Any book by the heir to throne which starts "This is a call to revolution" is arresting. Add to that the fact that the title is Harmony, bearing in mind the cacophanous clashes in Prince Charles's own life, and you might think that you are in for a thriller.
You would be wrong. The book, co-written with Tony Juniper, ex-director of Friends of the Earth, and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Ian Skelly, may be the heaviest ever produced by a member of the royal family, and not just because of the embossed gold writing on the dustjacket and colour photographs on virtually every one of its 326 glossy pages. The call to revolution turns out, disappointingly, to be a demand for greater sustainability.
"I don't want my grandchildren – or yours – to come along and say, 'Why the hell didn't you do something about this? You knew what the problem was.' That's what motivates me," says the Prince of Wales in an accompanying television documentary, sitting in an elegant cream suit in the garden of his country home at Highgrove. "I can only, somehow, imagine that I find myself being born into this position for a purpose."
The book hits the shops later this month at £25, just in time for the Christmas market. The book sets out not only Prince Charles's familiar concerns about the state of the environment and the disconnections within modern society, but ruminates on other familiar themes, including architecture and spirituality. Juniper and Skelly are credited by the publisher, HarperCollins, with being able "to explain in simple terms the essential details of the prince's vision".
