King Charles has had a challenging year, punctuated by personal health battles, worries for his family and grappling with not being able to work as hard as he has always done.
But, if there is anything the last few weeks have proved, it is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel as he marks his 76th birthday on 14 November and begins to look ahead to a more joyful 2025.
It was on his recent tour of Australia and Samoa that we got a glimpse of the King back in action – he looked happy and confident, coming across as a modern monarch who is striving to make it clear that the future of any country lies solely in the hands of its people.
This easy approach is proving popular and will certainly be a driving force going into the next twelve months. Rather like in Robert Hardman’s newly updated book Charles III: New King.