N 1966, Oliver Messel (1904–78), one of Britain’s foremost stage designers, retreated to the Caribbean island of Barbados following a punishing theatre season. He was three decades into a stellar career that had seen him, among other things, disguise countryside pillboxes as haystacks, castles and cafés in the Second World War. Aged 62 and suffering from recurring arthritis, he would have been forgiven for taking early retirement or, at least, slowing down—but Barbados proved exactly the tonic he needed. He largely remained on the island—and on neighbouring Mustique—until his death 12 years later, designing and creating nine houses on the former and 18 on the) as ‘something out of a dream… one of those rare places, which once seen, is never forgotten’ (COUNTRY LIFE, ).
