Royal Watch News

Prince Charles wants public speaking help

Feb 13, 2012, 13:01 GMT

Prince Charles

Britain's Prince Charles wants to improve his public speaking.

Despite giving speeches for over 40 years, the prince has admitted he would like to take advice in order to perfect his technique when it comes to quoting literary works.

Actress Gillian Anderson - who met the prince at a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth last week - told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: 'His Royal Highness was saying how he was actually interested in reading and practising reading himself - reading out loud from Dickens and other literature that is.

'So he was thinking about working with somebody to improve and be more confident with his public speaking with regards to literature.'

However, the former 'X Files' actress insists he wasn't asking her for help.

She added: 'I don't think he was asking me.'

Charles was joined by his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, to pay tribute to Dickens in a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey last week, while a message from him was read out at an event at the author's birthplace in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

He said in the message: 'My wife and I would like to send our special greetings from Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey to the Lord Mayor and all the assembled guests at St Mary's Church in Portsmouth as we simultaneously celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of your most famous son, who was born 200 years ago at Mile End Terrace and later baptised in St Mary's Church.

'Despite the many years that have passed, Charles Dickens remains one of the greatest writers of the English language, who used his creative genius to campaign passionately for social justice.'