Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2010/January 2011 | Page 10

five years of Island Life

he “had common sense, not intelligence”,
that unless you worked for yourself there
was no point working, and there’s a fine line
between being arrogant and being capable.”
On a personal note he said he’d never marry
again.
Since: Well John’s 2007 coup of getting
the Rolling Stones to the Festival confirmed
it as establi shed on the summer circuit as
Glastonbury. And John has married again.
THE office of High Sheriff has perhaps
more impact on the Isle of Wight than
on the consciousness of most counties,
mainly thanks to the year in office of
Alan Titchmarsh (Issue 16 Jun/Jul 08). We
introduced our readers to ENT surgeon Peter
Gramaldi (2006, Issue 5), saw the Declaration
of David Langford in 2007 (Issue 10 Jun/
July 07), met Gay Edwards (Issue 22 Jun/July
09) and the man currently in office, Peter
Kingston (Issue 28 Jun/July 10). For Island
Life, Alan Titchmarsh was more than just
High Sheriff.
Now: Alan Titchmarsh took a deliberate back
seat in the two years following his time in
office, but is still constantly on our screens –
the latest venture of our former High Sheriff
is his highly successful daytime TV chat show.

Life Stories

Just as we were going to press with this, our
5th-Year Issue, we heard amazing news from
Tim Blackman.
In 2008 the daughter of the Island property
developer went missing while travelling
during her gap year. Tim’s search for Lucy,
which confirmed his worst nightmare, that
she had died, and his subsequent fight for
10

Island Life - December 2010

justice for her made for disturbing reading,
exacerbated by the fact that the man accused
of Lucy’s murder was still appealing against
his judgement. The article (Issue 9, Apr/
May 09) told of a website set up in Lucy
Blackman’s name, designed to help travellers
and their families should tragedy strike,
but also touched on the chasm between his
approach to seeking justice and that of his
ex-wife.
Now: Just as Island Life was going to press,
Tim heard that the Japanese High Court had
finally thrown out the appeal of the accused
man. “We’ve got justice at last,” said Tim.
The Lucy Blackman Trust and its website
became so mainstream as a tool for travellers
and for helping those seeking persons
missing abroad that the Missing Aboard
website was created, and has been adopted
by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
“We’ve managed to find people lost abroad,
and to help families bring home a family
member who’s been killed,” he says.
Tim has re-married, and just started a new
business, marketing electric bikes, which is in
keeping with his support for the Green Island
campaign. See his full story in the next issue.
NOT everyone we feature is in politics or the
media, of course. Roddy Caxton-Spencer,
who hales from Bembridge, took his rugby
fairly seriously until an injury wiped him out
of the game, so he looked for other activities
to fill the void. White water rafting down
the Zambezi was just the first of his madcap
adventures, including a run across the
Sahara. And when he saw Everest he thought
“I have to have it!” (Issue 13 Dec/Jan08).
Since: Roddy has been on two more Arctic
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