Ready For Absolutely Nothing: ‘If you like Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner, you’ll like this’ The Times

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If you're hoping for all the goss on What Not To Wear, you'll be disappointed. Neither the programme nor Susannah's close friend Trinny are given much space in this book. Instead, it is a fascinating, detailed insight into the everyday lives of the wealthy and aristocratic. In 2020, Susannah went public about her battle with alcoholism and revealed that she had given up drinking in 2013. Today she still regularly attends AA meetings. The first step in recognising that you have a problem is when you instinctively know that you have no control of drinking and once you start, you can’t stop. It might only be a bottle of wine, but if you wake up in the morning and feel fear, self-loathing, anxiety and self-hatred, those are red flags.

Her book shares a collection of candid tales from many memorable experiences; from Margaret Thatcher and the Queen having a tussle over a teapot at Balmoral and holidays on Mustique with Princess Margaret (while dating her son David Linley), to how she met and became best friends with Elton John – all told with sharp wit and eye-opening frankness. Wonderfully written, very funny, but more than anything completely genuine Lady Anne Glenconner, author of Lady in Waiting The true me is the person I was when I was a child, someone who likes isolation and solitude and to be in the countryside, and not have to look glamorous every day. That wouldn’t have been afforded.”After they split, Susannah focused on her fashion career, working for leading designers Giorgio Armani in New York and later John Galliano and Alistair Blair in London. From lavatory dramas with Princess Margaret, eye-opening sex-club etiquette with pop royalty to behind-the-scenes power struggles between Thatcher and the Queen! Her social landscape has been nothing, if not varied. She works from 9.30am to 4.30pm with a break for lunch, followed by a cross-country run through the woods at the end of the day.

However, I’m not someone who can just sit on my laurels and think I’ve had a wonderful life, which is true. I’m always looking ahead, forever curious and asking myself, what’s next? READY FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is for fans of The Crown, royal followers, readers of LADY IN WAITING, What Not To Wear fans and anyone who likes a gossipy memoir with bold faced names and a drop dead sense of humor.But appearances are deceptive and beneath it all, life had a dark side particularly her mother's mental illness and, her father's struggles with alcoholism. Somehow she had to forge her own life, away from the expectations of others. There is a lot we can't mention on this show - you have to buy the book to find out what we mean' STEVE WRIGHT, BBC RADIO 2 Also what is missing for me is the development of her career into TV, as this is where I knew her from. I think this is because she doesn’t cover her relationship with Trinny, which I totally respect, but she mentions becoming an independent woman within her marriage and personally would have liked to know more about that part of her career. Maybe it was too difficult to disentangle from the partnership. Sensational, juicy, honest, terrific - it reminded me of reading Lady Anne Glenconner' GRAHAM NORTON, Virgin Radio Constantine and I were both youths in the 80s but our lives couldn’t have been more different. After an expensive education, she frequented society nightclubs and socialised with Princess Margaret, Elton John and ( raising my forearms in a cross in front of me) Margaret Thatcher. It was an interesting look at ‘how the other half lives.’