Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2017 | Page 52

Interview
2.2 rifle and Glock pistol, which I had to
use a couple of times - although not to
kill people”.
Ultimately Graham developed the
exaggerated persona of an English
eccentric to keep raiders at bay.
He explains: “One day we saw
official-looking people mapping out the
bottom of the garden and at that point I
shot the rifle into the air to scare them.
“From that point I think I became the
crazy, long-haired Gringo with a gun,
and after that I got no problems.
“It also helped that I kept four-metre
long Caymans in the lake, and the
story went round that I’d kill people,
chop them up and feed them to the
Caymans. It’s a story I encouraged –
and every now and then I’d go outside
and shoot into the air a bit just to
reinforce the old crazy image!”
Meanwhile, Graham’s assumption that
it would be easy to set up an animal
export business in Peru proved wrong,
as he spent years trying to secure the
required permits.
In the meantime, he continued
breeding animals to supply other
registered dealers, and also found work
teaching English.
“The authorities kept changing the
Graham and Enith
goalposts and it was impossible to earn
a living” he says.
One of the reasons he settled in Peru,
though, was that he had married a
local girl, Enith, in 2006, and gradually
became part of her family and the
wider community.
Homing instinct
Water Dragon
52
www.visitilife.com
While Graham was living in Peru, his
parents had moved into his home at
St Lawrence. His mother died in 2010
and his father in 2015 – at which point
he had to return to the UK to sort out
practical matters.
He found that the old pull to the
Island was still there – and after his wife
came and visited on a tourist visa, they
decided to move back to his old home.
“Enith was pretty shocked at how cold
it is in the UK compared to Peru, but
she liked the Island and the cottage and
we decided we’d like to come back here
to live” he says.
However, his seeming life-long battle
with red tape seems to have kicked in
again, because more than a year on,
Enith still hasn’t been granted her visa,
effectively keeping the married couple
apart.
While he waits, Graham is keeping
himself busy at the “mark 2” pet shop
he has opened in Ryde. He’s installed
around 100 vivariums and the same
number of fish tanks, created an
amphibian room and has dedicated
sections for birds and small mammals.
Naturally, he is the go-to man for
advice on keeping all kinds of pets,
and regular customers love hearing
colourful anecdotes from the person
who in his day was the UK’s most
prolific animal importer.
These days he admits he doesn’t
have a single pet of his own at home –
although he has plenty at his place in
Peru.
Since being back on the Island, he’s
found other things to spend his money
on – including a striking, banana yellow
1993 Lotus Esprit Turbo.
A self-confessed sports car lover who
has owned Ferraris and E-Type Jags in
his time, he had an almost new Lotus
Esprit in 1980, and says he’d always
hankered after another one.
However, day-to-day, as he ferries
animals and pet supplies around the
place, he keeps the Lotus in cotton
wool and takes to the wheel of a much
more practical and “Gringo”-like Jeep
Cherokee as his chosen runabout.
It seems that Fate has yet to decree
whether this adventure-loving Animal
Whisperer will stay on the Island or
return to tropical Peru – but while he’s
here, he’s certainly bringing a dash of
the exotic to old Vectis.