Glenconner - Lady in waiting: my extraordinary life in the shadow of the crown

Astounding memoir.

India Knight

[An] upfront account of her life [youll] laugh out loud, exclaim in shock, and cry as [you] read it. An amazing read. Theres so much humanity as well as stories of glitz and glamour and royalty its a life fully lived.

Nightlife, ABC Radio

A record, funny and sometimes dazzling, of a way of life now almost disappeared.

Rachel Cooke, Observer

[Its] a total hootI cant put it down.

Janet Street-Porter, Daily Mail

I hooted my way through Anne Glenconners Lady in Waiting. Glenconners memoir of three decades as Princess Margarets chief courtier is matter-of-fact about her bonkers life, making it all the more amusing.

Marcus Field, Evening Standard

Extraordinary.

Loose Women

Rollicking a fascinating, anthropological portrait of the privilege-soaked world of the British aristocracy. Extraordinary anecdotes. Lady Annes book paints such a rich picture of the aristocracy its impossible not to marvel at the institution, both in admiration and horror.

The Sydney Morning Herald

A romp of an autobiography.

The Times

Ones eyes were on stalks marvelous.

Jan Moir, Daily Mail

Royal obsessives and casual observers alike will devour this memoir by the confidantea noble herselfof Princess Margaret. Glenconner candidly writes about the unimaginable tragedies she endured in her personal life, and of the gilded affairs she witnessed on the periphery of royal life.

Newsweek

Meticulously detailed. [W]hat makes this account fresh and poignant is Glenconners use of affluent characters to demonstrate the extent to which class trumps power. By unflinchingly examining everything from her troubled marriage and her fraught relationship with her children to the solace she found in service, the author emerges as a flawed yet steely woman worthy of respect. In laying her life bare, she demonstrates the limitations of being a woman in the British class system, showing that privilege is no insulation from suffering or pain. A must-have for loyal royal fans.

Kirkus Reviews

O NE MORNING AT the beginning of 2019, when I was in my London flat, the telephone rang.

Hello?

Lady Glenconner? Its Helena Bonham Carter.

Its not every day a Hollywood film star rings me up, although I had been expecting her call. When the producers of the popular Netflix series The Crown contacted me, saying that I was going to be portrayed by Nancy Carroll in the third season, and that Helena Bonham Carter had been cast as Princess Margaret, I was delighted. Asked whether I minded meeting them so they could get a better idea of my friendship with Princess Margaret, I said I didnt mind in the least.

Nancy Carroll came to tea, and we sat in armchairs in my sitting room and talked. The conversation was surreal as I became extremely self-aware, realizing that Nancy must be absorbing what I was like.

A few days later when Helena was on the telephone, I invited her for tea too. Not only do I admire her as an actress but, as it happens, she is a cousin of my late husband Colin Tennant, and her father helped me when one of my sons had a motorbike accident in the eighties.

As Helena walked through the door, I noticed a resemblance between her and Princess Margaret: she is just the right height and figure, and although her eyes arent blue, there is a similar glint of mischievous intelligence in her gaze.

We sat down in the sitting room, and I poured her some tea. Out came her notebook, where she had written down masses of questions in order to get the measure of the Princess, to do her justice, she explained.

A lot of her questions were about mannerisms. When she asked how the Princess had smoked, I described it as rather like a Chinese tea ceremony: from taking her long cigarette holder out of her bag and carefully putting the cigarette in, to always lighting it herself with one of her beautiful lighters. She hated it when others offered to light it for her, and when any man eagerly advanced, she would make a small but definite gesture with her hand to make it quite clear.

I noticed that Helena moved her hand in the tiniest of reflexes, as if to test the movement Id just described, before going on to discuss Princess Margarets character. I tried to capture her quick withow she always saw the humorous side of things, not one to dwell, her attitude positive and matter-of-fact. As we talked, the descriptions felt so vivid, it was as though Princess Margaret was in the room with us. Helena listened to everything very carefully, making lots of notes. We talked for three hours, and when she left, I felt certain that she was perfectly cast for the role.

Both actors sent me letters thanking me for my help, Helena Bonham Carter expressing the hope that Princess Margaret would be as good a friend to her as she was to me. I felt very touched by this and the thought of Princess Margaret and I being reunited on-screen was something I looked forward to. I found myself reflecting back on our childhood spent together in Norfolk, the thirty years Id been her Lady in Waiting, all the times we had found ourselves in hysterics, and the ups and downs of both our lives.

Ive always loved telling stories, but it never occurred to me to write a book until these two visits stirred up all those memories. From a generation where we were taught not to overthink, not to look back or question, only now do I see how extraordinary the nine decades of my life have really been, full of extreme contrasts. I have found myself in a great many odd circumstances, both hilarious and awful, many of which seem, even to me, unbelievable. But I feel very fortunate that I have my wonderful family and for the life I have led.