WHY I HAVE ‘PHALLIC SWAGGER’

NOT that long ago, when I was writing my biography of Prince Philip, I met Brett Kahr, noted Freudian psychologist, to discover what it does to you if you are a boy born into a family of older sisters — like Prince Philip. Or, indeed, like me. ‘Philip was the only boy, literally a beautiful blue-eyed boy, born into a household of devoted, doting women,’ said Brett, smiling genially. ‘And you were a beautiful blue-eyed boy, too, Gyles, weren’t you? He was the fifth child, you were the fourth, but you were both the longed-for son. So, after all those girls, here is a boy, and what do boys have that girls do not have? A penis. And the admiration and devotion of the women, especially the sisters, will have given you what might be termed a certain “phallic swagger”, self-assurance and self-confidence, a certain cockiness.’ I think that might explain everything, don’t you?