Anne Glenconner - Whatever Next?: Lessons from an Unexpected Life

JUST WHEN I D imagined lifes great adventures to be over, I had the unexpected joy of becoming an author in my eighties, writing my autobiography, Lady in Waiting. Since then, I have made many personal appearances telling my stories and answering questions, which have also been great fun. Audiences have always been fascinated by my tales of Princess Margaret and my husband Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, but to my surprise, theyve also been very curious about me and about my own background. Theyve wanted to know more about who I am as a person, as the modern expression goes, and what got me through the darker times of my life. Many of them have said they felt inspired by my gung-ho attitude, my sense of humour, and the energy with which I am still attacking life. I am particularly delighted to learn I have become an unofficial agony aunt as well as a gay icon.

This flattering reaction has given me pause and made me look again at the events that have shaped me, what I was taught about life in my youth, and what in turn life has taught me. This book is the result. Writing it has given me a chance to reflect on the world in which I was brought up and how I have ended up who and where I am. It has also given me the chance to talk openly about some things I have kept private until now.

As readers of my autobiography will know, I was born into the Coke family of Holkham Hall, a glorious estate in Norfolk, in July 1932. At the time my great-grandfather was the Earl of Leicester, and my father inherited the title in 1949. As a girl, even though I was his eldest child, I would not be able to inherit it. I had my coming-out dance at Holkham in June 1950, and was maid of honour to the late Queen Elizabeth II at her Coronation in 1953, which was one of the most exciting days of my life.

In 1956 I married Colin Tennant, later Lord Glenconner. Colin bought the Caribbean island of Mustique in 1958, and transformed it from a failing cotton estate without electricity or fresh water into a luxurious retreat, famous for its privacy, its glamorous visitors and its parties. In 1971 I became lady in waiting to my dear friend Princess Margaret, a position I held for thirty years until the Princesss death.

Marriage to Colin was tempestuous, but we had five wonderful children together. My eldest son Charlie died from hepatitis C, a result of his struggles with heroin addiction, in 1996. His son, Cody, is now Lord Glenconner. My second son, Henry, contracted AIDS in 1986 and died in 1990. During the same terrible period our third child, Christopher, had a devastating motorcycle accident and was in a coma for four months. After years of struggle he has gone on to live a very happy life. He has two daughters with his first wife, and is now married to Johanna, who is a constant support to us both.

Colin and I were lucky enough also to have twin daughters, Amy and May, who have shared in all our family tragedies and triumphs but have nevertheless flourished. May and her husband run their own business and have two children. Amy is a specialist painter and restorer. Colin and I remained married until his death, but when Colin died in St. Lucia in 2010, he left his entire estate to Kent Adonai, who had looked after him for many years. After a long legal battle, Cody and Kent reached an agreement and some of Colins property was returned to his family.

Such are the bare facts of my life. Although I felt I was very much a supporting player in the dramas unfolding around me, my life has always been lived to some degree in the public eye. When we were young, the aristocracy were a little like celebrities are now. Our comings and goings were reported on in the newspapers, and magazine journalists visited us at home and photographed us during the debutante season. My being a maid of honour at Queen Elizabeths Coronation obviously attracted a great deal of attention, and of course the glamour of Mustique, with its reputation as a private retreat of the rich and famous, was a subject of fascination too. I used my position in society to promote charities and causes close to my heart, and support Princess Margaret in her public and private life. On occasion I fulfilled her public duties when she was unavailable, such as when on a tour to the Philippines, visiting Imelda Marcos, while the Princess was laid up with pneumonia.

There was much nonsensical talk of the Tennant Curse when my children died, and our tragedies were made all the more painful by the public attention the press brought to us. Colin, though he kept uninvited journalists off the island, courted publicity when he was establishing Mustique; a film was made about him and a biography published.

After Princess Margaret died in 2002, and Colin eight years later, I expected to live a rather quiet, private life, and be thankful for it, travelling and enjoying the company of my family and friends.

That was not to be. I was invited to write my autobiography and the publication of Lady in Waiting has made my eighties as fascinating and as varied a decade to live through as any other. In many ways, it has made it the best yet. I was amazed to discover that I now had new roles to play as an author and was a public figure in my own right and in a very different world from the one in which I was brought up.

After the success of Lady in Waiting, I went on to write two novels, Murder on Mustique, inspired by my life on the island, and A Haunting at Holkham, which drew heavily on my childhood. Having once been a travelling saleswoman in my youth, soliciting orders for the pottery my mother ran successfully in Holkham, I find I am a travelling saleswoman again, this time for my books. Ive spoken at the Oxford Union, told my stories on stage, television and radio and even presented a cup at Ascot. It has all come as a rather marvellous surprise and I couldnt be happier having this new adventure.