The Earl of Snowdon 1930-2017.
Lord Snowdon was an accomplished photographer, a talented designer, and a champion of the disabled, said The Guardian, but he was chiefly known as the commoner who married into the Royal Family: he was the first to wed a king’s daughter for some 450 years. Antony Armstrong-Jones was 28 when, in 1958, he met Princess Margaret. She was said to be on the rebound from Peter Townsend, a divorcee whom she’d been forbidden from marrying. Armstrong-Jones was said to be temperamentally unsuited to royal life. He wouldn’t, his own father warned, relish spending the rest of his life walking two steps behind his wife. (Margaret may have loved escaping into his bohemian world, but as her biographer, Tim Heald, noted, “she was a king’s daughter and a queen’s sister – facts she seldom forgot, and then not for long”.) So it proved: 18 years after they married, they became the first royal couple to divorce since Henry VIII rid himself of Anne of Cleves in 1540. But in between, they were the most glamorous couple in Swinging London, said The Times. And afterwards, Snowdon remained on good terms with the Royal Family: in 2006, he was invited to photograph the Queen to mark her 80th birthday.
This story is from the January 21 2017 edition of The Week UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 21 2017 edition of The Week UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
His Only Crime Was Coming Home
As Western-backed forces push Islamic State out of Mosul, its militants are laying minefields in their wake – aimed not at soldiers but at ordinary people who have come back to rebuild their lives. Colin Freeman went on a tour of Iraq’s new killing fields
The Modest Dutch Designer Who Made Millions From Miffy
Dick Bruna, who has died aged 89, created one of the most instantly recognisable characters in children’s literature, said The New York Times: the sparsely drawn white rabbit known in English as Miffy.
Trump's conflict of interest: how will he deal with it?
Donald Trump ran, and won, on a promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington corruption, said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. But so far, he seems intent on deepening it. The president-elect owns or has stakes in around 500 companies, at least 111 of which do business overseas. This creates a massive and unprecedented conflict of interest. One of Trump’s biggest lenders, for example, is Germany’s Deutsche Bank, currently negotiating a multibillion-dollar settlement with the Justice Department over abuses that contributed to the 2008 market crash.
What the scientists are saying...
What the scientists are saying...
Cricket: Kohli hammers England
The end was “swift” and brutal, said Vic Marks in The Guardian. On the final morning of the fourth Test, in Mumbai, India needed less than half an hour to take England’s last four wickets. They thrashed the visitors by an innings and 36 runs to seal a 3-0 series victory, with the fifth Test still to be played.
Keeping The Press Under Control
Press freedom is under threat – at least according to recent newspaper reports. What are they so worried about?
The Society Photographer Who Married A Princess
The Earl of Snowdon 1930-2017.
Exhibition Of The Week War In The Sunshine, The British In Italy 1917-18
For most of us, the story of the First World War is defined by the “mud, gas and trenches” of the Western Front, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times.
Rock ‘n' Roll Superstar Who Caught the Teen Spirit
Chuck Berry didn’t invent rock ’n’ roll – no one person could claim credit for that.
The Ruthless Ira Commander Who Helped Broker Peace
On 27 August 1979, the Provisional IRA murdered Lord Mountbatten while he was on a family holiday in Sligo, said Henry McDonald in The Guardian.
