A new book on Charles casts the prince in an unusually favourable light, as a good man and loving father. All the rest is myth, says author Howard Hodgson, who researched his subject for four years. Here he talks to Sandra Aquilina.

One of the central theses of Howard Hodgson's new book, Charles: The Man who will be King, is that Diana suffered from a borderline personality disorder. It was this illness which allowed her to be perceived both as a saint and a sinner, he clarifies. Of course it was her husband and sons who were to bear the brunt of this disorder. Viewed this way, the fact that Charles defended her for so long seems deserving of much respect.

“In fact Prince Charles was probably the person who tried hardest to stop me writing this book,” says the English writer-cum-millionaire Howard Hodgson. “Because he has always been Diana's best defender.” We are in the sitting room of Mr Hodgson's beautiful house in Mdina. White light streams through the large windows, filling the room with a sense of spring. I am sitting a little stiffly on a beautiful white sofa while Mr Hodgson, whom Princess Diana herself had commented is a “spitting image of Robert Redford”, is seated opposite, and talks with eager intensity about the subject which has occupied his time for the past few years.

Nevertheless, it is strange to think that Prince Charles should have opposed the writing of this book – because it is brimming with admiration for him. The author makes no secret of where his allegiances lie. In fact, as he states in the introduction, it was intended as something of a riposte to Andrew Morton's book Diana: Her True Story which cast the Prince in an extremely unfavourable light, to put it mildly.

“That book should have been entitled Diana: Her Untrue Story,” says Mr Hodgson with some warmth. “It was dictated to Andrew Morton by Diana herself and is largely a work of fiction. It's built on personal opinion and contains an awful lot of spin. It's also got absolute untruths; there is so much of that book that I could never verify with people who were actually there at the time.”

Diana's tragic death after the publication of this book made the situation worse for Prince Charles, says the author, because like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe before her, she was immortalised. “Now he had a saint saying those things about him!”

Paradoxically, then, it was the Morton book which inspired Hodgson to write the prince's biography. “Having met him myself I felt that here was a good man who was being maligned,” says the author.

“I believe that Charles does and says what he does because he feels it's right. He is fundamentally a good man, and not out of a need for self-glorification. And there are far too few good men.”

The biography, a hefty volume of almost 800 pages, aims to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography of Charles to date. It makes a compelling read however as, aware of the demands on his readers' stamina, Mr Hodgson took great care to maintain the book's pace and rhythm. The author worked at it for four years, and his methods of research were painstaking and thorough. After tracking down as many press clippings and cuttings on the subject as possible, he read some 40 books and, since he had himself met the prince and also knew people who had met him, he spoke to as many people as possible. “It was hard work – but it was a labour of love,” he says.

The book in fact sets out to portray a different image of Charles as a loving father and morally correct man who believes in right and wrong. The cover shows a picture of the prince flanked by his two sons. I drop the word “bias” – but the author protests.

“I do not think the book has a bias because I criticise the prince rather harshly in the book.” Still, he admits: “The Prince of Wales stands for a lot of what I believe in.”

The author looks gloomy when he speaks about modern-day Britain. In many ways England is a worse place than it was when even Tony Blair was elected, he says. Not only have its basic services – like education, health and transport – deteriorated, but it also has an inability to control its youth through four generations of dysfunctional families. Today Britain tops just about every undesirable league table, he says worriedly. “Recently, according to a UN report, it has also topped a league table as the worst place in the developed world to raise your children.”

In the midst of all this change, the monarchy is a much-needed stabilising influence, he says, which all Britain can rally behind, regardless of politics. Moreover, the monarchy also serves to separate the judiciary from government. In practice, this means that a British citizen can take the government to court with the knowledge that the government does not control it. Finally, the monarchy also serves to bring in loads of currency in tourism, he points out.

Although he speaks about the monarchy with great earnestness, this is the first time that Mr Hodgson embarked on a book on the subject. Having spent his early life reviving his family's undertaking firm, Mr Hodgson's previous books include Six Feet Under, Exhumed Innocent and How to become Dead Rich. Throughout these, however, he was always looking for an outlet for social commentary, he says. The present book, linked as it is with the life of his country, provided him with ample opportunity for that.

“I wanted it to go down in history as the definitive biography of the Prince of Wales and as the definitive social commentary on the fall and fall – and increased fall – of Britain, since the Second World War. I don't mean economic fall – but the moral decline since the Second World War.”

Now that he has, however, probably become the world's leading expert on Prince Charles, he seems immersed in the subject. His next project will in fact be entitled The Many Faces of Windsor and will trace the story of the world's most famous monarchy as well as its uncertain future. Meanwhile he is also fascinated by the idea of someday writing a book on The Beatles or a trilogy on Napoleon, Nelson and Wellington.

Until then, however, we have this sympathetic, provocative and compelling version of Charles, which seeks to redress the balance in favour of the much maligned prince whose sufferings have been witnessed by all the world and who might, one day, before our very eyes, yet become king.

Howard Hodgson will be holding a series of book signings on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 March. On 17 March at 11am he will at Agenda Bookshop at the Embassy Shopping Complex, Valletta while at noon, he will

be at Sapienza’s Bookshop in Valletta. At 18.00 he will be at Agenda Bookshop, Valletta Waterfront, Floriana. On Sunday

18 March he will be at the Agenda Bookshop, Departure Lounge, Malta International Airport at 11am and at Chaucer’s Bookshop, Baystreet Complex, St Julian’s at 17.00.