The US Republican presidential hopeful has a determined look. I find his broad, apparently warm smile slightly unnerving as it is accompanied by what feels like a steely glint in his eye. This man means business. His eyebrows are low over his eyes, denoting determination, drive and intense focus on his goal. His chin is wide and long, so he has plenty of will power to push through obstacles (and flatten them if necessary?), and it’s square, so he can keep his emotions in check easily – except anger. His chin also has a slight cleft, so he likes being the centre of attention and seeks a lot of praise (not necessarily overtly).

Romney has plenty of charm – dimples, laughter lines round his eyes, and the (also) sparkly eyes themselves. He probably gets quite far just by disarming people. When he’s relaxed, he’s everyone’s friend. When cornered or under pressure, I suspect a more ruthless side comes to the fore – his strong jaw shows he doesn’t yield easily. He has several vertical lines between his eyebrows, which signify a tendency to irritability and past issues with anger, which he mainly now has under control. Sharp inner canthi (corners of the eyes) denote a sharp tongue.

His rectangular face and high cheekbones reveal his good managerial skills. He is a natural businessman, comfortable conforming to the rules, structure and predominantly male hierarchy of major companies, in which profit margins and feasibility are paramount. (The reassuring structure and limitations of religion will appeal in the same way.) He is out of his comfort zone, however, in the political arena, where his fixed and traditional views will – and are already – being highlighted by many as weaknesses rather than strengths, and where he has to deal daily with men and women from diverse backgrounds, and with public rather than private money.

He has a long nose, which shows steady ambition – this man has tenaciously worked towards greater power and status over the decades, with money as a symbol for accruing security. At 65, can he reach his goal of becoming president? His chin and jaw are strong, but he’s up against Barack Obama, whose more oval face shows greater flexibility and whose downturned eyes and natural smile with fuller lips indicate a sincerity and genuine warmth lacking in Romney.

Romney is very close to his family, according to his attached earlobes. He will confide in them rather than friends. I get the sense that this man is not as trusting and relaxed as he would like to appear. I’m also interested in his left ear, and how the edge thins halfway down. This is a sign that he found the ages of 4-5 tough; this may have been from his family moving home at the time or another personal experience. It indicates a possible sensitivity to change and upheaval, that he can quickly feel insecure and exposed. He has a lot of masculine “Woody” features on his face, which confirm his ability to be assertive and driven and forthright, but this may be underpinned by fear and inner uncertainty – several lines come down his lower cheeks towards his chin. This happens with age, but particularly to those who forget to stop to enjoy life, literally to breathe in and relax regularly.

His expansive forehead shows a keen mind and intellect, and the broad corners point to someone who can think outside the box – like Obama. Several deep lines across his forehead show significant experiences and lessons learnt, especially at the ages of 21 and 24. His ears are fairly small proportionally to his face, so he is not comfortable taking risks; he will always feel safer with a traditional approach to life and work.

I can’t help dwelling on his sadness lines – the ones that pour down from his eyes across his cheeks. They join up with the fear lines below. I wonder if he is desperate to prove himself by becoming president, knowing that this might be his last chance to fulfil a long-held ambition. Those people with low-set eyebrows are often driven by a need to prove themselves to their fathers or other dominant figures in their lives. Not to succeed can translate into a sense of abject failure for them, rather than it being a normal part of life… Sadness lines can appear over a sense of loss of anything – loved ones, youth, unfulfilled dreams, missed opportunities. The danger is that others can smell desperation, and may not feel secure in voting for him, even if they can’t quite put a finger on why.

Overall, what strikes me about Romney is his “wholesome” look. My concern is that his well-groomed Middle America image stops him from responding genuinely to people, ideas or events. He may realise that his greatest assets are his charm, attractiveness and traditionalism when it comes to winning people’s support. If he assumed office, his desire to retain this unflappable image could take precedence and make him implement decisions and policies for the sake of acting decisively (he won’t backtrack easily if he makes mistakes). Life is messy and complicated and full of conflicting ideologies and possibilities, and a leader must be able to negotiate and hold ambiguities – especially if planning to guide America through fast-changing times. Is Mitt Romney too linear, categorical and inflexible to be able to achieve this, and to embrace the diverse and free-thinking population that is the United States of America’s greatest strength?

Saffron

Extreme personalities are fascinating to analyse because their faces clearly illustrate their heightened imbalances, and how these have an impact on their face, bodies and health.

Kim Dotcom (né Kim Schmitz), the Megaupload tycoon, is unquestionably obese, which strongly signifies an imbalance in his Earth element. This means he has major issues around nurture and nourishment. Earth imbalances manifest as neediness, instability and an inability to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy nourishment. Put simply: he doesn’t know what’s good for him, in terms of diet or what to put his energy into. The yellowness of his skin, especially around the outside of his eyes (an indicator of his personality) and mouth (digestive issues) bear this out.

His eyes are fascinating. There is genuine wit and charm in their sparkle (no wonder he has persuaded so many people to join him in his ventures and extravagant celebrations – even getting the likes of Kanye West to appear in a video promoting his website Megaupload.com, which purportedly enables free downloads of copyrighted music. Now that’s ingenious!). But in more recent pictures he looks increasingly fearful and seems to accept, albeit privately, that he has done wrong – why else would the numberplate of one of his cars be “Guilty”? At least this hints at an inner moral compass. He’ll need it. This Year of the Dragon could be a hard one for him.

His eyes “grab” you, indicating that he has a tendency to latch onto people. His plump cheeks are also signs that he needs people around him and struggles with being self-reliant. He is not naturally independent but needs constant reassurance.

His lips are small in proportion to his face, so he finds it hard to share or give. (He’s not generous.) This is probably linked to his own neediness, his need to receive constantly. Not many of us are equally good at giving and receiving. His protuding bottom lip shows his gourmand tendencies and hedonistic bent. He’s good at accumulating money! He has all the signs of “moneybags” – full cheeks, eyelids, ear lobes and chin, but because even these features are so extreme, as he is so obese, he is liable to lose all this because he does not know how to “hold” his wealth in a healthy way. Just as when earth is saturated with water it loses its nutrients and becomes heavy, unwieldy mud, in which little can grow.

Has Dotcom’s bubble burst? His high forehead means he’s a quick thinker, so he may yet talk himself out of trouble, but his face has few contours and little visible bone structure, so self-discipline will be a constant struggle for him. If he’s lucky, close family will protect and sustain him (his rounded features show powers of persuasion and charm; his attached earlobes show he trusts his family rather than friends), but I can’t help thinking he has lost himself in the “big” personality he has projected for so long. He would need to strip away all the bullshit he has brainwashed himself with as well as some of his weight, to reassert his inner moral compass and sense of self-worth (his eyebrow hairs are erratic) in order to move beyond the scandals he has heaped on himself.

What do you think?

Saffron

Margaret Thatcher has an angular, bony face with sharp features. This is what I would call a predominantly “Metal” face, which means that, of the five elements (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal), she has mostly “Metal” characteristics: apt, considering she is known as the Iron Lady.

Margaret Thatcher. Photograph by Mark Ellidge

Metal traits include being very structured, disciplined, controlled, cool under pressure and detached – and not given to overt sympathy or displaying “weaker” emotions; all of which characteristics she exhibited when prime minister. These features are defined in her strong nose and cheekbones, sharp browbone (she won’t be pushed around) and lidded eyes (she was privately very self-critical, setting high standards for herself as well as others). Valuing the individual and self-reliance are also key Metal traits.

For such an assertive person, her eyebrows are surprisingly pale and thin, rather than big and bushy. This emphasises the fact that she used her iron will and diplomacy (the hair comes in from her temples, so good manners were instilled in her at a young age) rather than masculine-style aggression to get what she wanted.

But I’m most interested in her downward-sloping eyes. They denote kindness and a capacity to be taken in by people’s sob stories – even though kindness and compassion are not traits we readily associate with Thatcher. To fight her way to become prime minister, she must have had a passion to better Britain and its people as well as ambition to have power (strong nose). It’s hard to be precise about what really drove her, as she kept her truer emotions hidden: her eyes are small and held even smaller by heavy lids.

However, there is often outright fear in her eyes, especially during her years in office. Fear can make us brittle and harsh in our responses, and elicit knee-jerk reactions as we attempt to cover it up. Thatcher had a softer, fleshier face when she was younger, which indicates that she started out as a warmer, friendlier person but events and beliefs hardened her into the person she became. Did fear kick in when she found herself in the unprecedented position of being a female prime minister in Britain, surrounded by the Old Boys’ network – a lone voice?

Stroke, in five-element terms, indicates an underlying exhaustion (all those years of overworking and not sleeping full nights may have taken their toll) and an imbalance in the Wood element. Was her natural assertiveness suppressed? Did she hold back her true responses – especially anger, upset and fear – to maintain a veneer of control at all times? She was a woman making her way in a man’s world, after all. The heavily modulated tone of voice that she adopted early on, replacing her more strident natural voice, confirms this possibility that she developed a “persona” that wasn’t entirely genuine.

Thatcher’s strengths were in her mind (high forehead) and vision – whether you agreed with her politics or not – and strong values (narrow nose). She undeniably changed the face of Britain. Later in her life, disappointment lines started to appear, coming down from the sides of her mouth. I suspect she doesn’t look back in satisfaction at her career. Her achievements won’t have fulfilled her and were tainted by her ignominious political demise. For a “Metal” person such as Thatcher, success is never enough and perceived failure is harsh punishment. But the ageing process and declining mental health are the harshest punishments of all.

What do you think?

Saffron

Mark Zuckerberg has an undeniably geeky look. What makes someone look geeky? It’s hard to pinpoint, but to me there’s a slack-jawed quality and unfocused gaze – geeks often don’t fully engage with people; they prefer concepts to feelings.

He has soft features – particularly his padded cheeks, undefined jaw and large eyes, so he is not your classic ruthless businessman. Instead, this is someone who wants to be liked and to belong. No wonder he has created a website that’s all about “liking” and “sharing” and “adding friends”. He wants something from people, his eyes suck up others’ energy (try looking into his eyes in photographs and you’ll see what I mean; he hooks you in a needy, unsettling way). His oval face indicates that he prefers to be diplomatic and charming; he’s not comfortable throwing his weight around (as a stronger-jawed person might be); he’s a team-player (padded, flat cheekbones), and mainly garners support by being enthusiastic – a childish approach reinforced by his baby-faced look.

This puts a very different spin on who and how Zuckerberg really is. His speeches focus on the precept that modern life is increasingly about “sharing” (in Facebook terms, this boils down to randomly telling all your friends that you like Levi 501s, for instance). To me, the danger is that he apparently believes his own hyperbole.

Or does he? For someone who emphasises that life these days is all about being more open, he remains extremely protective of his own privacy. Again, it’s his eyes that most convey this. You can’t see into them very far; you hit a brick wall. This makes me uneasy. He says Facebook’s “goal is to make it so that people share what they want to share”. But this is not true: it keeps inventing ways to ensure people share information they are not knowingly divulging.

Interestingly, the practical part of his face (central third) and instinctive part (lower third) are much bigger than his forehead, so he isn’t guided by intellect. Such instinctiveness, when followed through, can lead to great success – as it clearly has with Facebook. But has his rise to fame and fortune been based on honest foundations? His long chin indicates wilfulness, and because his jaw isn’t well defined, he doesn’t have strong ethics. His eyebrows are patchy too, which is curious for someone obsessed with friendship – full, long eyebrows denote an ability to make friends easily. His mouth is also narrow, so he is not naturally altruistic or open.

Something tells me that he’ll go in a very different direction – possibly in his thirties. His soft jaw and slightly vacant eyes indicate that he didn’t have a game plan when starting up Facebook. He was looking to belong somewhere (those cheeks again). If he finds he’s not actually feeling as though he “belongs” (as we know, money doesn’t bring peace of mind or real friends; it brings acolytes, whom you can’t necessarily trust), he may suddenly tire of the idea and try to find a different way to connect more meaningfully with people around him – but only if he has enough insight to see that this desire is at the root of his actions.

From his bland face and the fast, robotic way he speaks, he doesn’t come across as at one with himself, or fulfilled. It’s fascinating to observe how vacant but slightly haunted he looks, despite the fact that he is probably now the 13th richest man in the world. Deep down, I suspect he hasn’t filled that hole of not feeling he belongs. First he needs to be honest with himself, then he may find a more genuine niche in life – and real friends, at last.

I’d love to hear your comments too!

Saffron

I’m immediately struck by the triangle formed by his direct gaze, eyebrows and nose. This shows he had a strong internal code of integrity. He needed honest people around him and would have shocked some people with his own directness. His high forehead denoted his high intelligence and he increasingly thought outside the box (with his receding hairline). He was comfortable taking risks (large ears) and had the will power to follow through ideas (strong chin, focused eyes and low, intense eyebrows). Although ambitious, with quite a fragile ego (large nose), he was fairly ascetic (his nose was narrow); he wasn’t driven by the urge to make money. He was fundamentally a humanitarian. When he smiles his mouth broadens a lot; he was probably prone to generous impulses. I suspect he kept a lid on his fears or anxieties; he didn’t like to show weakness in public and may have become more direct and forceful when in doubt about anything. The harsh angles of the central triangle of his face – the hints of ruthless businessman – are tempered by softer cheeks and jaw and his broad forehead. His eagle eyes, for all their sharp, penetrating focus, are also compassionate and kind. He was, his face indicates, a force for good.

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Saffron

Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell

It is striking that McCartney goes for strong-faced women. He has soft, quite feminine facial features – soft cheeks and jawline, big eyes and curved, thin eyebrows. The latter show he prefers to get his way by being diplomatic and charming (they’re known as the concubine’s eyebrows!).

Shevell has high cheekbones, thicker eyebrows and a prominent jawline, all of which indicate someone who is naturally independent, forthright and likes to be in charge. I suspect she sets most of the rules at home.  She’s wilful (strong, long chin), happy to take risks (big ears) and quite ambitious (strong nose). I warm to her. There’s a directness and honesty in her eyes and manner.

Heather Mills also had aquiline features, but look at photographs of her and you’ll see that she never looks directly at the camera. This is a sign of shiftiness, as McCartney found out to his cost. He is essentially a soft, warm, friendly person – his malleable face shows a desire to keep a youthful innocence; hard-bitten is not his style. I think Shevell will look after him and be fiercely loyal and protective of him. She will lend his life boundaries and structure (look at how structured her face is compared to his, especially the cheek and jaw area). Although he is shrewd in business – his nose turns down – his downward-sloping eyes show he is kind; a bit of a sucker for sob stories.

My main concern is that Shevell has upturned eyes, so can be opportunistic. Is there a part of her that has decided she can’t really go wrong with an older millionaire husband? She’s used to a well-heeled lifestyle, being an heiress herself. She is also very practical – the middle third of her face is dominant, and she knows what she wants (strong eyebrows and jaw).

McCartney has a curious surprised look on the right side of his face. He has a genuine – or possibly cultivated – childlike astonishment at his fame. He can also appear proud and aloof in public (higher right eyebrow). In private, his asymmetrical face hints that he shows very different qualities, that he is warm and immediate but also sadder and more serious. He doesn’t give easily to public causes (his mouth has become smaller on the right) – unsurprisingly, if he has had a lifetime of people asking him for donations. A downturned mouth on the left, and many sadness lines coming down from his eyes, indicate just how much he has privately suffered. No wonder if he can’t always relate to the image the public has of him.

Emotional support and commitment are of great importance to him. This has left him more prone to suffering in love than others might be – and is reflected in his heavily lidded eyes. Shevell, for all her strong features, has a slightly upturned nose, so she’s actually a bit of a softie, a bit sentimental – though there’s a chance she’s had cosmetic surgery done, as her high-school nose looks rather longer and shrewder. Is she just wanting to seem soft? He needs someone who can be gentle with him, much as Linda reportedly was, as well as someone with strong principles and drive and whom he can trust. He may be quite needy and demanding. If Shevell continues to portray more sincerity than opportunism in this relationship – she has had her fair share of emotional troubles and hardship too – she may find her role is to soothe him a lot. They seem quite evenly matched to me and I wish them a happy future.

What do you think?

Saffron

This is what I wrote about Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder Civil in
October 2009

Amy’s unusual face, with its strong features, shows an original woman who is never going to tow the line or easily settle into an ordinary life. Our personalities are formed from many traits, some conflicting, some complementary, which inform the way we behave. As a face reader, I look at which features dominate and how they work together, to try to ascertain what they reveal about a person’s driving forces, in order to gain insights into that person.

I am first struck by Amy’s big, plump cheeks, accentuated by the length of her face, which show a relentless need to be loved and looked after. This will make her a highly dependent person – on Blake, drugs, alcohol, adulation. She is very emotional – she has big eyes, a big mouth, and soft features, so finds it hard to keep a lid on her feelings. Her generous mouth, in particular, mean that she’s outspoken, very sensual and hedonistic – and it also indicates the strength of her voice. For her musical talent, she taps into those powerful emotions that rise up in her. But there are signs of serious depression and confusion in her eyes and on her shadowy temples. I fear she has lost her way. She’s partly turned to drugs because she’s terrified of being normal. She has a need to be different; she’s rebelling against an ordinary background (her forehead is small and oval), and she’s angry. Her eyebrows and jaw are big, which, coupled with her small forehead, makes her desperate to break the rules. To her, Blake epitomises a freer spirit, someone who has followed his own path. Her chin is small, as well, so she struggles with self-control and will power.

Blake is much harder and tougher outwardly. Ironically, he’s the only person who can keep her in check – because she loves and admires him; even though together their drug abuse is amplified. His hollower cheeks show how independent he is, in contrast to her, and his thinner nose, thinner face generally indicate an ability to cut off emotionally when he needs to. But his face also shows he too struggles with depression, and with big fears. Drugs have created a mania in him; he’s deeply unbalanced too. He is at times paralysed by fear, and fear of dying, yet stubbornness and disillusion with life keep him reaching for the drugs. He is not very grounded. He’s tortured by his thoughts, and by strong ideals that have come to nothing in his life. He and Amy are bonded by their rebelliousness and their disillusion with life – their mutual struggle to escape depression and a sense of pointlessness, despite their talents.

What I didn’t spell out two years ago – because it would have transgressed the ethical codes of face reading – was that, looking at her face, I didn’t see how Amy could get through her twenties, let alone her thirties, because her propensity to depression, feeling isolated, dependence, self-harm and lack of self-control indicated that she may never have freed herself from her crippling inner demons or drug addiction. One needs a strong will (prominent chin) – and real underlying sense of self-preservation – to walk away from heroin or live with it long-term.

Yet Amy did manage to channel her creative gifts while she was alive – to spectacular effect. She wrote and sang from the heart, and her music tapped straight into millions of people’s psyches and will continue to resonate long after her death. Her desire for adulation has come full circle as death immortalises her. Perhaps she had already made enough of a mark for one lifetime?

Saffron

The massacre by Anders Behring Breivik, a clean-shaven blond 34-year-old man, highlights the challenge of judging people’s characters and propensities from their looks. On the surface you might think he looks like an average man of his age. You stare at his picture wondering whether you can see signs of his extremist views and murderous instincts. The callousness of a man who can coolly and calmly dress up as a policeman, go to a youth camp and shoot as many people as he can see, anyone who moves. The fact that he targeted young people is even more chilling.

Can a face reader spot a murderer from their features?

We are all a combination of positive and negative traits, and at any given time, one aspect can override the others. We all have our version of Dr Jekyll as well as our Mr Hyde. The art of face reading comes in weighing up the features and signs and seeing which ones are dominant, which aspects of our characters motivate us more strongly.

Studying Anders Behring Breivik, I look first at his eyes, and the feeling I get from them. They give me a sense of his “spirit”, the layers of emotion that mould his actions. Breivik’s eyes have an unnerving, cool hardness; they penetrate without giving much away of his feelings. Emotion seems to be frozen, trapped within in him. They are challenging, defensive. Yet I also sense a sensitivity, a dreamy, almost vacant quality. This feels almost repellent, considering the trauma he has caused so many hundreds of people, but it also may explain his fanaticism as a right-wing Christian. What may have started as sensitivity to global issues has clearly been demonically overtaken by his ego’s drives.

I move on to his other features, to see how they might come into play.

He has a very strong, wide jaw – it’s wider than his forehead – a feature that is often associated with a dictator’s mentality, or someone who has such strong convictions they don’t feel the need to listen to others’ opinions. This kind of jaw, coupled with his fairly low eyebrows, also indicate an ability to follow through with his beliefs (as has so awfully been proved). As interesting to me is his high, wide forehead. This shows his mental capacity; his cool, analytical mind, which overrides his emotional side and the softer instincts he once would have had. His nose is fairly long and narrow too, so he is shrewd and holds to his perceived ideals. And his eyes are small in proportion to his face, so he easily hides his softer feelings.

Other features are his fuller lower lip, indicating a hedonistic streak. Did he also get a thrill from his actions? And the wavy top lip, which shows a propensity to be cruel. He also has large ears, which confirm he is a risk-taker.

All these individual features appear on other people and usually signify milder versions of the above traits – for instance, a forceful nature without being a dictator, or someone who doesn’t like to reveal their emotions to others easily. What a face reader looks for is how the features complement or exaggerate aspects of someone’s personality, and define how they are likely to behave in different situations.

I cannot categorically say he has the face of a serial killer – possibly the worst ever solo serial killer in history – but all these facial features in conjunction, and the distorted and twisted emotions that underlie his actions, hint at how he could so thoroughly and effectively execute his plan, and execute so many innocent people, especially targeting the young. And it chillingly shows how one man’s convictions, when hijacked by egotistical self-brainwashing, can result in such horror.

May the victims rest in peace.

Saffron

It’s a rare pleasure to see two Hollywood stars conduct a relationship discreetly and get married without fanfare. This and the naturalness they both manage to show when in front of the cameras augur well for them.

Their face shapes are similar, part oval – showing sociability, charm and good manners, and part trapezoid – the classic actors’ shape, denoting an interest in performance and love of ideas and projects. Although Craig has a defined jaw, it is softened by flat cheekbones. Weisz’s are more prominent, so she will probably be the bossier one at home, knowing what she wants and being forthright about it – her larger mouth enhances this trait.

What I love are their equally sparkling, clear, passionate eyes. They will have lots of fun together and make each other laugh. But they both know pain too. Craig, in particular, shows suffering in his eyes, and a wariness that indicates past emotional hurt. Weisz has learnt to smile more in the face of adversity. Warm, down-to-earth and feisty, with her wide, full mouth, soft cheeks and strong eyebrows, she will probably find herself drawing him out, encouraging him to be more sociable. With her large eyes and mouth, and those eyebrows, she is also quite emotional and possibly volatile in her moods. With his smaller eyes and mouth, Craig will have a restraining effect on her – playing the cooler male role where necessary.

Both are highly intelligent; Craig has a higher forehead, so will tend towards being more analytical. The dominant lower third of Weisz’s face shows that she heeds her instincts more. Her more defined forehead and rounded chin indicate that good manners and diplomacy were instilled in her as a child. His square chin, in contrast, shows his practical nature, while his wide, open forehead shows he had less conditioning as a child. There will probably be a natural division into female and male roles in many areas of their relationship. However, Weisz’s eyebrows and nose are a match for her new husband’s, so she is equally passionate about her career and has a strong sense of drive and purpose. Neither of them is afraid of hard work, and she doesn’t hold back on her opinions.

Her broader nose and fuller cheeks show she knows the importance of a work-play balance – and she loves her creature comforts; hopefully she’ll help Craig not to neglect his health or work too hard – his more drawn, slightly sagging cheeks show he can overdo it and forget to have fun. He is partly driven by some deep demons, possibly triggered by forceful figures in his early life, as indicated by the vertical line between his eyes. Feelings of inadequacy may spur him on. His low eyebrows confirm that he can be very intense and even troubled and irritable, though Weisz should be able to lift him out of darker moods with her warmth and humour.

With both, I feel their emotions run deep, and they have a spiritual connection and meaningfulness in the way they approach their lives that counteracts the glitz of the celebrity limelight that is constantly thrust upon them and which they both sensibly treat with caution. Their eyes show them both to be free spirits, and if they continue to nurture this quality in each other, giving each other freedom and space alongside their obvious commitment, their relationship will go from strength to strength.

I wish them the best of luck.

Saffron

Photograph of Rachel Weisz © Mark Ellidge

Gaddafi’s face has become gradually more trapezoid in shape over the years, showing his increasingly despotic and dictatorial tendencies. His jaw has widened while his forehead remains narrow, so he has set opinions and convictions without the intellectual rigour needed to analyse and evaluate his own beliefs – without such a capacity for insight, he is a blinkered and self-delusional adversary.

His jaw is also set, with his lower teeth bared when he speaks, revealing an aggressive and assertive nature. This has become more prominent over the years. Where once he had passion in his eyes and a more natural smile, these days he just looks hunted and defensive. This is corroborated by the deep lines etched between his eyebrows: he is an intolerant and impatient man. Jowls are also a sign of him becoming increasingly controlling and set in his ways.

Interestingly, he has deep lines running under his eyes too, which indicate that he feels the loss of something – or someone – acutely. He finds it hard to let go, or to express deeper grief. It is also a sign of long-term fear.

He has a broad, strong chin, so is stubborn – a trait that’s magnified by his heavy brow. His ears are large, denoting a strong constitution and an ability to take risks. He is not one to fade away or give up easily – as he has proved many times over. His broad and long nose also shows the size of his ego, ambition and immense sense of self-importance. Materialistic and power-seeking, he demands absolute obedience and loyalty.

At a critical time in his late teens, he was expelled from school, which cemented his drive for subversion and revolution. He may have held more straightforwardly passionate beliefs in those early days – and was even talked of as charismatic, but his eyes these days display a disturbingly hard glint and maniacal disposition. He is clearly mentally unstable, as many commentators have observed. His mouth has a cruel curve to the upper lip, too, and with his small eyes, his face indicates a large capacity for cruelty and lack of feeling for others. Curiously, his eyes are very lidded. This is partly a sign of someone who has accumulated wealth and assets, but it also demonstrates a self-critical streak. He may secretly be hard on himself as well as those around him. His eyes are hooded, so he is regularly deludes, or “hoodwinks” himself.

The fleshiness of his face indicates that he measures his success by his material assets and power. I suspect that a fear of losing all that he has led himself to believe he is – and losing the wealth he has accumulated, more than anything, drive him to cling on so desperately to his position. Without these, in his own eyes, he is nothing. His greed is no doubt connected to his desire to distance himself from his parents’ poor and humble background. The left side of his face has a more proud aspect, so he has inherited aloofness and arrogance from his father; the right side shows an intensity inherited from his mother.

Having built his image on his status and accumulated wealth rather than on humanitarian ideals or worthy personal traits, he is now desperately fragile and insecure – exposed for the bully he is. Now that he is losing his grip and his supporters, his leadership feels hollow, and he is fighting the inner realisation that he is nothing without his title and that there is no lasting satisfaction from having achieved authority through force and abuse of power.