Lady Glenconner: My plan to poison Hitler at Holkham Hall | ITV News

well lady Glen Kahn lovely to see you and amid this haul of books as well which is of course telling your story of how for those who don't know you grew up with the Royals and maid of honor to the Queen at her coronation yes lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret with your late husband you also made the Caribbean island of a mystique a bit of a playground for the rich and famous you felt loved you felt lost you felt tragedy do you think 300 pages is enough to tell that story well I've got a lot more I think I may have to write another book but anyway this will do for now why is it you decided that now at the right time to write a book so here it involves Helena Bonham Carter we did having Helen I'd known as she's a custom actually my husband and her father was very helpful when my third boy was in a coma anyway I'm she rang me up and said I'm playing for it's us Margaret in the crown can I come and see you I'd like to know more about you know what Princess Margaret liked and how she smoked and how she everything like that anyway Helena came with her notebook spent three hours with me and I felt sometimes at mrs. mark was in the room with us who'd I got all ready already and now and she was brilliant really really and then somebody a publisher I've always told stories truth stories and he said have you ever thought writing a book and I thought well I have a go I'm 87 so I better start now and anyway that's a result arguably you need Princess Margaret as well as anyone and that comes across in the book and you saw things from the royal family that most people don't get to see well I guess from a very early age my father who is the 5th Earl of Leicester and before he became that he was a query to the Duke of York before the Duke became King he's with him all very interesting we're doing the application and as a result Princess Elizabeth and Miss Margaret rose used to come over to Holcomb and I suppose I was about three and Princess Margaret was four and a half and I have a lovely photograph of us all standing and I showed it to Princess Molly I said finish straight why looking at my feet and she well you had silver shoes I have brown ones the Queen's looking as if mrs. Norma was up to no good but we used to have such fun we Princess Margaret and I are on our tricycles we used to whiz round the passages and the Queen occasionally saying what's your doing no presumably as you grew up together as well that fun still having fun but in different environments yes I mean because war stopped we didn't see them in the wall although we were awfully pleased we went to all the children were sent away from from this case the Norfolk coast because Hitler was meant to land here he had all these flat bottom boats dinner waiting in Holland and you worried he was going to come to Holcomb well well we didn't what caring about that time again it we had great plans aged five and seven to kill it we made what we called Hitler's mess it's a terrible jar of nasty things we kept under our bed and we had heard that that all the top brass Nazi bras had each allocated a safely home that's why their stately homes weren't bombed Hitler I think I thought was going to wins it but I believe he had his eye on Blenheim and Goering or Himmler were going to come to Holcomb so we thought well Hitler's bound to visit and well be there and because we were very blond and who I just saw type it's like we were determined to make him fall in love with us and they must said you know we got this delicious drink for you we never got past if we had killed it that was it so you were gonna poison Hitler at how poison come for Britain it's very noble I want to talk to you about coronation Dave I'm sure you've spoken about this moment in your life time and time and time again the day in 1953 maid of honor for the Queen do you still remember it clearly oh yes I mean it was I remember that more clearly than everything else has ever happened to me I was in America at the time and my mother said in pottery I'm a great salesman that's what I used to do traveling salesmen anywhere my mother sent me a telegram saying come home you've been chosen to be a maid of honor which is really I mean it was wonderful thing made them were six of us and on the whole our parents were friendly with the well with Elizabeth and whose then Queen and we had me the right size we had been married we had to be daughters of Earls Marcus's or Dukes anyway we arrived back and it was a world we were so turned into I always say that spices Spice Girls because in those days he didn't I'm not sure about the react we didn't quite get as far as that but I would but that was the idea you know that we were followed we were photographed and and what was so wonderful was my mother had just been made a lady-in-waiting to Queen said that we were she's walking just behind me in the possession and in my book the thing was that we were so beautifully trained and we were so busy doing the things that we've been told to do that we didn't actually notice some of the other things that were going right on around us and that that's what I research for my book and I think the I'm very proud of the chapter that I've written on the coronation quite a lot of people who my age I've written and said oh how interesting we never knew that happened or you get a perspective that people don't see as I say from the royal family I think you talk about some of the rules washing up in marigold well while the well Prince is not yes I mean she used to come and stay with me in my little house in North Norfolk he's too small to have a maid anyway she arrived nightmare ago girls and Princess Margaret absolutely and she said I'm adore your FAR's for you because I've been a Girl Guide and you haven't and what about your car I think yes do you wash my car yes I wash your car I mean she typed this of Marie Antoinette world but she really enjoyed doing these things she even wasn't like dusting and that sort and she loved walking around on beach on the marshes and you know we had a lovely time we were great great friends the book obviously also touches on things that tend to follow the Royals around the for one controversy in some places you draw any comparisons from your experiences to the modern Royals yes I mean I think again in my book boomer my second son got AIDS in the 80s when nobody knew how it was caught it was terrifying and he was one of the first people there are structures he actually died of AIDS and the press were pretty hopeful you know and I knew there knew how difficult it must be and funnily enough the first time I went with mrs. Margaret to Australia her married to just started to go wrong and and the Australian press weren't nearly as polite as the English press and they used to shout hey Margaret Maggie or you know where's Tony and I feel left him behind and it was quite worrying and the headlines weren't actually really nice and so I said to her private secretary I've got an idea we travel by train in also why did we ask all the press for a drink and Princess Margaret who could all all the press for male action and Princess Margaret was great rhythm and she knew how to charm them and it worked like a dream we had this cocktail party they ever she came and you know talk to more they absolutely loved her and we had no trouble after that was total early work that's Australia you've lived in some incredible places just talk to me about mystique because that was a place that you really transformed as I said you know people like yeah I'm jacket David Bowie wanted to do fine yeah well when I first went that I was horrified I said to Colleen you must be mad nobody's going to want to come here and he said mark my words are I'm gonna make in a household name but she certainly has now when we first got there you could hardly get on the island the scrub there were wild cars huge mosquitoes it wasn't called mystique for nothing and no water no electric night and we were there 12 years who could cotton and then slowly people came on their yachts and one or two said could we buy a piece of land we'd love to have a house here and then we get cause Princess Margaret came on our honeymoon he's frightfully excitement when the Britannia was near least because the island anchored off and anyway Princess Margaret asked us you know we'd like to come have dinner and I sent a message back saying mm I'm not quite sure what you would like us we haven't had a bath three months I mean exactly smell wonderful and so she sent a message back saying oh don't worry at all you know come and have a bath on the boat on the yacht and which we did is lovely and then we gave a piece of land and how does that the experiences that you've lived in your life being in this it Dilek Caribbean island compared to being back now in in Norfolk is this your is this your real moment yes of course being a cook as born here brought up here and I just love it I wouldn't want to be anywhere else actually I mean the Caribbeans very nice for a holiday I do go out to musty every year for two weeks but I'm always very glad fit back in Norfolk and some nice memories of Holcomb Hall I suppose and growing up well wonderful memories I mean we was so lucky and I've written actually about the coastline and and how come because in the ward with the prison of all camp first of all we have the Italian sir we're lovely none of them wanted to run away and they were smiling and beaming and in fact my mother after the war when people didn't want to come back and work in big houses like hokum my mother had I think about 12 Italian they were the sisters of some of the prisoners of war and then when aliens came who were rather different kettle of fish and my sister and I had ponies we used to sort of ride round the camps you know but we kept quite far away when the Germans arrived you've lived an incredible life do you feel like you've got anything left that you want to do what's the next chapter of the book oh I got lots left I'm an 80s I've never been had such a wonderful time I'm really having a great time now very happy and yes I might easily write another book well best of luck with that lady blink on it thank you so much for your time thank you

Channel: ITV News

Views: 51,891

Keywords: Norfolk, Holkham Hall, Lady Glenconner, Hitler, Queen, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, Anne Glenconner, Royals, Royal family, Holkham, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Mustique

Id: 4YskEmyls24

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 27 2019