The Man Who Bought Mustique

If Joseph Conrad were writing celebrity profiles for Vanity Fair, Colin Tennant would be his ideal subject. In 1958, Tennant, aka Lord Glenconner, bought the tiny Caribbean island of Mustique for 45,000 pounds. Five years later, Tennant left his family seat — a rolling, 9000-acre estate in Peeblesshire, Scotland — moved to Mustique and set about transforming it from a three-mile stretch of derelict beach into a glittering tropical sandbox for the likes of Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry, David Bowie and Tennant's old friend, Princess Margaret, to whom he deeded a chunk of Mustique as a wedding present. The island and Tennant's lavish parties quickly became ...