Book: Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown

Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown
Anne Glenconnor
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The remarkable life of Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret who was also a Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation. Anne Glenconner reveals the real events behind The Crown as well as her own life of drama, tragedy and courage, with the wonderful wit and extraordinary resilience which define her.

Anne Glenconner has been close to the Royal Family since childhood. Eldest child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, she was, as a daughter, described as 'the greatest disappointment' by her family as she was unable to inherit. Her childhood home Holkham Hall is one of the grandest estates in England. Bordering Sandringham the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were frequent playmates.

From Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation to Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret, Lady Glenconner is a unique witness to royal history, as well as an extraordinary survivor of a generation of aristocratic women trapped without inheritance and burdened with social expectations.

She married the charismatic but highly volatile Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who became the owner of Mustique. Together they turned the island into a paradise for the rich and famous, including Mick Jagger and David Bowie, and it became a favourite retreat for Princess Margaret.

But beneath the glitz and glamour there has also lurked tragedy. On Lord Glenconner's death in 2010 he left his fortune to a former employee. And of their five children, two grown-up sons died, while a third son had to be nursed back from a coma by Anne, after having suffered a near fatal accident.

Anne Glenconner writes with extraordinary wit, generosity and courage and she exposes what life was like in her gilded cage, revealing the role of her great friendship with Princess Margaret, and the freedom she can now finally enjoy in later life.

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To be honest, I didn’t know who Anne Glenconner is. I simply got the book after seeing a Graham Norton clip and her talking about her memoir and saying it’s not a sweet book.

This was a very pleasant read (for me). The English flowed very well and it was soothing to my eyes (unlike some other books that had terrible English and punctuation).

I pretty much hated the husband and I will never ever give a minute of my life to someone like that. Tantrums of such proportions, as an adult? And with his will. It doesn’t matter that he is generous. He’s still a twat.

Somewhere in the beginning of the book, she made it sound like she also wanted to counter the claims of how negative Princess Margaret was, and while she did shed a positive light on her, she also sort of... reinforced how Princess Margaret was difficult.

She also sort of skimmed over the later parts of her life, especially after the part about Princess Margaret’s death, as if she rushed to finish the book. Would have been nice to read more about her travels.

A very pleasant read, didn’t bore me out.