The Virgin sister abroad
The Independent | 3 Oct 2005
Vanessa Branson is aiming to outshine her famous sibling by making a big noise in the art world. Caroline Phillips meets her.
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“Caroline Phillips is a tenacious and skilful writer with a flair for high quality interviewing and a knack for making things work.”
Vanessa Branson is aiming to outshine her famous sibling by making a big noise in the art world. Caroline Phillips meets her.
Online food delivery services are expanding into ‘gourmet’ ready-made meals, with mixed results, writes Caroline Phillips.
GERALDINE and Michael Leventis cannot resist holiday souvenirs.
First there was the old farmhouse in the Lot in France, which they saw when they were on holiday in 1989. Then they had a vacation on the Greek island of Kea in 1994 and fell in love with a derelict mansion. So, naturally, they bought it. Next they travelled to Cape Town three years ago… and, well, you know how these things happen.
View transcriptSHE designed the oak and limestone dining table herself; and the Bulthaup kitchen units were fashioned to her specifications. The modern oak and steel staircase, which leads up from the basement and has lights embedded at foot level, well, that was constructed from her blueprint, too. And let’s not forget who sketched the ergonomic workstation with floating bookshelves and mobile storage – and the delicate, armless sofa in the window of the drawing room. Indeed there’s very little in her house that doesn’t bear testimony to the talented hand of Gail Taylor, the Taylor part of leading interior design duo Taylor Howes.
View transcriptWHEN Edith Ettedgui and her husband, Franklin, wanted to buy an apartment in which to live while their Belgravia home was being gutted, they were not interested in dealing with more builders. Which is why they chose a split-level flat in west London that had just been renovated to the highest standard. “It was perfect, exactly what we wanted,” explains Ettedgui, who comes from Tours.
View transcriptSHE will fire your cook in Portuguese and arrange for your shoes to be put into boxes with Polaroid shots of them on the outside; help you buy, decorate and let your houses; try to get your daughter into Francis Holland, organise dinner for three or 300, personally scrutinise your Bahamas holiday home or fly masseurs to meet you in Cannes and return in your private jet.
View transcriptWHEN Vanessa Higgins first saw the mill house from a nearby public path, she ran back to her waiting husband, David, excitedly proclaiming: “Wow.”
The mill, in a tiny Wiltshire hamlet, is an 18th century building with waterside gardens and paddocks, but a mill was recorded on the site in the Doomsday Book.
View transcriptNICHOLAS Logsdail, owner of the Lisson Gallery, is one of the art world’s most powerful figures. So it’s strange to discover that his first home was up a tree. “My parents had a big Arts & Crafts house in Buckinghamshire,” says Logsdail. When he was 14, he moved to the bottom of the garden.
View transcriptTHERE’S a doggie spa and a pooch bakery in Telluride, Colorado. The former offers custom-made towelling robes and a grooming package (from $210, or £157) for four-legged guests; while the latter sells icing-topped cookies baked specially for the canine market. Visitors can also savour another unusual experience in Telluride: iceskating with Zimmer frames – a unique approach that is perfect for the elderly and skating virgins.
View transcriptLUCY Judd appeared to have it all – a great husband, Dominic, a wonderful baby and an 18th century cottage home with roses round the door and sheep in the neighbouring field in exquisite Bodiam in East Sussex.
View transcriptCLOSE your eyes and imagine you are on a long-haul flight; now open them. This contemporary steel, glass and timber house might be in Malibu or overlooking the harbour in Sydney, but actually, it is in south London. It belongs to Eric Lanlard, 36, a pastry chef from Brittany – supplier of gateaux to Fortnum & Mason and owner of Savoir Design, which produces extravagant celebration cakes – and his partner, Paul Newrick, who runs an aviation leasing company.
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