It just takes you back to a bygone age that will never happen again but is good to dip into. I loved listening to the Audible version as Lady Anne’s voice is priceless….”we gals lived in a hice”. Lady Glenconner writes in her book, “People complained about Princess Margaret being difficult, but I think quite often it was because she was bored or fed up… not surprisingly, her idea of fun wasn’t sitting next to the mayor, the bishop and the chief of police for Sunday lunch.” Credit: Daily MailĪ warmer version of Princess Margaret emerges as the book progresses. There was a line, however, that you never crossed and Anne Glenconner filled all of these duties for Princess Margaret brilliantly. Someone that you could totally trust but who also understood your way of life and at times could have a “jolly good laugh” with you. A lady in waiting was different as she was a companion and friend. They are now more likely to have stylists and private secretaries. I am not sure the new generation of royal ladies even have ladies-in-waiting. There is something very stoic about this lady who has embraced modern life and has never complained about her own life when it went tragically wrong. She was born into a world of privilege however money did not always come with position. She suffered much personal tragedy throughout her life.

Her life was not all parties, wealth and glamour.

Lady Anne writes in her book that her husband “bought it for £45,000 - without even having set foot on it,” and they transformed the land into a paradise playground for the rich and famous. The eldest daughter of the fifth Earl of Leicester, she married Lord Glenconner (formerly Colin Tennant) in 1956, who famously purchased the Caribbean island of Mustique two years later. She was appointed Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting in 1971 and worked with her for more than three decades. Lady Anne Glenconner has known the royal family since childhood and was one of the Queen’s maids of honour at her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947.

Lady in waiting book review