Lady in Waiting : My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown

Anne Glenconner has spent her life as a friend of the Royal Family, serving as a Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation and a Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002. The eldest child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, Anne was brought up at one of the grandest estates in England, next door to the Royal Family’s coutry retreat, Sandringham. The Princess Elizabeth and Margaret were her frequent playmates. Despite her status as the first born child, she was deemed «the greatest disappointment» as a daughter and thus unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive the vipers of court life with her sense of humor intact.

Lady Glenconer’s life has encompassed stunning drama and adversity. In Lady in Wainting, she shares many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret’s closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her «mad blood»; her fifty-four year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to his manservant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; and  a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Lady Glenconner has carried on as a unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, including visits to the Reagan and Bush White Houses and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a sage harbor for the rich and famous – hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many  other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities.

With unprecedented insight into the Royal Family, Lady in Waiting is a witty, candid, dramatic and at times heartbreaking peronal story capturing life in a golden cage for a woman with no inheritance.