A chat with Hunter Davies

The question was a cheeky one: ‘Will you be looking for love on the Island again?’

Hunter Davies, journalist, author and broadcaster, who has just published his latest book ‘Love in Old Age’ looked across over his cappuccino with a twinkle in his eye and said: “I am auditioning.”

Hunter 86, moved with his former love Claire to Ryde in the build-up to lockdown and his 103rd book tells their story over the course of their time here. He said: “My wife died six years ago and, for the last three or four years, I have had a regular girlfriend. We thought we would buy somewhere as a love nest.

“The Island was never in our plans. The last time I had visited here was in 1966 when I interviewed the then governor of Parkhurst, which was then housing the Kray twins and some of the Great Train robbers.

“But we visited friends here and saw somewhere in Seaview, but it was next door to a new estate. On the way back to the ferry, we stopped off and saw a house for sale in Ryde and that was it for us.

“As the months went on, I thought I would write a book about our time here. It would cover the build-up, buying the house, our travels across the Island and the people we met. My publisher advised against it and said I should write a book about the Lake District because more people would buy it! But it covered three things: love for a new home, love on a new island and love for my girlfriend.

“Sadly, we have broken up, but I intend to stay here; I have got to know so many people and Ryde is lovely. When I told my friends I was moving here, they said Ryde was rundown, but it’s exactly the opposite. They don’t realise how beautiful it is.”

Hunter is a long-time friend of Sir Paul McCartney and the only person to have written an authorised biography of The Beatles.

And as we finished our coffee at his favourite café, The Secret Garden, he gave me the full answer to my original question, adding: “I would like to meet someone from the Island between the age of 65-75, single, who has had her own career and house and family. She would have to listen to Radio 4 and read The Times – and have her own teeth!”

So, with a little of my ‘Help’, I’m sure ‘We Can Work It Out’ for Hunter.