He founded Odey Asset Management in 1991 and now manages some $6.2 billion of assets. This graduate of Christ Church, Oxford was first married to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Prudence, but after divorcing her Odey formed a union with a fellow financier, Nichola Pease. The couple, termed “The City’s Posh and Becks,” live between Chelsea and Gloucestershire. They hit the press in September 2012 when they applied for planning permission to build a “rather grandiose” hen house, costing some £150,000, in the grounds of their Grade II listed mansion, Eastbach Court.
Tag: divorce
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Crispin Odey
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Playground victims
Sarah Tucker shares the latest of her “playground politics” experiences
My son started at a new school a few weeks back. Five foot eleven, half of him at 13 he is now taller than me.
Journalist and author Sarah Tucker’s son, Tom He was a bit nervous, I cried in the car after I dropped him off and he refused to hug me in public, but that’s normal and natural – the crying and the non-hugging. Seems only yesterday he was three foot nothing and starting infant school. This time is so precious, still even in the teenage years which many parents dread, it’s the last chance to have any semblance of nurturing. I feel I can tell you that.
The other stuff, the negative stuff, well, I’ll leave that to fiction. Because you should never wash dirty linen in public or so the saying goes although it’s become the sure fire way of getting the 1/2 hour of fame. If it’s to sell a book, film or make more money then it has a purpose: a potentially positive end result where others learn from your mistake and you learn from your mistake and it’s not just a matter of ogling you as a loser. If you are doing it because you want to be famous for fame itself, then it has none.
Jeremy Kyle and all the chat shows get the common man to be open and honest about themselves. Celebrities rarely, if ever, are honest, because they realise or fear that the masses wouldn’t like them if they were. Real people don’t have publicists to guide them through the media mire, and lay themselves open to ridicule by laying themselves open.
“The Playground Mafia” by Sarah Tucker So, when I was asked on ITV1’s Lorraine show a few weeks ago to talk about playground politics I was excited. Here was an opportunity to talk about an issue that is relevant not just in this country but globally, the bullying that goes on between mothers. A subject I know a lot about. I have the stats, done the research, written the book, devised the app (Mummy Mafia), rehearsed the stage play but no, they wanted me to talk about my own ‘personal journey’ dealing with playground politics. Nope. Not going to do it. I’ll talk about how to deal with it, Ill talk about the book and the numerous funny, sad, ridiculous anecdotes but as my son is still at school (albeit he’s moved to a new one), there are repercussions.
The TV wanted a ‘victim’ and I wasn’t going to be it, even one that had recovered. In the end, they chose a woman who was prepared to talk about her experience of it.
Sarah Tucker’s son, Tom, as Gollom That week, I saw the mothers from my old school at my son’s school’s superb production of The Hobbit – the production is so good it made the Evening Standard and BBC London News, my son plays a wonderfully dark Gollum) and had a coffee morning with the new mums, who were the usual suspects of the previous playgrounds, I will say no more. Not until my son has left for college or university will I talk directly, but until then the books will always be fictionalised, the interviews about the experience of others and all linen will be washed but under the guise of creative imagination.
Sarah Tucker is an award winning travel journalist, novelist, producer and broadcaster. She has edited, produced and presented her own radio and TV series as well as presenting reports for BBC Holiday Programme and anchored I Want That House on ITV. She is the author of best selling novels The Playground Mafia (short listed for the Good Housekeeping book of the year 2007) The Battle for Big School, The Last Year of Being Single, and The Control Freak Chronicles.
For more information about Sarah Tucker, go to: http://www.sarahtucker.info
Buy The Playground Mafia on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Playground-Mafia-Sarah-Tucker/dp/0099498456/ref=sr_1_7/202-9265101-5575054?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193856472&sr=1-7
Follow Sarah Tucker on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/madasatucker
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Rowling on
J.K. Rowling sells the home where she first moved after the initial success of her “Harry Potter” series
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is a lady said to be worth some $1 billion. Her path from “rags to riches” is well documented but the announcement of the sale of the Edinburgh home she first bought after the initial success of the books gives an insight into how she is also financially shrewd when it comes to property investment.
Joanne “Jo” Rowling OBE, FRSL, pen name J.K. Rowling Having paid £425,000 for a first floor flat in a 2-storey Victorian house at 1 Abbotsford Park in Edinburgh’s Merchiston neighbourhood, 2 miles from the city in 1999, Rowling bought the other half of the building in 2003 for £375,000. In turn, the property was converted back into an 8 bedroomed single family residence and became one of several residences the author lived in with her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, and their children.
The front elevation of 1 Abbotsford Park 
Security at the house was ramped up as Harry Potter sales soared due to the volume of fans appearing outside the property As well as extensively refurbishing and extending the property, in a submission to Edinburgh Council in December 2003, in the names of Mr. and Mrs Murray, the couple sought permission to install five CCTV cameras inside mock lamps at 1 Abbotsford Park. Though a neighbor objected on the grounds of invasion of privacy, the application was approved.
The house’s 35ft sitting-dining room 
J.K. Rowling’s kitchen features free standing units, a Lacanche
range cooker and a mural of tiles that, from a distance, could even be a scene from a Harry Potter novel
The garden of 1 Abbotsford Park J.K. Rowling also built a detached 656 square foot office complex in the grounds of the 3,240 square foot house during her occupation. Additionally, as well as a library, she fitted out a study where she wrote many of the series of books that have now sold more than 400 million copies.
An external shot of the garden office said to have been used by Rowling’s staff 
An internal shot of the office building Though Rowling permanently moved into another Edinburgh home she purchased for £2 million in December 2009 last year, whoever purchases 1 Abbotsford Park will have other authors to call neighbours. Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith both live locally.
Rettie and Co. seek £2,250,000 on behalf of Dr. Murray and J.K. Rowling. Even allowing for their extensive renovations, the author’s initial £800,000 investment appears to have certainly paid off if this price is achieved.
For more information on 1 Abbotsford Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH10 5DX, contact James Whitson of Rettie & Co. at 11 Wemyss Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6DH or telephone: +44 (0) 131 624 9068. View full details including a PDF brochure at: http://www.rettie.co.uk/sales/EDI121294
J.K. Rowling’s official website can be viewed at: http://www.jkrowling.com. Her first adult book, The Casual Vacancy, is published by Little Brown on 27th September 2012.
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Playground Mafia
Award winning journalist, presenter and novelist Sarah Tucker examines the mafia of the playground
It’s getting worse. I wrote the (fictional) novel The Playground Mafia in 2006 and since then have had requests for interviews and emails from all over the world where men and women have got a hold of the book somehow and told me how they feel now they are not alone.
The Playground Mafia by Sarah Tucker The last time I was contacted was a month ago by a journo from The Daily Telegraph who asked me my opinion on two celebrities in Putney who were hitting each other in the playground because of protractors. Protractors? Aren’t they the things in maths class? I made a comment about these women should get a life. She printed it verbatim. In fact she printed my whole interview verbatim and called it her article.
So I’ve decided to spread the words of wisdom to you, as I’ve been contacted from all four corners of the globe (I even have a following in Japan) by mothers, grandmothers, the well heeled, the seriously seedy about all things playground politic and mummy mafia which would make those in Westminster cower with fear. They are all mummy’s boys after all.
Of course there was playground politics in my mother’s day but it was blown out by the war. What did you care then if your child got into the wrong school? The wrong school meant one that was in the line of fire and got bombed while your child was in it.
I know women who have slept with the headmaster to get their child into the school and wanted to sue when they have still been rejected (they weren’t very good obviously) and father’s who have used financial blackmail to make sure their child will be made head boy (at the time a “well respected” banker but I don’t think there are any now).
There are cliques of women, the sweaty bettys (gym bunnies usually with much older husbands), the startled rabbits (botox freaks), the mafia, the second wives club, the mean midgets (short women are like short men but have bigger chips), the single mums, the unhappily marrieds, the earth mothers, the career mothers, the dog lovers, the spiritual healers, the crummy, slummy, chummy, schtummy, plummy, yummy mummies.
Everyone wants to be a yummy mummy. But even they have a dark side. When pushed too far they don’t get even. They just write a column.
Sarah Tucker is an award winning travel journalist, novelist, producer and broadcaster. She has edited, produced and presented her own radio and TV series as well as presenting reports for BBC Holiday Programme and anchored I Want That House on ITV. She is the author of best selling novels The Playground Mafia (short listed for the Good Housekeeping book of the year 2007) The Battle for Big School, The Last Year of Being Single, and The Control Freak Chronicles. For more information, go to: http://www.sarahtucker.info
Buy The Playground Mafia on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Playground-Mafia-Sarah-Tucker/dp/0099498456/ref=sr_1_7/202-9265101-5575054?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193856472&sr=1-7
Follow Sarah Tucker on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/madasatucker
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Isabella Blow (1958 – 2007)
This wildcard was the muse of Philip Treacy and discovered Sophie Dahl and Alexander McQueen. A flamboyant deal maker, Blow had a “natural sense of style” and a truly brilliant eye. She left this world far too soon and is sorely missed. -
Paul Burrell RVM
A Royal servant turned blabbermouth. He calls himself a “noted authority on all things regal.” Is anyone listening? No, we think not. -
Leona Helmsley (1920 – 2007)
“The Queen of Mean” was a chain-smoking hotelier and real estate tycoon with a reputation for tyrannical behaviour. She took the view that “only the little people pay taxes” but was investigated and convicted of federal income tax evasion in 1989. Sentenced to 16 years, she served just 19 months in prison and 2 months under house arrest. Worth some $8 billion, Helmsley left her Maltese dog, Trouble, $12 million in trust. -
Christian Gerhartsreiter (main alias Clark Rockefeller)
A German who used many aliases but whose biggest pretence was to give the impression he was a member of the Rockefeller family. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit gives the best account of his exploits but it is for the 2009 parental kidnapping of his child, Reigh Storrow “Snooks” Mills Boss, by a Harvard graduate named Sandra Boss that he is best known. Jailed for four to five years after being convicted for kidnap, he was subsequently also charged with the 1985 murder of a Californian man named Jonathan Sohus. Whilst this fantasist of the first order rots in the clink, his former wife has built a new life in Knightsbridge, London. -
The Rt. Hon. Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia LVO (Fiona Shackleton)
The “Steel Magnolia” is described as having “charm and resoluteness.” The cousin of Nigella Lawson and George Monbiot is one of the country’s finest solicitors but also trained as a cordon bleu chef. Heather Mills threw a jug of water over her head at the final settlement hearing of her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney and other well known clients have included The Prince of Wales and Alyce Faye Eichelberger, the former wife of John Cleese. -
Written in the sun
The sale of the former home of Dame Rebecca West
Ibstone House at Ibstone in Buckinghamshire has recently come to the market at a price of offers in excess of £15 million. Now owned by Ariadne “Ari” Getty Williams, the daughter of Paul Getty and Abigail Harris, Ibstone has also been home to Sun City tycoon Sol Kerzner, who is currently divorcing his wife Heather. This Grade II listed house is situated in the Chiltern Hills and was originally built in the late 18th century.
Ibstone House, Ibstone, Near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3YA 
A reception room at Ibstone House 
The house’s swimming pool 
An aerial view of the estate Arranged over three floors and including an extensive leisure and entertaining complex, the property includes 6 principal reception rooms, 7 bedrooms and an indoor pool. A 2-bedroom lodge cottage and large barn stand in the 79-acre grounds that also include gardens designed by Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd.
Dame Rebecca West, described by TIME Magazine as being “indisputably the world’s number one writer” in 1947, purchased Ibstone House in the late 1930s and lived there with her banker husband Henry Maxwell Andrews.
Dame Rebecca West DBE (1892 – 1983) West, who had affairs with H. G. Wells, Charlie Chaplin and Lord Beaverbrook, used the grounds of the house as a small dairy farm and also housed Yugoslav refugees in the blacked out spare rooms of the manor during the Second World War. After the death of her husband, she sold up and moved to an apartment next to the Iranian Embassy in Prince’s Gate, London. During the 1980 siege there, aged 87, she had to be evacuated.
Solomon “Sol” and Heather Kerzner Kerzner, who has been married four times to Kerzner and tragically lost his son, Butch, in a helicopter crash, has homes around the world and both he and his wife blamed the breakdown of their marriage on his workaholic lifestyle.
Of divorcing her husband, Heather Kerzner commented:
“He’s a hugely important person to myself and my children. I have only positive things to say about him. He’s the most influential person in my life – and that’s worth a lot. He’s one of the world’s most incredible men, he has shown me a different world and we had an incredible life together but sometimes I guess it just doesn’t work out.”
Some time ago the Kerzners sold Ibstone House to Ms. Getty but now she too has decided to sell up. Though best known because of her family name, Aridane Getty has run the Fuserna Foundation since 2005 and is considered a great philanthropist in her own right.
It’ll be fascinating to see what chapter opens next for this magnificent house.
For more information contact Stephen Christie-Miller of Savills on +44 (0) 1491 843000. To download a brochure for Ibstone House go to: http://residentialsearch.savills.co.uk/property-detail/333522/list
For more details on the Fuserna Foundation, go to: http://fusernafoundation.org
