Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

 September 24, 2020

Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

Lady Anne Glenconner met the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret when the three girls were small children living on neighboring estates, long before Elizabeth became the heir to the British throne.  They remained friends into adulthood, and Princess Margaret eventually asked Anne to become one of her ladies in waiting.  Wanting to take a break from her disaster of a husband, Anne gratefully accepted and remained in the princess's household for the next 30 years.  As lady in waiting, Anne's role varied from actual serving duties to being just a companion to Margaret, accompanying her on her world travels as representative of the crown and attending social occasions with her.  Both women had made disastrous marriages, and while Margaret was forced to divorce her husband Tony Snowdon when his mistress became pregnant, Anne stayed married to her childish husband for 54 years, although they only lived together occasionally for the last 40 years of their marriage.

Anne's husband Colin Tennant, later Baron Glenconner, had serious psychiatric issues and was well-known for throwing public fits of rage and temper tantrums.  Today he would probably be diagnosed as having manic depression and narcissistic personality disorder.  But it was highly unusual for the English aristocracy to divorce at the time - instead, they all had multiple affairs (including Lady Glenconner).  It's surprising more of them didn't murder their spouses.  As Violet, Dowager Lady Grantham, states in Downtown Abbey, "People of our social class are never unhappily married.  We just aren't able to spend as much time together as we might like."

In addition to her erratic husband, Anne's children were also a source of heartache and tragedy in her life.  She takes the blame for some of it, being an absent mother for much of the time.  Again, it was traditional in the English aristocracy to have others raise your children while the parents spent their time socializing and organizing parties, working for charity, and sucking up to the royals.  

Anyone who is a fan of the Netflix series The Crown will enjoy this memoir by one of Princess Margaret's closest friends and confidantes.  Lady Anne didn't like Vanessa Kirby's portrayal of Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of the series, and was more pleased with Helena Bonham Carter as the older Princess Margaret.  English actress Nancy Carroll is playing Lady Glenconner in seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown (photo below).