Lady Glenconner was born Lady Anne Coke in 1932, the eldest daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, and growing up in their ancestral estate at Holkham Hall in Norfolk. A Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation, she married Lord Glenconner in 1956. They had five children together of whom three survive. In 1958 she and her husband began to transform the island of Mustique into a paradise for the rich and famous. They granted a plot of land to Princess Margaret who built her favourite home there. She was appointed Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret in 1971 and kept this role - accompanying her on many state occasions and foreign tours - until her death in 2002. Lord Glenconner died in 2010, leaving everything in his will to his former employee. Lady Glenconner's highly acclaimed memoir, Lady in Waiting, was an international bestseller, spending over thirty weeks in the Sunday Times top ten, and reaching number four on the New York Times bestseller list. Lady in Waiting was shortlisted for a British Book Award in 2020 and is being developed into a TV drama series.
captures the outrageous lifestyle of its wealthy and privileged denizens . . . huge fun from start to finish * Irish Independent * Like slipping into a bath after a long, cold day * i paper, Best books for Christmas 2020 * What makes this vicarious Caribbean holiday worth taking is the pleasure of our hostess's company - the book is suffused not just with mere charm, but with the author's genuine, and genuinely attractive, personality * Sunday Telegraph * Anne Glenconner's memoir Lady In Waiting, which recalled her long friendship with Princess Margaret, was a runaway bestseller last year. This polished thriller evokes the same gilded world . . . A well-plotted thriller that unfolds at a clip . . . it's sure to find readers among fans of Lady In Waiting * Daily Express * Packed with glamorous detail, the novel gives a sense of behind-the-scenes familiarity with the playground of the rich and famous . . . along with fascinating hints of the more troubled side of paradise * Daily Mail * Dazzling . . . full of glamour, intrigue and gossip * Telegraph Magazine *