Money is sometimes the only difference between eccentricity and madness, says Lady Anne Glenconner, who served as Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting for over 30 years.
Photo: supplied / HalShinnie
As the daughter of the fifth Earl of Leicester, Anne grew up in Holkham House – the fifth-largest estate in England – and for 54 years was married to the British aristocrat Lord Colin Tennent.
Now 87, she's written a memoir about fascinating and tragic life – Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown.
Anne tells Kim Hill that she wrote the book partly to set the record straight about Princess Margaret who has often been portrayed unfairly.
In an upcoming TV depiction – series three of Netflix's The Crown – Margaret is played by Helena Bonham-Carter and Anne by British actress Nancy Carroll.
While researching her role, Nancy visited Anne – who hasn't yet seen the new series.
"One felt she was taking one in and looking at one ... She's very pretty so I was rather pleased about that."
As a child, Anne was friendly with Princess Margaret and says that as her lady-in-waiting, she was mostly a go-between.
"People ring you up to say 'what colour is she wearing 'cause we want to get the flowers right, you know?'"
When going out with Margaret, Anne had to scope where the lavatory was: "I was always in eye contact with her, too."
Later, they'd laugh and talk.
Princess Margaret was also friendly with Anne's husband Colin, who gifted the princess a house on the Caribbean island of Mustique as a wedding present when she married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960.
This piece of land was the only thing Margaret owned for herself, Anne says, and the princess had a wonderful time there swimming, having picnics and "living the easy life".
It was Anne and Colin who introduced Princess Margaret to the much younger Roddy Llewellyn at a house party in the 1950s.
The couple were alarmed when Margaret and Roddy fell for each other and began a scandalous affair: "We both said what have we done?"
Later, Princess Margaret became friends with Roddy's wife Tatiana Soskin, Anne says.
"She was very clever like that, she didn't want to lose him. She thought 'I'll become friends with his wife and we can have a nice relationship like that."
Colin Tennent was an extremely difficult person to live with, but very charming and never boring, Anne says.
"He had enough marvellousness about him to cancel it out, up to a point. He was sort of magical in lots of ways."
During their marriage, he had many affairs and would even complain about his paramours to his wife if given the chance.
"[At one stage] he took off to Africa .. the whole point was you got in a canoe, went off to look animals. This lady had broken her leg and she couldn't get into the canoe. Colin was absolutely furious, came back and said 'Anne, I've had the most ghastly holiday. I think I've behaved very badly.' I said 'Colin, I really don't want to hear'. It was sort of fairly endearing."
Colin's temper was so bad he was banned for life from British Airways after an incident in California which involved him lying down on the plane kicking and screaming because there wasn't a first-class seat for him – then getting escorted off the flight by police.
Wealth is sometimes the only difference between eccentricity and madness, Anne says.
"If you're eccentric you have to have money, you can't be a poor eccentric. If you're poor then it's mad, if you're very rich then you're eccentric."
The second night of their honeymoon, Colin took Anne to a hotel which doubled as a brothel.
"Our honeymoon was a nightmare though luckily I got pregnant and we had to go home."
Lady Anne Glenconner and Lord Colin Glenconner Photo: YouTube screenshot
In 1958, Colin and Anne bought the mosquito-ridden island of Mustique and Colin held extravagant parties to attract celebrities like Mick Jagger and David Bowie.
"He said 'mark my words, I'm going to make [Mustique] a household name' – and he did."
Once he bought an elephant from the Dublin Zoo and transported it to the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia on a banana boat.
The elephant lived there for 12 years before dying an unfortunate death, Anne says.
"Guests at the local hotel used to feed it in the evening. Once it was given a whole lot of bread that hadn't risen. And of course, elephants, like sheep, can't sort of 'let off' and the wind built up inside it and killed it, sadly."
When the elephant first arrived on Saint Lucia a crowd of boys wanted to look after it, Anne says. Colin simply picked one out of the crowd.
"He looked around saw this boy with big ears and said 'what about you? I'll have you' and that was Kent."
Kent Adonai went on to become Colin's personal carer, and when he died in 2010, Colin left him £20 million worth of assets – and not a thing for Anne and their children.
"That was the final blow. That really, really upset me.
"The children and I weren't even mentioned. We weren't even mentioned in the will."
Anne and Colin had five children together – including Henry, who died of AIDS, Charles, a former heroin addict who died of Hepatitis C, and Christopher who is severely disabled from a severe brain injury.
She tells Kim it was a therapeutic process writing the memoir.
"Once it was all written down it was a great help, in a way."
So might there be a follow-up?
"It was quite a strange life, really, looking back on it.
"I have got a hell of a lot of very good stories … you never know."
