Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner
4 stars
Lady In Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown is an autobiography of Anne Glenconner, who was a Lady-In-Waiting to Princess Margaret.
A very topical book with production of The Crown series currently on television, this was a fascinating window into the life of someone who grew up spending childhood holidays with both Princess Margaret and the Queen, who was Princess Elizabeth at the time. Anne was also a Maid Of Honour at the Queen’s coronation, and later she accompanied Princess Margaret on several international tours.
Anne’s personal life was also interesting, full of flamboyant characters and some terrible tragedies. At one time her husband, The Hon. Colin Tennant, bought the Caribbean island of Mustique, and I enjoyed reading about how he eventually turned it into a private hideaway. He even spontaneously gave a plot on the island to Princess Margaret for a wedding gift, so that she could build a place where she could retire to after her public duties.
This is not my usual type of book, but I found it very readable. I knew little about Princess Margaret and I’m pleased that I had the chance to read this memoir.
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An extraordinary memoir of drama, tragedy, and royal secrets by Anne Glenconner–a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. As seen on Netflix’s The Crown.Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed “the greatest disappointment” and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive the vipers of court life with her sense of humor intact.
A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne’s life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret’s closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her “mad blood”; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities.
Rosie Amber 