Princess Margaret's Confidante Anne Glenconner to Publish New Memoir
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Princess Margaret's confidante, Anne Tennant, better known as Lady Glenconner, is publishing another memoir about her life as a close friend of Queen Elizabeth's sister. Whatever Next?: Lessons from an Unexpected Life is currently being serialized in the Daily Mail ahead of its publication in the UK next month and in the U.S. in February 2023.
The first column features a revealing excerpt on the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner.
"Just about every other woman I knew was told she had to soldier on and not complain. Even the Queen, whom I'd known since childhood, worked hard to make sure her husband was kept happy," Anne Glenconner writes. "So I knew that my role as the wife of Colin Tennant — later Lord Glenconner — was all about doing what he wanted, sorting out his messes and appearing cheerful while I did it. That much had been made very clear."
She continues, "You may remember my late husband as the English aristocrat who bought the island of Mustique in the West Indies, turning it into an exclusive resort for the likes of Princess Margaret, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. He was a clever, talented man who loved our five children. And he had a great gift for friendship; he could flatter and amuse, was restless and inventive, outrageous and silly, and often incredibly generous. But he was also an incredibly selfish, damaged and occasionally dangerous man. The simple truth is that I lived with domestic violence and abuse for most of my marriage."
Lady Glenconner was Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting for three decades, and a close friend of the princess. Her first book, Lady in Waiting, was a powerful look at life in the orbit of the royal family."While I was writing it, I realized I had led a very interesting life. The sort of life I led doesn't really exist anymore," she told Town & Country.
When Helena Bonham Carter portrayed Princess Margaret on The Crown, she came to speak with Glenconner about the princess. Actress Nancy Carroll even portrayed Glenconner on seasons three and four. Yet, though Glenconner enjoyed Bonham Carter's portrayal, she is a proponent of adding a fictional disclaimer.
As she told T&C last year, "The trouble is that people believe it, don't they? People think it's true, and there's nothing much you can do about it. A lot of quite important people have said, really, The Crown should have a disclaimer at the beginning saying that this is fiction. But anyway, there we are. Nothing we can do about it." Perhaps she's hoping her memoirs will show what royal life was truly like.
Lady Glenconner, too, has dabbled in fiction; she's the author of mystery books, inspired by Agatha Christie and based on her royal-adjacent life, which include Murder on Mustique and A Haunting at Holkham.
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