Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectators' Religion podcast. I'm Damien Toxson.

We're now fast approaching Christmas, which is a time of year when, despite the inherent joyfulness of the celebration, and perhaps because of it, emotional and physical problems

can be thrown into sharp relief. It's a difficult time of year to be

ill, and it's bound to be a difficult time of year for the royal family, which, like countless families

around the world, has to deal with the fact that the Feast of Christmas is overshadowed by the reality of

cancer. And of course, in their case, the cancer struggles of both

the king and the princess of Wales. But perhaps it's heartening to learn, as we did fairly recently,

that both His Majesty and Her Royal Highness are drawing solace from their religious faith.

This is something we've been told by Robert Hardman, who in the light of the

health crisis facing the royal family has updated his biography of King Charles III. Robert has,

for many years, been a leading light of the Daily Mail, and he's also that rare thing,

a biographer of the royal family who's earned their trust without spinning over into

sycophancy. We began our journalistic careers together decades ago on the Daily Telegraph.

It's always a great pleasure to talk to him, and here's our conversation earlier.

Robert, you're clearly the king's trusted biographer, and so I take it very seriously when

you inform us in this new edition of your book that the king is drawing on his faith as he battles

cancer. And I wonder if you could tell me, obviously a lot of your conversations are confidential,

but I wonder if you could give me some evidence to support that, I think rather heartening claim.

Yes, well, thank you, Damien. I mean, he does have a deep, strong faith that I think is often misunderstood. I think over the years we've always been

very conscious that here is a, when he was Prince of Wales, he was very interested in other

faiths, but we possibly didn't pay that much attention to his own. We would often see the

late Queen going to church on the Sunday, but we wouldn't see

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