Whatever Next! (A Bear Family Book, 2)

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Anne Veronica (Coke) Tennant, LVO, Baroness Glenconner is a daughter of Thomas W.E. Coke, MVO, GOC, 5th Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth Mary (Yorke) Tennant, Countess of Leicester. 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.

My mother whizzed around Norfolk on her beloved Harley Davidson until she was well into her sixties, in her motorcycle leathers. She was my great friend and champion when I was growing up, and encouraged me to be brave and adventurous, but she never fussed about what I was feeling or wanted to indulge my anxieties. We had to put others first, but not to the extent of becoming doormats in our dealings with the world. It was important to stand up for oneself when necessary. Otherwise her message was simple. Never complain. Life isn’t fair. You will have to do things you won’t want to do, so just get on with it. Putting a brave face on things was all we could do.” Yes, they did and if the footman carried raw eggs in a bain-marie from the kitchen to the nursery, it was so far, they were boiled on arrival. The world has changed immeasurably. I think anyone who lived through the war was marked for ever by it. We went through such a lot. I do find it a bit strange what people complain about nowadays. 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. On the one hand this was a much more honest and open book than the first. On the other hand it did not seem so much fun to read, although her courage and positive attitude in both accounts are inspiring. When writing about her life, I couldn't help many times but be amazed at what it must be like to have such wealth: "We had an excellent staff, and though I felt terribly busy at the time, I never cleaned a bath or made a bed."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. Encourage children to tell the story in their own words using the illustrations to help them. You might find they include some phrases from the story. Talk about the story Read the book again allowing children to join in with words they might remember such as WHOOSH! BUMP! Or ‘Whatever next!’ Tell the story This book has valuable insights and information on how to cope with whatever life throws at you. Anne says she believes it was her early training on how to behave and her experiences during WWII and as a traveling saleswoman for her family pottery that gave her the ability to deal with everything which happened to her later.

Whatever Next? is an interesting book about a wealthy woman whose family has associated for decades with the Royal Family. The parts of the book about her travel and the fascinating people she gets to meet are really fun. Anne routinely spends time with Princess Margaret and takes her job seriously taking care of her. In fact, Anne spends most of her life taking care of others - spouse, children, company, etc.

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.Lady Glenconner served as a maid of honour at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. She was Extra Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth II's sister, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon from 1971 until the Princess died in 2002. Lady Glenconner has suffered more than her fair share of tragedy – her eldest son died of heroin addiction, the second of Aids, and the third was involved in a terrible motorbike crash that left him with serious head injuries. But she believes in putting a brave face on things. When asked for the secret of a healthy old age, she advises people to sit up straight, to lift their feet when walking and not shuffle, and to make lunch their last meal of the day. But most important, as we can see from this book, is to be as open-minded and entertaining as she clearly is. 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. After reading "Lady in Waiting", also written by Lady Glenconner, I didn't know what else she could have added to top it but I was actually surprised by what I read: it was a more thorough approach to facts she lightly touched on her first book, and I get why she did it. Old generations raised in between WW2 and what it came afterwards weren't into dwelling on feelings, and the past: you just went on with it. At least, that is what my grandparents did.

This one was more a re-hashing of that one. Maybe I was too eager and didn’t give enough time between both books. Now in her early 90’s she is very much enjoying her new life as an author, and touring to promote her books!! From her childhood nanny (one of the good ones; she also had a horrendous one), she often heard, "Let's go and explore." Anne has continued to have a love of travel throughout her life. "The world is full of interesting things to see, but you have to go and look for them." 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”.

Since the second book is definitely informed by the first one, my recommendation is to read both books of Anne Glenconnor’s autobiography.