Published in 2023
6 hours and 53 minutes
Lady Anne Glenconner was born Lady Anne Coke in 1932, the eldest daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, and growing up in their ancestral estate at Holkham Hall in Norfolk. A Maid of Honor at the Queen’s Coronation, she married Lord Glenconner in 1956. They had 5 children together of whom 3 survive. In 1958 she and her husband began to transform the island of Mustique into a paradise for the rich and famous. They granted a plot of land to Princess Margaret who built her favorite home there. She was appointed Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret in 1971 and kept this role – accompanying her on many state occasions and foreign tours – until her death in 2002. Lord Glenconner died in 2010, leaving everything in his will to his former employee. Lady Glenconner now lives in a farmhouse near Kings Lynn in Norfolk.
What is this book about?
Bracing honesty, rare insight and hilarious revelations from internationally bestselling author of Lady in Waiting as she shares everything she’s learned from her extraordinary and unexpected life.
Anne Glenconner’s glittering life hasn’t always been golden. As she revealed in her astonishing bestselling memoir Lady in Waiting, it has been one of stark contrasts—from growing up in the splendour of Holkham Hall to living in a tent in the jungle of Mustique, from travelling the world with Princess Margaret to coping with her wildly unpredictable husband Lord Glenconner. Tragically, she has also survived the loss of two of her sons and nursed a third son back from a coma.
Now in her ninetieth year, and at her happiest, Anne brings her bracing honesty, characteristic wit and courage to reflect on and reveal more about her long and unexpected life, her extremely volatile marriage, and what it’s taught her.
As a wife, she became a master in the art of keeping the peace, knowing when to pick her battles, when she needed help—and when to take a lover. As a hostess, she acquired great practical skills in throwing marvellous parties and looking after magnificent homes, and, as a lady in waiting, became well versed in diplomacy and etiquette. It was as a mother she learnt the toughest lessons of all, and through them the value of friendship, family, and laughter to get her through the worst moments in life, as well as celebrate the best of them.
Anne Glenconner’s Whatever Next? is the richly entertaining proof that staying open to every new adventure and being ready for whatever happens sets an inspiring example for us all.
