I would want you to know that out of two schools of hammerheads and hundreds of individual sharks I have seen, I have only been frightened by three and that out of 350 species of shark, one could only consider a handful dangerous; and that we kill a hundred to two hundred million sharks a year while they only kill six to eight of us. I would show you that they are disinterested in us 99% of the time and say that they are so elegant and streamlined that its hard to be afraid.

I was brought up in the Muslim religion," says the publicity-shy prince, who was 65 yesterday. "My father insisted that I learnt the Koran and encouraged me to understand the basic traditions and beliefs of Islam but without imposing any particular views. He was an overwhelming personality but open-minded and liberal."

"This is Paradise before the Fall, where man and beast were living in harmony and nature was respected," he says, looking at his prized possession, a water-colour entitled The Court of Gayumars. From the famous 16th-century Shahnama or Book of Kings created for Shah Tahmasp