Manners and Mischief E-Book

Anne Glenconner

• Herausgeber: Bedford Square Publishers
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 170

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Filled with sparkling anecdotes and tales of living life to the full, featuring previously unseen photographs from Lady Glenconner's personal collection. Lady Anne Glenconner, Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret and Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation, returns with a rich, sparkling memoir told through an A to Z of her life. From affairs of the heart and Basil's Bar to dinners with the King and the art of entertaining each chapter reveals a vivid moment of joy, mischief or resilience. Whether offering tips on getting out of the bath with grace, or how to lose at cards with Princess Margaret, she shares wisdom and memory in equal measure. This book is a love letter to a disappearing world and a reminder that life, at any age, should be faced with laughter, a stiff upper lip, and the odd vodka tonic.

Leseprobe

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BEDFORDSQUAREPUBLISHERS.CO.UK

Lady Glenconner

Manners & Mischief

An A-Z of a Life Lived Well

To my beloved sisters Carey and Sarah

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Affair

Amateur Dramatics

Art

Basil’s Bar

Baths

Beauty

Boarding School

Careers

Charity

Children

Cinema

Clothes

Conversation

Cow

Dancing

Diana

Diet

Dinners

Diplomacy

Driving

Dying

Eels

Entertaining

Expeditions

Flowers

Flying

Friendship

Games

Gardening

Getting On With It

Hair

Handrails

Hats

Hotels

Husbands

Impatience

Inheritance

Interior Design

Jealousy

Jewellery

Jobs

Joy

Jubilee

Kindness

King

Kissing

Kitchen

Laughter

Laziness

Love

Luck

Manners

Men

Marriage

Money

Mustique and Kate Moss

Nannies

Naughtiness

Neighbours

Newspapers

Noise

Opera

Outdoors

Packing

Photography

Piano

Poetry

Pottery

Queen

Queer Uncles

Queues

Reading

Religion

Sailing and Swimming

Sex

Secrets

Shopping

Sitting Straight

Sport

Stairs

Telephones

Therapy

Tidying

Twins

Underwear

Upgrade

Vera Lynn

Visitors

Vodka

Walking

Waving

Weddings

Writing

X-rays

Xenial

Yachting

Zoom

Zest For Life

Picture Section

Acknowledgements

Picture Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

Affair

The other day I made the most extraordinary discovery. My mother had a tiny little writing case, which had a very stiff lock that I had never been able to open. My daughter, Amy, was staying with me and managed to prise open the lock, and inside found letters written by Queen Elizabeth to my mother as well as rather heartbreaking letters which Charles had written to her from school. It was fascinating reading through these, but then underneath them all, wrapped in brown paper, was a little book that turned out to be a diary my father had kept whilst he was in Cairo where he was stationed with the Scots Guards during the war. My mother went with him and worked with the Red Cross there. I had seen earlier letters which my father had written home describing the horror of the war, standing in newly dug out foxholes in the freezing cold desert every night, only his helmet and eyes visible, scouring the landscape for Rommel and his advancing army. But the diary painted quite a different picture of life away from the front line in Cairo. It was a world of champagne cocktails and dinner at the Continental or Shepheard’s Hotel, perhaps going on to the Dugout cabaret, or to Jules’ nightclub. There were polo and golf matches, picnics at the pyramids, dinner parties, even shooting parties. But the real surprise was the revelation that my father was having a cracking affair with a woman he refers to as ‘M’ and whom he writes passionately about. She was a secretary working for one of the generals and clearly because of their affair was always late to work. My father seemed frightfully worried about her and writes about going into the office to plead her case to ensure she didn’t get into trouble. What is so extraordinary is that it all seems to have gone on in full view of everyone. He writes about one evening’s dinner party at Shepheard’s Hotel with a group of people including my mother and ‘M’, going on to Jules’ nightclub: ‘danced, sipped brandy and ginger ales. Gerald Grosvenor took Eliz home! Took M home. Flat. Bed by 5am’. I have no idea whether my mother (Eliz) had an affair with Gerald Grosvenor, but it’s clear she must have known all about what was going on between my father and ‘M’. And it paints a picture which is a world apart from the rather formal life they were leading in England.

I think this is what war does to people, the effect of being at the front and dealing with the potential imminence of death, makes life suddenly seem worth grabbing with both hands. I also think there is something that happens in the heat, particularly to those people who have been previously trussed up in boned and cumbersome underwear and who are suddenly free to wear lacy knickers and cotton dresses. It must have produced a sense of freedom and living from day to day, I think it got the blood pumping. I had never seen this passionate side of my father before. He buys ‘M’ jewellery before he leaves and writes of feeling desperate and depressed when he had to say goodbye to her before embarking on the long sea journey home. His diary of the voyage is peppered with notes of the times he sent her letters and telegrams.

My parents’ marriage survived, I suspect, largely due to the intervention of my Great Aunt Bridget, a Christian Scientist, who clearly told my mother to put the events of the war behind her, patch things up and get on with trying to produce a son and heir for Holkham. My mother’s diaries record that trying to get pregnant was not a joyful experience, but they managed it and of course went on to have my sister Sarah, so sadly the issue of an heir was unresolved. They seem to work out how to carry on afterwards, and I think were reasonably happy; my father adored Holkham and my mother started Holkham pottery and threw herself into that. They were so young when they met, my mother was just fifteen and father was seventeen, so they were childhood sweethearts and just nineteen and twenty-one when they married. In those days they would certainly not have slept together before marriage and had no other experience of love or relationships. I suppose the same was true of my generation. I do think it’s probably a mistake to marry so young and to the first person you fall in love with. Ideally, I believe you should have the opportunity to meet lots of people and have plenty of relationship experience before deciding who to spend your life with.

Amateur Dramatics

In amateur dramatics, as in most areas of my life up until the last few years, my role was strictly a supporting one to my husband Colin and Princess Margaret. The impetus and inspiration for the various plays we all put on, particularly at Glen in the Scottish Borders, came from Colin, and from Princess Margaret when she was staying. She and Colin used to love plotting sketches and songs to be performed, usually in front of a captive audience of people from the village who Colin had instructed to attend. We had an eclectic store of costumes which Colin had bought when we were in Hollywood, including some large plastic bottoms, which he had shipped back to England. I have a photograph of Princess Margaret dolled up in a fantastic dress as Mae West. Luckily, when the Queen first saw it in the Daily Mail she loved it and was very amused. And I also remember Princess Margaret singing the ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ wearing a Victorian dress and bonnet with Roddy Llewellyn following on behind. A lot of these things she enjoyed even more because Roddy, who was also very enthusiastic, was there.

I was never allowed to take part in the drama, my role was strictly behind the scenes, sewing on buttons and helping people into their costumes. It was very much Colin and Princess Margaret driving these events. I did sometimes hope they might say, ‘Oh, Anne, why don’t you be so and so in this play?’ and give me a role, but they never did. I think it’s one reason why I am rather enjoying my time in the limelight now, not as an actor but invited to give talks and be interviewed, finally I’m allowed to take centre stage.

My love of ‘Am Dram’ started during the war when my sister Carey I were sent up to Scotland to stay with Great Aunt Bridget. Her home, Cortachy Castle had been requisitioned and was being used as a hospital for Polish officers. We believed it was a very important part of our war work to keep the Polish officers entertained and so would put on little shows for them. Given that we were aged five and seven, and their English was not fantastic, I’m not at all sure quite how entertaining they found the performances they were made to sit through!

Art

My father was rather surprised and horrified by the fact that my mother was a fan of the artist Beryl Cook. Her work was considered rather vulgar, and quite the opposite of some of the wonderful pictures on the walls at Holkham. But my mother bought several of her paintings and got to know the artist personally. The Queen Mother also seemed to enjoy Beryl Cook as I have a letter she wrote to my mother thanking her for the ‘kitchen lunch’ she had enjoyed with my mother at Holkham, ‘eating delicious food, gossiping and laughing’ and ‘surrounded by those splendid ladies with their enormous arms and legs’. They were very good friends and from her letters I can see that the Queen Mother really valued the closeness of her friendship to my mother. I still have a couple of her Beryl Cook pictures, although my real love was for Victorian paintings, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites. I was never artistic unlike my mother and sister, but I enjoyed going to exhibitions. When I was married, even in London we had a staff of five or six, so we had a lot of spare time. We all took up working for various charities but had plenty of time to meet friends for lunch every day. Quite often someone would suggest going to see an exhibition in the afternoon, for example if something nice was on at the V&A we’d pop off and spend a happy afternoon wandering round the galleries.

When I was in New York, being interviewed by Tina Brown for Lady in Waiting, I received an invitation from a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art inviting me to go and see the painting ‘The Wyndham Sisters’ by John Singer Sargent which they had recently rehung. The Times had labelled the painting ‘The greatest picture of modern times’ and the Met rehang had placed it in a smallish room where it was very much the main event. It’s a very large work in which Pamela Wyndham who was by then Pamela Tennant, Colin’s grandmother, takes centre stage, reclining on a chaise-longue with one sister at her head and another at her feet. She was very beautiful and rather glamorous and was at the heart of the political and cultural establishment at the time. She went on to have five children with Colin’s grandfather Edward Tennant, who became Lord Glenconner. She wasn’t an easy person, famously needing to be the centre of attention, which, as I stood to have my photograph taken in front of the painting, I hoped was not a character trait common to all Lady Glenconners!

Basil’s Bar

When Colin met Basil Charles on St Vincent and asked him to come to Mustique to run a bar, it was one of the most successful appointments he made. Basil has great charm and was brilliant with people. He made the bar the party hub of the island and it was, and is, a great success. He also cut a glamorous figure and attracted all the single ladies Colin invited to come to the island in the early days. He ended up falling in love with Lady Royston when she visited following the death of her husband and they lived together on the island for over ten years with her two children. He was also really kind to Colin, and when he left Mustique for St Lucia, took him on holiday once to Bali. Whilst Colin ended up burning through his inheritance, Basil ended up making a very good living from the bar, becoming rich and a celebrity in his own right. I saw him the last time I went to Mustique with another lovely lady in tow, and he cooked us the most delicious lobster and made his signature Mustique Mule. Basil was even asked to recreate his bar at The Goring Hotel near Buckingham Palace. They commissioned a bespoke driftwood bar and shipped in tons of sand and two coconut trees and had a steel band on hand – a little slice of Mustique in Belgravia. Pippa Middleton held a birthday party there as Basil had become great friends with the Middletons in Mustique and was invited to Prince William and Kate’s wedding. He was also given an OBE for his services to underprivileged children’s education as he had set up a wonderful education foundation, which awards scholarships to fund secondary education for deserving children on St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Baths

I know lots of people prefer showers but for me there’s always the worry about one’s hair and I love nothing more than a luxurious bath, especially if you’re feeling a bit chilly. However, I’ve recently fractured my back, and the trouble is the older you get the more difficult it is to get out of a bath. My best friend Margaret Vyner unfortunately got stuck in her bath and thought she was going to die in it. She knew her cleaner wasn’t coming for another two days and although she could hear her telephone ringing in her bedroom she couldn’t get to it. Luckily her half-sister wondered why she wasn’t picking up the telephone and asked Margaret’s grandson to pop over and check on her. She was found just in time, the doctor said if she had been left another two hours she would have died. We were all appalled and terrified by this and for a time I would always take my telephone with me to the bath so I could call for help if I did get stuck. It’s not something you think about when you are younger, but I had been heaving myself out of the bath using an elbow and one hand and I wonder whether that weakened my back and has led to my fracture. My daughters and daughter-in-law quite rightly said, ‘That’s the last time you are heaving yourself out of the bath,’ and now we’ve installed this lovely electric chair which goes in and out of the bath. It makes the whole thing much easier and I feel more confident about being able to enjoy my bath again.

I think the Queen enjoyed her baths too. I remember once when Princess Margaret and I had been swimming in the pool at Buckingham Palace, which we did most mornings, she asked me if I’d like to go and have a look at the rooms where the Queen lived. Of course I jumped at the chance, and was shown a very charming bedroom, but what really struck me was the line of celluloid ducks wearing crowns lined up in order of size on the side of the bath.

Beauty

I don’t spend a great deal on beauty products, I pretty much depend on the Boots No.7 range of skincare, and I’m amazed by the money that is spent on products these days. When I was younger I had acne, and I remember my mother taking me to ‘a wonderful lady in London’ to try and sort out the problem. The firm was run by two women who had been to Paris, which was seen as the centre of the beauty industry, to learn about creams and skincare. They gave me a cream which I still have the remnants of today and it’s absolutely wonderful. It contains whale oil so you couldn’t buy it now but I still use it, and people do comment that I have a very good complexion so I think it works. When I was young, we were never taught how to apply make-up, any emphasis on your personal appearance was thought to be the height of vanity and not acceptable, despite the need to always look presentable and tidy. I do remember the joy, however, of escaping to the cloakroom during dances where the cloakroom ladies were on hand to provide a safety pin or hairspray, and you could apply your lipstick and spend a few moments brushing your hair and relaxing with the other girls before returning to the agony of the ballroom and the anxious wait to be asked to dance.

In later life however, I’ve been asked to appear on various television shows and I adore the hair and make-up before going on. I’ve become extremely partial to false eyelashes – always single, never strips. I appeared on Loose Women the day before the launch party for my book Picnic Papers and was desperate my wonderful false lashes would still be in place for the party. I think I hardly slept that night with trying not to dislodge them.

I’ve also only ever worn Chanel Number 5 scent. I don’t use it every day, only when I’m going out, but I always think I have a better time when I’m wearing it. Marilyn Monroe famously said when asked in an interview for Life magazine what she wore at night: ‘I just wear Chanel Number 5.’ I’d love to be that glamorous but I’m very fond of my cosy nightie in bed.

Boarding School

I was sent to Downham School in Essex to board aged eleven. I was incredibly homesick and rather resentful as my parents had only returned from Egypt the year before, so I didn’t want to have to leave them again, but off I was sent with my leather trunk. The school was run by Mrs Crawford who lived with the under-mistress Miss Graham; it seems obvious to me now that they were partners, but I think at the time no one realised it. There were dreadful double standards then. I remember when Radclyffe Hall’s book The Well of Loneliness was found in the library there was a terrific row, lesbianism was simply not allowed or acknowledged. If a girl was caught under the covers with another girl she was given a warning and if caught twice she would be expelled. So if you went to comfort someone who was homesick and crying in the dorm you had to make sure you stayed on top of the covers if you gave her a hug.

People often ask how you survive boarding school, and I think it’s all about the friends you make there. Somehow being thrown together with all these other girls, who are also homesick, created a real bond and many of the friends I made at school were friends for life. But I think to send off small children, aged seven or eight, really isn’t on and I was very pleased when the Princess of Wales decided to send George to a day school. It’s too young to be torn away from your parents. I think I was forced to grow up too early when my parents left me aged seven to go to Cairo, and the same thing applies to boarding school at that age. My daughter sent her children to a day school, and it was only when they asked to board aged thirteen that they went away, at that point they loved it. However, boarding school is now so incredibly expensive, I think it’s only an option available to the very few.

Careers

I do worry sometimes that everybody these days thinks that they need to go to university. Of course, it’s brilliant for some people but even if you have been to university there aren’t always jobs afterwards and some people aren’t suited to it. My grandson Euan was very clever and went to university, but he really did not enjoy it and his mother very sensibly said, ‘You’re very good with numbers and physics why don’t you train as an electrician?’ So he did and it’s been a huge success, he’s a first-rate electrician and very well paid. We need skilled plumbers, carpenters and electricians and I really do think more young people, girls and boys, might find that sort of work suits them better rather than pushing themselves through a degree which might not even lead to a job at the end of it all.

Charity