'He looked around saw this boy with big ears and said 'what about you? I'll have you' and that was Kent.' Colin simply picked one out of the crowd. When the elephant first arrived on Saint Lucia a crowd of boys wanted to look after it, Anne says. And of course, elephants, like sheep, can't sort of 'let off' and the wind built up inside it and killed it, sadly.' Once it was given a whole lot of bread that hadn't risen. 'Guests at the local hotel used to feed it in the evening. The elephant lived there for 12 years before dying an unfortunate death, Anne says. Once he bought an elephant from the Dublin Zoo and transported it to the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia on a banana boat. 'He said 'mark my words, I'm going to make a household name' – and he did.' In 1958, Colin and Anne bought the mosquito-ridden island of Mustique and Colin held extravagant parties to attract celebrities like Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Lady Anne Glenconner and Lord Colin Glenconner Photo: YouTube screenshot 'Our honeymoon was a nightmare though luckily I got pregnant and we had to go home.' The second night of their honeymoon, Colin took Anne to a hotel which doubled as a brothel. If you're poor then it's mad, if you're very rich then you're eccentric.' 'If you're eccentric you have to have money, you can't be a poor eccentric.

Wealth is sometimes the only difference between eccentricity and madness, Anne says. It was sort of fairly endearing.'Ĭolin's temper was so bad he was banned for life from British Airways after an incident in California which involved him lying down on the plane kicking and screaming because there wasn't a first-class seat for him – then getting escorted off the flight by police. I think I've behaved very badly.' I said 'Colin, I really don't want to hear'. Colin was absolutely furious, came back and said 'Anne, I've had the most ghastly holiday. This lady had broken her leg and she couldn't get into the canoe. the whole point was you got in a canoe, went off to look animals.

He was sort of magical in lots of ways.'ĭuring their marriage, he had many affairs and would even complain about his paramours to his wife if given the chance. 'He had enough marvellousness about him to cancel it out, up to a point. She thought 'I'll become friends with his wife and we can have a nice relationship like that.'Ĭolin Tennent was an extremely difficult person to live with, but very charming and never boring, Anne says. 'She was very clever like that, she didn't want to lose him. Later, Princess Margaret became friends with Roddy's wife Tatiana Soskin, Anne says. The couple were alarmed when Margaret and Roddy fell for each other and began a scandalous affair: 'We both said what have we done?'

It was Anne and Colin who introduced Princess Margaret to the much younger Roddy Llewellyn at a house party in the 1950s.

Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner