Whatever Next?: Lessons from an Unexpected Life Paperback – 15 Jun. 2023

There are several mentions of my name in this book and I’ve known Anne for a long time. She is such an honest, open, straightforward, lovable woman, and even though Colin was a nightmare, she managed living with him with grace and dignity.

Both this and the first book are compelling reading, a real insight into aristocratic life for women. This one is quite similar to the first, but with more details of the abuse

What an extraordinary life she had.Really enjoyable read.highly recommend.

Rather disappointed at this second volume of her memoirs. I felt the publisher realised there was commercial value in a second book and this is the result. The book of course has interesting aspects but it fails to live up to the first one. However there is a shocking disclosure regarding Jacqueline du Pre and discovering this was worth reading the book! I have to say that the lady herself is amazing and merits everyone's respect forthe life she has lived and how she has shown herself to be a survivor.

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.

“Whatever Next? Lessons from an Unexpected Life”; Anne GlenconnerIt has to be said I was not expecting to like this follow up to “Lady in Waiting”; follow-ups, I find, usually don’t live up to what it says on the tin. I was more than pleasantly surprised!Some say that Anne Glenconner is typical of an aristocratic woman of her age; aristocratic she certainly is, eccentric too, but she is a very particular and unique lady.Eccentricity is possibly one of the most common traits to be found in that slowly disappearing breed - British aristocracy. Reading her latest book I found myself thinking she is very much like two of the Mitford sister, Nancy and Debo. Anne, The Lady Glenconner, would probably find that quite horrific given the Mitford’s hailed from rungs of the aristocratic ladder that were far lower, but they emerged from what we mere mortals might consider a highly dysfunctional family which to most aristrocrats is perfectly normal; all three, though, have a very similar writing style and a most particular view of the world around them [as opposed to the world around “us”].Anne, now a signed-up nonagenarian, has had an extraordinary life by any accounts and is determined to keep being extraordinary. She has poured into this book so many of her experiences, both good and bad, and how those experiences moulded and changed her understanding of people close to her, the world and life itself. She is a joy to read. She shares insights that almost certainly would never be part of our individual worlds. As a mere youngster of seventy eight [note I did not use actual numerals because Anne would not approve] I can honestly say that I found her writing influencing how I might view things going forward; I am probably far more obstinate that she ever has been, but one can probably say she was married to an obstinate man, putting it mildly, but influencing me is not a usual occurrence [putting it mildly].Do read her book.

While dealing with some of the same subjects as the first volume of her autobiography Lady Glenconner expands upon them instead of repeating herself. Princess Margaret emerges, in my opinion, as a sad person whose life was wasted through a lack of University Education. Not a conclusion that Lady Glenconner allows herself openly to draw - though the mental abuse of women within marriage is dealt with much more openly than in the first volume. To my mind, one of the great mysteries of the late Queen's reign is resolved when Lady Glenconner openly declares her long-term support for Chiswick Women's Aid. I infer, Lady Glenconner is far too discreet to ever explicitly say or claim, that it was via Lady Glenconner that HMQ learnt of the work of Chiswick Women's Aid and gave that charity vital support.

I am quite enthralled with this book by Lady Glenconner as every page is interesting and keeps one’s attention to the end. I wondered what else she could find to write about after her previous book Lady in Waiting, but I thought wrongly, she had plenty more experiences and details to impart. It is so well written that reading is a breeze and I so look forward to my nightly read that I’ll be sorry to finish it.

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.

Either Lady Anne is a deeply gifted writer, or she has a remarkable ghostwriter. I was very satisfied indeed with her first book of memoirs, and am now enthralled with this second "installment". Netflix should hire her! 🤣 👍👍👍