Whatever Next?: Lessons from an Unexpected Life

Well written

Whatever Next is Anne, Lady Glenconner's second book, a sequel to her best selling memoir Lady in Waiting, which was an entertaining but fairly standard autobiography or memoir. Whatever Next is a more personal work, expanding on some of the topics in her first book, but also delving into deeper matters and letting her readers see more of her as a person. Now aged 90, Lady Glenconner has led a full and remarkable life, and her books are well worth reading.A cynical reader might wonder whether a person born to great wealth and high social position as a member of a family that had been titled since the Middle Ages, who was brought up in mansions attended by plenty of servants, who served as one of the Queen's Maids of Honor at the 1953 Coronation, and who married into another wealthy and prominent titled family could possibly have anything to say for the rest of us (the ones who aren't aristocrats.) My answer is a resounding yes!Anne Glenconner's life was privileged and impressive, but it was also filled with turmoil and tragedy. Her parents were kind but distant (as with most aristocratic children of her era she was raised by servants), she was basically uneducated beyond what we would think of as grade school, and she was given little or no training beyond what she would need to be the wife of a wealthy man. Her husband, Colin Tennant, who later succeeded as Lord Glenconner, was a gifted, intelligent, and mercurial man, narcissistic to the extreme and an incredible spendthrift. Anne is far kinder to his memory than most people would be, explaining away his awfulnesses and violence towards her and their children in what many would recognize as a classic example of Battered Wife Syndrome. Anne lost two of her three sons and helped nurse the third through years of rehabilitation after a devastating injury, and in a last final insult, she and her family were disinherited by her husband in favor of one of his attendants.After learning all this few of us could blame Anne Glenconner for becoming bitter and withdrawing from the world, but she hasn't. In What Next she chronicles her busy and active life, writing vividly and lovingly of her friends (including Princess Margaret, for whom she was Lady in Waiting for many years), her children and grandchildren. She is a remarkable lady for whom I, and surely most of her readers, wish only the best.

Een heel indrukwekkend verhaal en in 1x uitgelezen. Een aanrader!

Die Autorin lässt uns teilhaben an sehr intimen Momenten ihres Lebens ohne reißerische oder unangemessen zu sein. Insbesondere sprachlich sehr schön zu lesen, um sein Englisch aufzufrischen.

This is an excellent sequel to ‘Lady in Waiting’; something that can be very tricky to do, as generally you’ve already used up all of your best stories! There is some repetition, but it is necessary to provide context, and I don’t mind that at all.Lady Glenconner is one of those where the mould was undoubtedly broken. She is unique, eccentric, genuinely an aristocrat and she can certainly tell a tale or two to maximum effect, whether it is good or not so good. I’m also going to add that she is exceptionally brave in so many ways. She has led a fascinating life, and pulls the curtain back on situations and times that many of us can only imagine. She holds the attention with blunt honesty and rare insight, not only of others, but of herself too. She truly is a one-off and is clearly intending to stay that way.I originally bought this book for my mum, but I started off intending just to read a few pages, and I was completely hooked. It is an excellent and thought-provoking read. Highly recommended.