The Final Curtsey

The Final Curtsey
Author: Margaret Rhodes
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2011-11-23
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0857901915

The bestselling behind-the-scenes memoir of the royal family by a cousin who served in MI5—and as one of the Queen’s bridesmaids. Includes photos! A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she “lodged” at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Princess Elizabeth, to Prince Philip. Three years later, the King and Queen attended her own wedding, in which Princess Margaret was a bridesmaid. In 1990, she was appointed as a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, acting also as her companion, which she describes in touching detail. In the early months of 2002, she spent as much time as possible with her ailing aunt and was at her bedside when she died. The next morning, she went to Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom to pray, and in farewell dropped her a final curtsey. The Queen Mother regarded Margaret Rhodes as her “third daughter,” and she has been extremely close to her cousins, the Queen and Princess Margaret, throughout their lives. Full of charming anecdotes, fascinating characters, and personal photographs, this is an unparalleled insight into the private life of the British monarchy. “Surprisingly addictive.” —New Zealand Herald

Last Curtsey

Last Curtsey
Author: Fiona MacCarthy
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 506
Release: 2011-07-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0571265812

Once upon a time the well-bred daughters of Britain's aristocracy took part in a female rite of passage: curtseying to the Queen. But in 1958 this ritual was coming to an end. Under pressure to shine - not least from their mothers - the girls became the focus for newspaper diarists and society photographers in a party season that stretched for months among the great houses of England, Ireland and Scotland. Fiona MacCarthy traces the stories of the girls who curtseyed that year, and shows how their lives were to open out in often very unexpected ways - as Britain itself changed irreversibly during the 1960s, and the certainties of the old order came to an end.

The Final Curtsey

The Final Curtsey
Author: Margaret Rhodes
Publisher: Calder Walker Associates
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Ladies-in-waiting
ISBN: 9780954127565

Margaret Rhodes was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost-vanished world of privilege. Her aunt was Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth is her first cousin. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip. Three years later the King and Queen attended her own wedding; Princess Margaret was a bridesmaid. In 1990, she was appointed as a Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen Mother, acting also as her companion, which she describes in touching detail. This is a fascinating account of a special life, with the author's family relationships to nobility and royalty, her long and special marriage, her children and grandchildren and a life lived to the full.

Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting
Author: Anne Glenconner
Publisher: Hachette Books
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0306846357

Discover untold secrets with this extraordinary memoir of drama and tragedy by Anne Glenconner—a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact. A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne's life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret's closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her "mad blood"; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities. With unprecedented insight into the royal family, Lady in Waiting is a witty, candid, dramatic, at times heart-breaking personal story capturing life in a golden cage for a woman with no inheritance. New York Times Bestseller USA Today Bestseller The Sunday Times Bestseller The Globe and Mail Bestseller ABA Indie Bestseller The Times (UK) Memoir of the Year One of Newsweek's Most Anticipated Books of 2020

The Little Princesses

The Little Princesses
Author: Marion Crawford
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2003-04-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0312312156

An account of the childhoods and early adulthoods of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, as told by one of their primary caregivers, offers insight into early twentieth-century British royal life.

Women of the Raj

Women of the Raj
Author: Margaret MacMillan
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2007-10-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812976398

In the nineteenth century, at the height of colonialism, the British ruled India under a government known as the Raj. British men and women left their homes and traveled to this mysterious, beautiful country–where they attempted to replicate their own society. In this fascinating portrait, Margaret MacMillan examines the hidden lives of the women who supported their husbands’ conquests–and in turn supported the Raj, often behind the scenes and out of the history books. Enduring heartbreaking separations from their families, these women had no choice but to adapt to their strange new home, where they were treated with incredible deference by the natives but found little that was familiar. The women of the Raj learned to cope with the harsh Indian climate and ward off endemic diseases; they were forced to make their own entertainment–through games, balls, and theatrics–and quickly learned to abide by the deeply ingrained Anglo-Indian love of hierarchy. Weaving interviews, letters, and memoirs with a stunning selection of illustrations, MacMillan presents a vivid cultural and social history of the daughters, sisters, mothers, and wives of the men at the center of a daring imperialist experiment–and reveals India in all its richness and vitality. “A marvellous book . . . [Women of the Raj] successfully [re-creates] a vanished world that continues to hold a fascination long after the sun has set on the British empire.” –The Globe and Mail “MacMillan has that essential quality of the historian, a narrative gift.” –The Daily Telegraph “MacMillan is a superb writer who can bring history to life.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer “Well researched and thoroughly enjoyable.” –Evening Standard

Allegiance

Allegiance
Author: Cayla Kluver
Publisher: Harlequin
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2012-02-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0373210434

Includes an excerpt from "Sacrifice," the conclusion to the Legacy trilogy, and Q & A with the author.

The Final Confession of Mabel Stark

The Final Confession of Mabel Stark
Author: Robert Hough
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 491
Release: 2013-04-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307364275

In the 1910s and 1920s, when circus was the most popular form of entertainment in North America, Mabel Stark made her name in a man’s world as the greatest female tiger trainer in history, the centre-ring finale act for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. Brazen, courageous, obsessed with tigers and sexually eccentric, Stark survived a dozen severe maulings — and five husbands. Now, at age 80 and about to lose her job, she decides that there is one last thing she needs to do: Mabel Stark wants to confess.

Daughter of Empire

Daughter of Empire
Author: Pamela Hicks
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2014-09-23
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476733821

A memoir of a singular childhood in England and India by the daughter of Lord Louis and Edwina Mountbatten. Pamela Mountbatten entered a remarkable family when she was born in 1929. As the younger daughter of a glamorous heiress and a British earl, Pamela spent much of her early life with her sister, nannies, and servants-- and a menagerie that included, at different times, a bear, two wallabies, a mongoose, and a lion. Her parents each had lovers who lived openly with the family. The house was full of guests like Sir Winston Churchill, Noël Coward, Douglas Fairbanks, and the Duchess of Windsor. When World War II broke out, Pamela and her sister were sent to live in New York City with Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt. In 1947, her father was appointed to oversee the independence of India. Amid the turmoil, Pamela worked with student leaders, developed warm friendships with Gandhi and Nehru, and witnessed both the joy of Independence Day and its terrible aftermath. Soon afterwards, she was a bridesmaid in Princess Elizabeth's wedding to Prince Philip, and was at the young princess's side when she learned her father had died and she was queen. This witty, intimate memoir is an enchanting lens through which to view the early part of the twentieth century--From publisher description.

All the Time We Thought We Had

All the Time We Thought We Had
Author: Gordon Darroch
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2018-09-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 178885022X

How do you start a new life when the person you love is about to die? At the age of thirty-six, Gordon Darroch's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a devastating blow just as he, and their two children with autism, were preparing to move to her native Holland. Eighteen months later, as their plans seemed to be back on course, came the second blow: Magteld was terminally ill and possibly had only a few months to live. As her health rapidly deteriorated, they became caught up in a race against time to get a dying mother home and give their children a future in a country they hardly knew. How could they build a new life in the midst of grief and loss? How would their two sons adjust to such enormous changes? And what would remain of Magteld once she was gone? A ll the Time We Thought We Had is a story of love and loss and a meditation on grief and memory. It's about how events shape our lives and how we cope with them. And it raises important questions about what we value in life and the legacies we leave behind.