91Èȱ¬

In this special programme for the Queen’s platinum jubilee, Michael Berkeley’s guest is the author and former lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, Anne Glenconner, who tells Michael about her long life as a friend of the royal family, her marriage to the outrageous Colin Tennant, and how she survived unimaginable family tragedy.

At 11.15am on June 2nd 1953, Lady Anne Coke stood at the door of Westminster Abbey, dressed in a gorgeous embroidered white satin gown. She was 20, one of six maids of honour about to pick up the Queen’s 21-foot-long velvet train and follow her up the aisle at the start of the Coronation.

What followed that momentous day for Lady Anne Coke, who became Lady Glenconner, was a life of continued service to the royal family, as well as running enormous houses, having five children, hosting glamorous parties, and travelling the world. Then at the age of 87 she published her bestselling memoir Lady in Waiting, followed by two novels. Her new book Whatever Next? will be published in the autumn.

Anne Glenconner tells Michael about the exciting days leading up to the coronation and her emotions as Elgar’s Nimrod was played at the very start of the service. She reminisces about playing on Holkham beach as a child with the Queen and Princess Margaret, and plays music that helped her through the terrible events that engulfed her three sons in the 1980s.

And she also talks frankly, and with great humour, about life with Colin Tennant, later Lord Glenconner: the temper tantrums which got him banned from airlines, the ruined trips to the opera, the excruciating first evening of their honeymoon, and the final, awful twist in the tale of their marriage.

Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media Production for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3