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Snowdon: The Biography by Anne De Courcy
Book Type: Hardcover
Published: 04 June 2008
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
RRP:£20.00
Best Discount: £7.00 (35%)
Cheapest price: £13.00
Prices last checked: 17/09/2008 14:10:06
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Review:
I have just finished a book on Princess Margaret, and was told that accomplished author Anne de Courcy had written an authorized biography about Antony Armstrong-Jones,also known as Lord Snowdon.
The book was written with his approval and full support, and he asked his many friends and acquaintances to make themselves available to Ms deCourcy
should she wish to interview them.
And it is a detailed, warts and all account of Snowdons life and many loves.
Tony's mother was an English Jewess, his father a Welshman. They divorced when he was just a boy. His mother was vain, unreasonable, demanding and self centred. She reminded me very much of the actor Peter Lawford's mother.
His father, a barrister was not a constant figure in his son's life - although they did share a great love of and pride in their Welsh roots.
Whilst he was still a schoolboy, Tony contracted the polio virus which was threatening the lives and welfare of many children world wide at that time.He was hospitalized in Liverpool, bedridden for 6 months, visited only by he much loved sister,Susan.
He was educated at Eton and Cambridge where he studied architecture and later became interested in the theatre, and began doing their publicity photo's. And from there his name as a talented photographer started to gain attention. Later on he upset Cecil Beaton (for years the Royal Family's official photographer) when the Queen requested Tony after seeing some of his work at a friends home.
He was known to be outgoing, ebullient, with a wide circle of friends and a busy business and social life. He loved the ladies, but was also known to have several close male homosexual friends from university with whom he spent a lot of time, so the rumours about Tony were always rife one way or another.
Much has been documented over the years about Princess Margaret, her excesses, her spoilt, wilfull behaviour, her drinking, lovers et al.
Yet there was no doubt in my mind that she loved Tony deeply, probably all her adult life. Both were vain, selfish, self centred, and both had healthy sexual appetites, loved parties and being leaders of the "in" crowd.
In the early years of their marriage they mingled with actors, royalty, and pop singers, models, artists, people of wealth, privelege and power.
They were as famous as, and in as much demand as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, or Mick jagger, or Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Tony wanted children desperately and Margaret was only too happy to oblige. He enjoys a close relationship with his children to this day.
But Tony began to resent the Royal duties, became bored and began to find excuses not to accompany his wife.
He retreated to his office in the basement of his home, where he would spend long hours working, sometimes on design where his architectural background was so handy.
Margaret was banned from interrupting him and they started having blazing rows. His treatment of his wife entered the abusive, cruel stage, where nothing she did was right, he humiliated her in front of others and when ever he was overseas working on one of his projects, he would simply refuse to answer her calls, and never contact her for weeks.
This was the side of Snowdon that the Royal family didn't see (they all adored him) and Princess Margaret must have been very lonely and unhappy during these years.
Both started seeing other people,a situation that continued for some years
until the Queen stepped in after her sister was photographed in a bathing suit on Mustique with Roddy Llewellen.
They were divorced and Tony married Lucy Lindsay Hogg who gave birth to a daughter. However, he'd been having a secret affair on the side, and this relationship made Tony a father for the fourth time. It also brought about the end of his marriage to Lucy.
Lord Snowdon seems to be a man of great warmth and charm, a tireless worker and a champion of the disabled. His blatant disregard for the feelings of others, is balanced by his genuine interest in young people, and concern for those who can't always speak up for themselves. Wheelchair access into all government buildings in Britain was one area where he made his feelings felt, often shaming officials into making changes in buildings and car parking areas and suggesting changes in building plans so that the needs of the disabled were not forgotten.
This biography is a beautifully written,well researched,enticing study of a man,(seriously flawed perhaps), but wonderfully entertaining and enthusiastic about life and the living of it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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