The Snowdon Tapes: Interviews from a Royal Biography

(photo: Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress)

When writer Anne de Courcy placed a tape recorder in front of Antony Armstrong-Jones — formally known as Lord Snowdon — she had no idea what kind of material she’d get. But she was determined to write the first proper biography of the eccentric photographer who married Princess Margaret in 1960. By the time she was done with her book Snowdon: the Biography, she had more than 90 taped interviews with friends and family in the circle of the House of Windsor — which she put in a plastic bag and shoved into a closet for over a decade.

Listen to full episode :

Find the episode on your favorite platform here.

You can learn more about Anne de Courcy and her work here.

Artifactual is a content partner of Peter Hamilton’s Documentary Business newsletter and Sunny Side of the Doc.

1965 - Lord Snowdon accompanies Princess Margaret on a visit to Amsterdam. (photo: Jack de Nijs, National Archives of the Netherlands)