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Whatever Next?: Lessons from an Unexpected Life Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Bracing honesty, rare insight, and more revelations: theNew York Timesbestselling author ofLady in Waiting shares everything she's learned from her extraordinary and unexpected life.
Lady in Waiting brought us royal magic, beguiling insight, and jaw-dropping stories from life inside Anne Glenconner’s privileged circle, which though golden didn't always glitter. As she revealed in her memoir, it has been one of stark contrasts—from growing up in the splendor of Holkham Hall to living in a tent in the jungle of Mustique, from traveling the world with Princess Margaret to coping with her wildly unpredictable husband Lord Glenconner. She has also survived the tragic loss of two of her sons and nursed a third son back from a coma.Now in her ninth decade and at her happiest, she's keen to share everything her unexpected life has taught her—the wise, the hilarious, the poignant, and the illuminating. As a wife, she became a master in the art of keeping the peace, knowing when to pick her battles, when she needed help—and when to take a lover. As a hostess, she acquired great practical skills in throwing marvelous parties and looking after magnificent homes, and, as a lady in waiting, became well versed in diplomacy and etiquette. It was as a mother she learnt the toughest lessons of all, and through them the value of friendship, family, and laughter to get her through the worst moments in life, as well as celebrate the best of them.
Whatever Next? is a treasury of hard-won wisdom, and richly entertaining proof that staying open to every new adventure sets an inspiring example for us all.
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"As her memoir makes clear, her capacity 'to get on with life and not dwell,' even in the most extreme circumstances, is heroic. There is, nevertheless, a vein of quiet anger. The book is a retaliation as much as a reminiscence. It is also a finely drawn double portrait. Margaret is in the foreground, spotlit, while behind her Glenconner's life plays out with such self-effacing matter-of-factness that it takes time for the reader to realise that of these two intertwined biographies Glenconner's is by far the more remarkable....Glenconner has an eye for detail, and if her picture of Princess Margaret dwells on the positives, it makes no attempt to conceal the difficulties....Lady Anne brings out a touchingly naive side of Margaret's character, visible only to an insider familiar with the realities of royal life....Her book is partly a meditation on how much or how little she could have done differently. Although regret isn't in her emotional register, there is an unmistakable sadness when she remembers certain things, especially about her children, and her 'heart sinks.'"
— London Review of Books
Quotes
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“A jolly anecdote for every day of the year and excellent advice.”
— The Times (London) -
“Paints a more vivid picture of [the royals’] claustrophobic world...It’s a memoir of another time, when England was smaller and the empire larger, and aristocrats truly were the untouchable celebrities.”
— New York Times -
"A poignant perspective on the constraining limits on aristocratic women of her generation, whose formal educations were minimal and whose life expectations revolved around marrying well, managing a large household, and providing a male heir.”
— New Yorker -
Anne Glenconner's life story is a combination of royal magic, personal tragedy and resilient survival. With humor, courage, and preternatural poise, Anne Glenconner triumphed over all of it and at last tells the story of her uniquely fascinating life.
— Tina Brown -
Exceptional.
— Andre Leon Talley -
A remarkable memoir--containing, at last, a genuine portrait of Princess Margaret from one who knew her well. But this book is poignant too, and through the pages shine [Anne's] courage and good-humored acceptance of her demons and tragedies.
— Hugo Vickers -
A smart, dishy, and truly touching autobiography.
— Town & Country -
Stalwart and disarmingly honest....Emotion resonates through this delightful memoir...candid, humorous.
— The Wall Street Journal -
I couldn't put it down. Funny and touching - like looking through a keyhole at a lost world.
— Rupert Everett -
Riveting...[Anne's] stiff upper lip never quivers.
— Oprah Magazine -
Discretion and honor emerge as the hallmarks of Glenconner's career as a royal servant, culminating in this book which manages to be both candid and kind.
— The Guardian
Awards
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A Sunday Times (London) bestseller
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An Amazon Editor’s Top Pick in Memoirs
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About Anne Glenconner
Lady Glenconner was born Lady Anne Coke in 1932, the eldest daughter of the fifth Earl of Leicester, and grew up at their ancestral estate at Holkham Hall in Norfolk, England. She was a maid of honor at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and then married Lord Glenconner in 1956. They had five children together, three of whom survived. In 1958 she and her husband began to transform the island of Mustique into a paradise for the rich and famous and where Princess Margaret built her favorite home. She was appointed a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret in 1971 and kept this role—accompanying her on many state occasions and foreign tours—until the princess’s death in 2002. She lives in a farmhouse in Norfolk.