My mother was also Lady-in-Waiting on that famous first commonwealth tour with Princess Elizabeth, when the news broke that her beloved father, the King, had died. The author's grandfather, Earl Mountbatten, with his nephew Prince Philip. I shouted in delight when I caught a glimpse of her, age 20 and a royal bridesmaid, walking out onto the balcony with Princess Margaret and the others. My mother (or rather a a young woman playing her) even makes an appearance in the Royal Wedding scene. Played by Greg Wise in the series, he was (among many other things) Prince Philip's uncle and second cousin to the Queen. My mother is Lady Pamela Hicks her father, my grandfather, was Earl Mountbatten of Burma. 'It's rather good' she conceded, which lets face it, is high praise considering she lived through so much of it-with a front row seat. And it is ridiculous to think that a weekend party would consist of only fourteen house guests, it would have consisted of at least 40!'Īnd so, with baited breath I asked her how she was enjoying The Crown. 'No, no its all wrong, as though any gentleman would have his hand in his suit pockets whilst talking to a lady. 'But why?' I asked, as I, along with most of the nation, was gripped by this magical series. (Mar.My mother could not bear to watch more than one episode of Downton Abbey. This memoir of life amid British royalty is full of understated wit and charm.

She becomes wistful when she writes of suffering through one of her children’s drug addiction, another’s death to AIDS, and one’s near-fatal motorcycle accident that left him in a coma for months. Glenconner’s an entertaining writer, even as she describes being married to the volatile but charming Colin Tennant for 54 years, through his tantrums, absences, and affairs. Bush, and hobnobbed with celebrities including David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and Raquel Welch at Glenconner’s husband’s private Caribbean island. Throughout this time, Glenconner met presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. In 1953, Glenconner served as maid of honor at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, and in 1971, Princess Margaret invited her to be a lady-in-waiting, a position she held until Margaret’s death in 2002. Born in 1932, the eldest child of the future Earl of Leicester and “the greatest disappointment on behalf of her sex,” an entrepreneurial Glenconner found herself “in a great many odd circumstances” growing up, including a stint selling pottery traveling from town to town, on her way to adulthood.

Glenconner, former lady-in-waiting to England’s Princess Margaret, provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the British royal family in this heartbreaking and engrossing memoir.

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