombs in the period leading up to the investiture, and on the day itself a time bomb went off near where the royal trains were standing in sidings. In Ireland, his guide and mentor Lord Louis Mountbatten was slaughtered by an IRA bomb. In South Africa, he was the target of a would-be assassin himself. It has not all been beer and skittles for the Prince who made it worthwhile being alive in 1948.

He must, however, take responsibility in good measure for his personal unhappiness. Having omitted to ask Camilla to marry him when she was single, he romanced a string of girls as long as his family tree (including hot favourite Lady Jane Welsley, Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, Sabrina Guinness, Davina Sheffield, and Diana's older sister, Lady Sarah Spencer). Then he married another with his heart not truly in it. The best thing to come of that partnership, which only came to an end with the death of Princess Diana, rather than at their divorce, has been his relationship with his two sons, William and Harry, seemingly far more open, loving, and supportive than the relationship he had with his own parents.

Prince Charles's standing in the opinion polls has swooped and dived like a yacht on a bad day at Cowes. He has been voted the least favourite royal. He has been told to stand aside for William. He has been called a ''grovelling little bastard'' by his favourite Goon, Spike Milligan. Now he is seen to be trying to achieve the change in the monarchy deemed necessary for its survival, and public censure is easing. What would happen were he to attempt to regularise his relationship with Mrs Parker Bowles could threaten to scupper the ship again.

This month, the Scottish National Party told Prince Charles that the monarchy was safe it its hands. Is it, however, safe in Charles's?