How our party island seduced rock & Royal superstars
Her husband bought it as a mosquitoinfested wasteland – and turned it into a hedonistic playground for the A-list. But as Princess Margaret’s closest confidante reveals in her riotous memoirs, the true cost of their wild parties was crippling
FOR DECADES she shared Princess Margaret’s most intimate secrets. Now Lady Glenconner’s sparkling memoirs paint an intimate portrait of their remarkable relationship. On Saturday she told how she introduced the Queen’s sister to a toyboy lover. Here, in the second part of our exclusive serialisation, she reveals how her Caribbean idyll became a paradise for wild-revelling celebrities.
We were on holiday in Trinidad when my husband Colin heard about the Caribbean island of Mustique. After sailing round it he bought it for £45,000 — without even having set foot on it.
It had no running water and no electricity, and only about a dozen acres were under cultivation, growing cotton. The rest of the island’s 1,300 acres or so were frazzled to a crisp.
Anybody else who had considered buying it must have concluded it was a non- starter, because by then — 1958 — it had been on the market for five years.
when Colin turned to me and asked what I thought, I didn’t hold back. ‘Colin,’ I said, ‘this is sheer madness!’ He looked at me. ‘You mark my words, Anne,’ he said defiantly. ‘I will make Mustique a household name.’ IT wAs only the bravest of friends who visited in the early years. Among them was Princess Margaret. After she and Tony Armstrong-Jones married in 1960, they set off on a six-month tour of the Caribbean on the royal Yacht Britannia and made their way to Mustique.
A smart little boat came to shore and a man in white naval uniform appeared at the door with an invitation to dine on the yacht.
I wrote back, saying: ‘Ma’am, it is very, very kind. we’d absolutely love to, but we haven’t had a bath for about two months and we really, really stink.’
A reply came, saying they quite understood but wished for our company regardless and would have a cabin put at our disposal. I was thrilled and took the opportunity to soak, for quite some time, in the bath. It was bliss.
The next day, we took them on a tour of the island. For the rest of their stay, we invited them to use any beach they liked, and reassured them that they would be left undisturbed.
On the last day, they came and had a drink with us. That was the moment when Colin said, ‘Ma’am, we haven’t given you a wedding present. would you like something in a little box or would you like a piece of land?’
Princess Margaret turned to Tony and made up her mind without waiting for him to respond. ‘Oh, I think a piece of land would be just wonderful,’ she said.
It was Tony’s first and last visit. Years later, someone asked him about Colin and he blurted out that he had always detested him. Apparently, he referred to Mustique as ‘Mustake’. But for Princess Margaret, Mustique would eventually end up providing her with a whole new life. OuT of the blue one day at the beginning of 1968, she rang Colin to ask: ‘Did you really mean it about the land?’
‘Yes,’ replied Colin, thrilled that she was taking an interest.
‘And does it come with a house?’ Princess Margaret asked.
Colin, not wanting to disappoint, replied that he would build her a house. she was delighted, saying she would come out to Mustique to see the land.
she arrived with no fuss a few months later, happily using the bucket of water in the trees to shower, just like we did. The food, too, was basic: although we had fresh fish, everything else was tinned. she didn’t seem to mind.
we had no proper furniture, so we sat on plastic or wicker chairs, playing cards when the light wasn’t good enough to read.
Mosquito nets covered the beds, and during the night we were inundated with some extraordinary mice. Princess Margaret called them ‘flying mice’ because they would rush up to the net, then jump to the next one in great leaps that seemed to defy the laws of gravity.
she was surprisingly adaptable —and very excited when we took her to Gelliceaux Point at the top of the island, where her house would be built. Colin suggested it because it was difficult for people to get to, therefore more secure.
Of course, this meant that it was also difficult for us to get to and it was covered with scrub.
I offered her a pair of Colin’s cotton pyjamas. There she was, clambering up the hill, wearing Colin’s pyjamas, with string tied around her ankles and wrists to stop the brambles scratching and the mosquitoes biting.
she wore wide sunglasses, a straw hat and a big smile, not minding at all. she wasn’t vain. she just got on with things.
even though it was basic, and for years there were no celebrities and no grandeur on the island, she had privacy. A bolthole.
she became increasingly excited about her house’s completion and when we were both in London in the months leading up to it being finished, rang me several times to ask me to go shopping with her.
I had been delighted at the invitation, looking forward to
going to Colefax & Fowler or some other glamorous place. But she always chose Peter Jones — it was all very low-key — and she chose mostly white furniture and Laura Ashley-type curtains.
In February 1972, she came to stay in her newly completed house, naming it Les Jolies Eaux — French for ‘pretty waters’. It was the only house she ever owned and it made her very happy, because apart from being beautiful it provided her with an independent base from her husband.
Not only was Tony prone to mood swings, like Colin, they were both also having affairs. We complained to each other but without over-indulging, speaking bluntly — then, brushing our troubles aside, concentrated on doing the things we enjoyed.
She loved collecting shells to decorate tables, so we would comb the beach, then take them back to the house to clean. It is surprising how such activities can have a calming effect and divert attention from any difficulties. By ThE mid-seventies, a steady trickle of articles was being published about how Mustique was the new ‘place to go’.
This was a huge exaggeration — but it was easy to believe. Colin decided that if he threw extravagant parties, people would hear about them and want to be invited to these ‘ Caribbean Spectaculars’.
But out of all the parties, his 50th birthday Golden Ball, in 1976, was the one that secured Mustique the label of being the hedonistic paradise for the rich and famous.
It did look spectacular. Everything was gold — the trees had been painted, the grass sprayed, and even the beach was covered with gold glitter.
Colin got some of the local lads oiled up, and they wore nothing except a gold-painted coconut strategically placed down below. That night made Mustique famous for ever, mainly down to the golden boys dancing around Princess Margaret.
And commercially it worked: directly after the party, Mick Jagger bought a villa called L’Ansecoy. (he also invited Margaret and me to a Rolling Stones concert in London. It was so loud that we kept our fingers in our ears the whole time.)
The parties continued over the years, the most splendid being Colin’s 60th birthday party, in 1986, which he spent two years planning.
Jerry hall, who by then had replaced Bianca Jagger, sashayed in wearing an almost identical dress to mine, remarking: ‘you have the same colour as me.’
I wanted to say to Jerry: ‘No, you have the same colour as me’ — but I didn’t. ThE Queen’s first visit was in 1977 with the Duke of Edinburgh, who always made me nervous. he made everyone nervous and knew it. The first thing he said to Colin when he came ashore from Britannia was: ‘I can see you’ve ruined the island.’
Colin was dashed by the remark, especially because he had gone to such lengths to plan the itinerary with the Duke in mind, including snorkelling with sharks.
The planning paid off because when he was leaving, he turned to Colin, saying: ‘I really like your island. I really loved my time here.’
The next week, Nick Courtney, the general manager of the island’s management company, was showing people around the island, and when he got to Macaroni Bay, he said: ‘The Queen swam here last week, and we haven’t changed the water since.’ Mustique seemed to be a hit with everyone.
But I quietly resented the parties that Colin continued to throw because of the expense. Some of them cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. The money was
haemorrhaging out. When we needed more, Colin would simply sell a painting or two. By the time the Peacock Ball was being organised in the mid-Eighties, Colin had sold anything hugely valuable and was running out of options.
But he said it was all worth it because the parties made Mustique famous and therefore more profitable.
I think from that point of view he was proved right: it attracted the top rock stars, from David Bowie, who bought Mandalay Villa, to Bryan Ferry and Bryan Adams, as well as multitudes of celebrities from all over the world.
Ever since Mick Jagger bought his house, now 30 years ago, he has made an effort to be part of the local community, giving money for a new school and joining in with village life by playing cricket. Quite often we’d go into Basil’s Bar and find Mick joining in with a live singer.
One New Year, we organised a skit in which Mick was the doctor and we told everybody he was looking for people to play patients. Of course the whole community turned up, wanting to be cast for the part. David Bowie, too, was a very charming man, immediately sitting my twins on his lap the first Easter he was there, completely at ease with everyone as though we were all old friends.
Today, it still attracts the same sort of people as it did all those years ago. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge take their children, the newest generation of Jaggers have grown up there, and people from the fashion world are still drawn to it, from Poppy and Cara Delevingne to Tom Ford, who named one of his pink lipsticks ‘Mustique’.
Amazing, really, because it still hasn’t got all the mod-cons that other places have. There is a small supermarket but nothing major, and there is no golf course or marina and not a single nightclub.
I think the reason it’s so popular is that it has kept Colin’s distinctive bohemian spirit and adopted it as its own.