All the same, she is the kind of reflexive Tory who’d rather die than admit to luck having played its part in her life. When I ask if she sometimes has to pinch herself (in addition to this place and St Tropez, she has an enviable 18th-century house up the road, as well as homes in Miami and New York), she shakes her head. “I worked for it, didn’t I? I recognised opportunities and I took them; I wasn’t afraid and I took risks.”
