interview
Island Life - June/July 2010
PHOTO: Painting by Jack Lawrence Miller– Jack himself, Anthony, and Jack’s then-girl friend,
playing with 13th Century occult cards which summon up the ghost of Chopin,
from the famous Delacroix painting of the composer.
while Jack would paint,” says Anthony. “He
to Cowes for the America’s Cup Regatta in
hated selling pictures except to friends, and
2001 and Richard hadn’t a room: Eve and Ted
sometimes would ask me to buy one just for
had to share a single bed for the first time
the price of the canvas.” He and Linda feel
in many years, so their entrepreneurial son
the artist should have achieved a greater
could have the second bed and rush off the
recognition before his death.
next morning by helicopter.
Meanwhile the love of Chopin and the
companionship of Miller led Anthony to
visit the Island. Anthony would dearly love
spend time on neighbouring Menorca, and
Ted and Eve to buy a home here – Eve has
another great friendship developed.
fond memories of being a WRAF in Yarmouth
“I had a villa there and used to get in my
during the war – and feels a Branson
little inflatable boat with my swim suit,
presence would do more for the Isle of Wight
flippers and snorkel. At one time I’d sailed
than any politician could. “Eve put her name
round to the other side of a bay and dived
down for a Cowes flat, but there was a
on what I thought were parts of a Roman
problem the planning department failed to
wreck. Exhausted, I flopped down on the
solve, and she backed off. What a shame.
sand, by a convenient bar, but with no cash.
Where one Branson goes, the family follow
This debonair man came over and said ‘You
suit, and what a fillip that might have done
look exhausted, would you like a drink?’”
for the Island economy.”
It was Ted Branson, father of entrepreneur
Anthony is hungry for the company of
Richard. “I was invited back to his villa
intelligent people, and on the Isle of Wight
where I met his wife Eve, their children and
he creates occasions to celebrate his heroes
grandchildren. They all scolded: ‘Who’s Ted
who have Island connections – such as
dragged off the beach this time?!”
Shakespeare, Sir John Betjeman, Sir Edward
He admires, he says, the Bransons above
Elgar, Tennyson and Swinburne. His house is
all families he’s met, for their dynamism and
on the land owned once by another Victorian
curiosity about people. He describes staying
poet, John Sterling, who died in Ventnor and
with Ted and Eve and hearing the phone
is buried in the church nearby.
go at 5am, because that is the time Richard
gets up. Or when the Bransons came over
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The Bransons became friends and often
He also brings yachting events to the Island:
in the past, a Maxi series, a Multihull series,
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