Anne Glenconner started her real career as a writer only at the age of 87, when her bestselling book “Lady in Waiting” was published. This deserves a lot of admiration. Since 2019, she published a book almost every year and became a sought-after guest in talk shows and a cherished interview partner. The late fame becomes her very well and seems to be like the icing on the cake of a upper class life with much outright luxury and a lot of hidden pain.
There is a strong interest to catch a glimpse of a life so very different from ours. Lady Anne Coke was born in 1932 as the oldest daughter of the Earl of Leicester. As only sons could inherit titles and property back then, she was left to marry. How the exact law for inheritance for daughters in Great Britian’s noble families worked, I do not know. There are always exceptions to the general rule, and we also know of women who inherited (e.g. Irene Curzon, 2. Baroness Ravensdale in 1925). But in Anne’s family it seems to have been not possible.
Her choice of husband was in line with her class, as Colin Tennant became Lord Glenconner. They married in 1956, after she had been Maid of Honour at Queen Elizabeth’ coronation. There are extravagant pictures in her biography about the coronation and about the frequent parties and invitations that marked an upper class life. One is featuring her with a headdress worth of pre-revolution France. This luxury is quite telling of the power and money behind those silent and shy young ladies. Her married life was never easy, as her husband was – to say the least – eccentric. He must have been fun at times and a visionary, but behaved seemingly quite often like a nagging and fussy child; tantrums, jealousy, abuse, meanness etc included.
Lord Glenconner became the founder of the VIP island Mustique and both spent a lot of time there. Mustique is certainly the most important legacy of Colin Tennant.
The couple had 5 children, 2 of them died before their mother. Drug abuse, illnesses, psychological problems were ripe in the family. Anne Glenconner reflects on this in her works, how back then a divorce was only for the very courageous and a woman was more a wife than a mother. Her first duty was to her husband, the children got nannies. The later born children of Anne Glenconner got more direct contact with her mother and developed better, for this or other reasons. The upper-class women back then did not know better – her own parents had left Anne Glenconner 3 years with nannies whilst going to Egypt during the war before she was 10 years old. In the course of her books her view changes – she also writes about her children having happy childhoods. Probably both is true – parents are only partly responsible for the behaviour of their children, especially after they become teenagers. The Glenconner children had many more options than children from a normal family – but to use them was their own responsibility.
Whilst their marriage became less difficult later in life, it also became more distanced. In the end, Colin Tennant made his former manservant from Mustique his sole heir and cut off his family, including the heir of the title. This became only clear after his death in 2010. The family fought against the will and an agreement was reached. Only when this unexpected battle was off the table, Anne Glenconner started writing down the story of her life, became famous in her own right and came to own money.
A continuity during Anne Glenconner’s life was her friendship with Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister. She became Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret in 1971 and kept that honourable job till the death of the princess in 2002. Today’s job description would probably be more of a mix between personal assistant and a certain amount of executive assistant. She accompanied Princess Margaret on travels and cleared the way for her. Whilst some of the duties seem out of place today (e.g. packing her suitcases and cleaning her shell collection), others are done for every head of state or CEO before a trip to a foreign country. In her books she gives interesting insights on Princess Margaret, who had been often badmouthed by people.
Anne Glenconner had ventured into writing earlier, but not with as much confidence as later in life. Her first book “Lady Glenconner’s Picnic Papers and other Feasts with Friends” is pictured in this post. She published it first with a friend in 1983. It tells us more about her friends and the circle she moved in than the other books, although the short stories stay at the surface. The pictures of the author are typical for those given of her on her books. One shows her in her 40s on the front cover, in full English rose beauty, and a second on the back cover shows the elegant and attentive author in her late 80s. A whole life lies between those pictures. In my opinion she looks better and happier today than during the earlier years. She looks more herself and more confident in her role. She had facilitated life for many people during her younger years: her husband, her friends, Princess Margaret. Now she does it for herself.
What can we learn from Anne Glenconner?
Never give up!
Do not get stuck in self-pity. Even after the worst event one can go on and find new happiness.
All that glitters is not gold. In her life’s story, scratch at the surface and the gold is gone.
There is no end date to try something new. Anne Glenconner became a famous writer with 87! Iris Apfel is one of the others who became world famous late in life and continued her career till the age of 102. Andrea Camilieri, the author of the “Commissario Montalbano” crime novels was in his 70s when fame struck and continued to his 90s. When one starts to think about it, there are quite a few others. German Konrad Adenauer was in his 80s during most of his chancellorship and hated it to step down with 87.
This gives a lot of hope to everyone who leads a normal life, raising children, working, paying their debts, and wondering when the time for change will come. It is never too late to start. No one is waiting for you, but if you take the first step, a path may open up beneath your feet as you walk.
All rights to the books belong to:
Glenconner, Anne: Lady Glenconner, Manners&Mischief, An A-Z of a Life Lived Well, 2025, published in the UK by Bedford Square Publishers Ltd, London, UK, printed in Great Britain, ISBN: 978-1-83501-467-7
Glenconner, Anne: Lady Glenconner’s Picnic Papers and other Feasts with Friends, 2024 published in the UK by Bedford Square Publishers Ltd. London, UK, printed in Great Britain; ISBN 978-1-83501-241-3, first published in 1983 as “The Picnic Papers” in 1983 by Hutchinson & Co., Ltd.
Glenconner, Anne: Whatever Next? Lessons from an Unexpected Life, 2022, first published in Great Britain by Hodder & Stoughton, an Hachette UK company, ISBN: 978-1-529-395778 (eBook version)
Glenconner, Anne: Lady in Waiting, My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown, 2019, first published in Great Britain by Hodder & Stoughton, an Hachette UK company and by joint imprimatur with Zuleika, ISBN: 978-1-529-35908-4 (eBook version)
Lady Anne Glenconner also wrote 2 crime novels, “A Haunting at Holkam” and “Murder on Mustique”. Both are very entertaining.