IT was a still life—glistening mackerel, fishing net, a knife and a board—and I’d been told to keep working on it as the then Prince of Wales made his way around our school’s art department. My brush became unsteady, however, and my cheeks burned as the royal party arrived in front of my easel. But, miraculously, conversation flowed: His Majesty spoke to me as a fellow watercolourist rather than a future king, observing that he used the same make of paints as me, instantly putting a shy 17 year old at ease. This seems to be his way: ‘I don’t know what I was talking about, but meeting King Charles is one of my core memories,’ agrees Nicole Christie, a graduate of the Modern Artisan programme at Dumfries House in Scotland, part of The Prince’s Foundation. ‘I’ve met him three times now and he always remembers what we spoke of before.’
As someone who has spent his adult life conversing with strangers, it’s hardly surprising The King is a good conversationalist; but it is his ability to listen that leaves those he meets feeling interesting and valued. ‘It doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re from, what age you are, he finds a common ground and makes you feel that you deserve to be there,’ observes the Welsh actor and singer Luke Evans, a Prince’s Trust ambassador who has met The King on a number of occasions and narrated ITV’s 2019 programme Although mild mannered and that he and The Queen Consort are ‘cracking good hosts’. During a three-night house party at Sandringham in Norfolk, The King entertained Miss Margolyes—together with David Hockney and Stephen Fry—by performing a monologue written by Barry Humphries. ‘The Prince is a fine actor, he had a superb Aussie accent and he made us all laugh,’ she wrote.
