HOLKHAM, on the north Norfolk coast, with its fine Palladian hall and vast beach, has long been a draw, but the estate now boasts an additional attraction. ‘I was signing books in the shop last Christmas and charabancs came from the Midlands,’ says Lady Glenconner in disbelief. ‘They were snaking all the way around the park to meet me!’
Her memoir, Lady in Waiting, is a publishing phenomenon, selling nearly half a million copies in the UK alone and spending 37 weeks in the bestseller charts. It recently passed 100,000 sales in America, has been published in France, and bought by Russia and Japan. ‘Sometimes, I feel like a child,’ she enthuses. ‘I’m so lucky. Here I am, next year I’ll be 90, and I’ve got this exciting, amazing life.’
Born Lady Anne Coke, eldest daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, she grew up at her beloved Holkham, where the Cokes were close to the Royal Family; as a child, she played with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at nearby Sandringham and her father was equerry to George VI. She was a maid of honor at the Coronation in 1953, before marrying the colorful Colin Tennant (later Lord Glenconner), creator of Mustique. In 1971, Princess Margaret asked her to become a lady in waiting, a position she held until the Princess’s death in 2002.
It was chiefly to correct public opinion of Margaret that Lady Glenconner set about writing her book. (She was enraged by Craig Brown’s 2017 savage, mischievous biography, Ma’am Darling.) The Margaret of Lady Glenconner’s memoir isn’t without certain ‘royal moments’, but her many kindnesses are emphasized.
Denne historien er fra June 23, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 23, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
