Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

Author:Anne Glenconner [Glenconner, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2020-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Caribbean Spectaculars

OUR HOUSE ON Mustique, named The Great House after the original one that had been burned down, was the last house to be built by Oliver Messell, in 1978. It was perhaps the greatest of all, influenced by a mixture of eastern architecture. With a central circular room, which had a domed roof, inspired by Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, and ornate screens of open tiles from Asia and Indonesia, it was breezy and wonderfully light. Surrounded by a palm grove, which Colin had had the insight to plant when he had first bought the island, his pride and joy was the exquisitely carved temple brought from India. It looked as if it had been made from lace. Unfortunately, it arrived in various pieces, and the five men who assembled it put it together in the wrong order, leaving Colin furious. This wasn’t the first or the last time Colin had lost his cool throughout the development of Mustique: he had had several explosive arguments with Oliver, especially when Oliver wanted to use concrete painted like marble and Colin refused, buying a marble quarry to ensure both a good price and the final word.

The Great House was the last house Oliver ever designed and, sadly, he died just before it was completed. Colin and I attended his funeral in Barbados. We were late for the service, and when the taxi driver drove past the church, Colin got so cross that he communicated not only through shouting and screaming but also by biting the driver’s arm, fortunately not drawing blood.

By then, having been married to Colin for over twenty years, I knew to expect this sort of behavior, which I couldn’t control and neither, apparently, could Colin. Although Colin was sometimes impossible to manage, it didn’t take away from his achievements. When I look back on those years on Mustique, they are bursting with color and energy, full of adventure, none of which I would have had without Colin. Recently I read in the papers that Mustique is “unique,” and something that could “never be replicated.” I agree, and that’s down to Colin and his vision.

It was Colin’s eccentricity that helped put Mustique on the map: he used his flair to entice people to come and look round the island. To start with, most of the people were passing by and came ashore out of curiosity—Nelson Rockefeller, the American billionaire and forty-first Vice President of the United States, anchored his yacht off Mustique, and with Bob Dylan’s yacht also nearby, the word began to spread.

Janie Stevens, a great friend and another Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret, was married to Jocelyn Stevens, who was the editor of Queen magazine, now Harper’s Bazaar. After Colin and I mentioned that Mustique needed some publicity, Janie spoke to her husband, who sent the Queen’s photographer cousin Patrick Lichfield, who was also a cousin of mine, to photograph us for an article. The result was a great success. In the glossy pages of the

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