Anne Glenconner's "Lady in Waiting"

I read the review this morning in the paper. It sounds an interesting book.

I always remember her doing an interview about when Margaret came to stay and she didn't know how to make a cup of tea or something.

Great interview with her on Graham Norton.

Just ordered it. Thanks OP.

She looks great for being eleventy years old.

Colin was always so butch, a disgrace to the family

R5 Are you sure that's not Quentin Crisp? 🤣

Nope, though a likeness to Quentin, definitely Stephen Tennant, youngest son of the First Baron Glenconner, who when asked by his father what he would like to be when he grew up. ‘I want to be a Great Beauty, Sir,’

Went on to become "the brightest of the Bright Young Things", one of the inspirations for Waugh's Sebastian Flyte, and lover of the poet Siegfried Sassoon

How fantastic R7!

This book is FABULOUS!

Just ordered it! Thanks for the recommendation, OP!

Two thirds of the way through and some comments:

(1) This book definitely humanizes Princess Margaret. The author is very clear Mags was a handful, but she was also a very loyal person and kind to her. She feels Margaret was bitter for having her great gifts ignored, and being told, never asked, on so many points.

(2) Anne G was a huge doormat.

(3) The poor dear thinks she was an involved mother, but....not at all. Well, I guess it was that generation.

She also mentions, with a scowl, the Ma'am Darling book, which evidently finds 99 ways to call Margaret a cunt, as well as a size queen.

(3) The poor dear thinks she was an involved mother, but....not at all. Well, I guess it was that generation.

“'To lose one son, Baroness Glenconner , may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.”

Here is an interesting pic of THE Princess Margaret cunting it up at Tina Livanos Onassis Niarchos. Perhaps Tina told her that she could buy and sell Megs 20 times over to which Megs replied by spitting out the dirty word "COMMON!!!!"

P Marg looks like Emily Blunt in that photo.

I’m reading it, I’m up to her debut. It seems that everyone knew everyone else. Engaged to “Johnny Spencer”. Queen Mary reminding her that good things come in small packages at Christmas. Flogging her mother’s pottery at age 17. Her grandmother was an early mistress of Edward, PoW. Did one of her Ogilvy cousins marry P Alexandra?

The upper class are all inter married and know each other socially in the UK.

You'd be amazed at what alliances were formed by marriage.

R16 which makes that line from Downton have a little more resonance....

"Are we to be friends?"

"We are to be allies, which ....." well, blah blah blah.

Her husband Colin was fond of the Mandingo.

The documentary on her husband "The Man Who Bought Mustique" is interesting; he seems like a totally vile human being.

Did Colin Tennant like cock?

He certainly seems like a dandy from what photos I've seen.

R9 - I agree. The book is a fabulous read and an excellent inside look at the British aristocracy.

The man on the right looks VERY homosexual .

Because every thread on the late great Margot must reference...

I ordered it and look forward to reading it. Thanks so much for the recommendation.

I’m at the part (mid-60s) where her oldest son has developed debilitating OCD but back then no one knew how to treat it. It’s so sad. Two dead boys, another brain damaged from an accident and two daughters

I can't believe how patient she is with her husband, who is clearly a fucking loon (and probably a closet case to boot).

They were all worried about the crazy bloodline that hit the queen's cousins, but Colin was a nellie prisspot AND as bipolar as the day is long.

Does she ever make that connection? He’s losing his temper and yelling and having screaming fits on airplanes but so far there’s no talk of medication/psychiatry/commitment to a mental hospital. She talks about accepting all that crap because he was fascinating and creative. In the end, he disinherits his grandchild who was due to get the St Lucia property. What a wanker.

Read it. She was the ultimate doormat. I felt sorry for her.

She had a rigid, distant father and her mother was very much a “make the best of it/ just get on with it/ no whinging” type. Nannies raised and disciplined the children, mother was for treats and fun things, father was not involved at all (except to express disapproval). As her husband had affairs, she had her own discreet one. It was such a different time, she must be amazed how much has changed in her lifetime.

Margaret came to my school once. She was tiny and shrivelled brown. From afar I did not think she was remarkable at all - I was more struck by that she was accompanied by a man in military uniform with an actual sword swinging by his side (no idea who he was, any ideas?) Oh, and she was a big time chain smoker. She smoked in the staff room though no staff member was allowed to smoke there (in fact, that'd be illegal now). I think that must be a reason why she died relatively early.

This clip really captures the sort of innocence/disconnect yet kindness of Lady Glenconner

(and relays a story from the book)

Oh, R30, did she smoke? I don't think that's ever been mentioned before. Thank you for this revelation, however completely unrelated to the thread.

Glenconner's book is online for free reading.

I'm OP of this thread and am now reading Elizabeth and Margaret by Andrew Morton. Not much new here, though some interesting tidbits here and there.

Lord Snowdon and Colin Tennant both seem so.....NELLIE

My nephew Colin was so butch compared to me.

Seriously, I look at Tony Snowdon and see Paul Lynde.

Supposedly Margo took pictures of three nude men on one of her trips to Mustique. Colin Tennant was one. I am not sure who the others were.

Though if that furry little stud Roddy was one, I'd love to see the photo.

Ma'am!

Tony Armstrong Jones was allegedly massively endowed and a much in demand fuck. He was a sexual omnivore and was happy to share his gifts, er, fluidly. He had an illegitimate daughter not only whilst involved with Margaret, but the baby was born after the engagement and shortly before the wedding. He appeared to calm down later in life in his second marriage.

Margaret smoked like a chimney and suffered the kind of ill health that her mother, sister, brother in law, seem to have so bewilderingly escaped.

They should have let her marry Townsend, just the way they should have let Charles marry Camilla.

[quote] allegedly massively endowed and a much in demand fuck

He did have BDF and BDE. He was fucking BOTH the husband and wife of the couple where he impregnated the wife.

Townsend was 16 years older than Margaret who was a teenager when they started seeing each other. When he did marry again at age 44, he married a 20 year old. So he did have a “type” or “that’s how things were done back then”.

Captain Townsend.

DADDY!