Whatever Next! (A Bear Family Book, 2)

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Now in her early 90’s she is very much enjoying her new life as an author, and touring to promote her books!! This one was more a re-hashing of that one. Maybe I was too eager and didn’t give enough time between both books. Whatever Next? covers some of the same ground as Lady in Waiting, but the tone is much darker, especially about her marriage to Colin Tennant. Before, she painted him as a highly-strung eccentric who was liable to throw tantrums, but now she calls him “an incredibly selfish, damaged and occasionally dangerous man” and says that “I lived with domestic violence and abuse for most of my marriage”.

The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Please review our Rounded up. What I enjoyed: it was refreshing to see Anne Papp roach her marriage and the abuse she suffered with less defense of her husband and for being more honest about how horrible his behavior was. I also loved her optimism about challenges we face in life. It was a much needed reminder for me. Well, I’ve given up supper. I find that eating late gives me indigestion and I wanted to lose weight around my middle. It’s marvellous. I never feel hungry. I have breakfast and a good lunch and that’s it. I lost a stone without trying. I also walk every day and properly. You’ve got to lift your feet up. Anne seemed to have great common sense in dealing with things: "Sometimes I find that talking too much about life's problems can simply make one more agitated and prolong the misery. Friends mean well, but they tend to sympathize and tell you you're right to be so upset and egg you on to feel wronged. That can actually make things worse if you let it." I think this is a great observation! Princess Margaret was also a believer that "one didn't dwell." She also downplays crying. "It's absolutely no use." Generally I agree with this too.

Anne wasn't the only one in her family to deal with marital woes; she mentions her beloved sister Carey, who had a husband "who would only talk to her through the dog for years on end." This is very sad, but I'll admit I had to laugh when I read it :) Who can believe the things some people do?! Anne Glenconner's remarkable life hasn't always been as glamorous as one would expect of the daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, but it's certainly been an eventful one. From being raised in the beautiful Holkham Hall to living in a tent in the jungles of Mustique, and from exploring the world with Princess Margaret, to keeping pace with her unrestrained and impulsive husband - Lord Glenconner - Anne has lived many extremes. Give children a large piece of paper and paints or crayons to paint a picture of their journey to the moon. A somewhat different book than the first of her autobiography “Lady in Waiting,” this one is told in the same humorous, matter of fact style but with much more openness and honesty about some things which were whitewashed (her marriage) or glossed over (her childhood trauma at the hands of a nasty governess) in the first book. Colin was a Jekyll and Hyde figure, wasn’t he? Great fun at one moment and vicious and violent at the next.

But isn’t stoicism a double-edged sword? As you admit in your book, life might have been better for you and your children if you’d talked more. Whatever Now” is a candid look at a very interesting life full of moments of both extraordinary privilege and of tragedy. Not long ago, I read and enjoyed "Lady in Waiting," by Anne Glenconner. You may remember that Anne was a maid of honor at Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and then served as a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret for several decades. She ended that book by looking with optimism toward the future, always wondering "Whatever next?" So, when I saw her new book, "Whatever Next?" up for review, I was happy to sign up. She still lives near Holkham, in Norfolk, where she grew up as the daughter of the Earl of Leicester. She was one of the maids of honour at the Queen’s coronation and soon afterwards married Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner. He took her to a brothel on their wedding night so she could learn what was required. That was only the first of his outrages – he expected her to carry his luggage through airports – but soon he was swept up in the excitement of creating his own island paradise, Mustique, and she saw less of him.I wasn’t brought up like that. One tried and tried. After he nearly killed me [Tennant violently beat her on Mustique], our marriage did change. We led more separate lives. He spent a lot more time in the West Indies and I was in England with the children. If we’d had to live cheek by jowl, it would have been much harder, as it is for most people. No, because I was able to murder her in my novel A Haunting at Holkham[published in 2021]. I got rid of her and there was a wonderful feeling of relief. This is true of a lot of the awful things that have happened to me in my life. Now I’ve written about them, I feel completely different. It’s had a wonderful effect on me. This was an easy and again, an interesting read; although I first thought it was going to be a rehash of ‘Lady in Waiting’; it just went into things in more depth and less in some others. I liked how the chapters were split into themes; not many photos though this time.