TONY Porter, former owner of Burgh Island, launched his memoir ‘Whatever Next?’ last weekend at Harbour Books in Kingsbridge.

The book recounts an extraordinary journey through seven distinct careers, including time working in the fashion industry where he was instrumental in setting up London Fashion Week, rubbing shoulders with the stars of the sixties, including Twiggy and Cilla Black.

Tony and his wife Beatrice spoke to the Gazette this week about the book, their love of the South Hams and Tony’s plans for an eighth career.

Tony’s previous book ‘The Great White Palace’, published in 2002, tells the story of their sixteen years on Burgh Island in detail. He explains: ‘For ‘Whatever Next?’ I deliberately haven’t done a big fat chapter on the island, although that was really our sixth career.

‘I found that of all the mail that I got from people who loved the book, they said over and over again, ‘you spent all that time on the island, but what did you do with the rest of your life?’ Eventually I thought to myself, ‘well maybe there’s another book in there’ and I sat down five years ago and started writing it.’

The book then sat on the shelf until three months ago, when Tony took it down and started collecting pictures, correcting the copy and putting in a whole lot of funny stories.

‘It’s laced with them,’ Tony smiles, ‘Like the time when I took my cap off to the hearse as a boy and was told ‘there ain’t no body in here!’

‘You know I had such trouble with the publishers, because they kept on putting ‘there ain’t nobody in here’ and I said, ‘I want a gap between ‘no’ and ‘body’, or you miss the whole point!’

Tony’s sense of humour shines through his writing and he clearly has an eye for a well-timed joke. Such as the time BBC Radio Devon called him and asked him to take part in an April Fool’s Day prank: ‘They said, ‘we’ve just had a report from Bigbury-on-Sea to say that planning permission has been granted for a bridge to be built between the mainland and Burgh Island. I was put on the radio and I said, ‘I don’t know what all the fuss is about. There are only going to be two lanes each way and there’ll be a big sign saying, ‘no lorries with more than four axles!’ The phone started ringing straight away!’

After completing National Service, Tony began selling paint for ICI who posted him to Nigeria where he married Beatrice and they had three children. The family moved back eight years later following the outbreak of the Biafran war. He then left ICI and immersed himself in the swinging sixties of London.

Tony explains: ‘Beatrice’s sister Barbara Hulanicki had opened her Biba shop in Kensington, and decided to go into mail order. She needed someone to get the clothes made and dispatched; that was me! I also had to count the money and pay it into the bank.’

Later Tony launched his own fashion PR business: ‘I slowly built up twelve clients producing everything from overcoats to plastic jewellery. After a while it seemed crazy to me that twice a year, all our press went off to Paris and Milan to see the fashion shows, but nobody came to see the British shows. I took it upon myself to see if we could get an equivalent setup in England.

‘There was an organisation at the time called the Clothing Export Council of Great Britain - I went and knocked on the door of the director and made my pitch for a fashion week in London. He said, ‘if you can get five good designers to give you £100 each, I’ll match it. It had to be called British Fashion Week, because of the Export Council and its support from the British Knitting Council. It grew and grew - and eventually I handed it over to other people after five years. By then we called it London Fashion Week.’

With their PR company prospering, Tony and Beatrice bought a yacht and began exploring the coast, rivers and ports of the Westcountry, sailing to the Isles of Scilly when the winds were favourable.

In 1985, after falling in love with the south-west, they began looking for a house and business down here. One day, they received a phone call from a friend of their daughter’s who said: ‘I’ve just seen on Spotlight there’s an island for sale with an Art Deco hotel.’ They drove down there the next day!

‘We walked across to Burgh Island and up to the hotel with the agent. He took us up to one of the self-catering flats and they were just horrific.

‘There was a worn cord carpet on the floor, there were beds that hinged down from the wall for mums and dads and bunk beds for the kids. In the sitting room there was a Baby Belling gas stove. Beatrice and I looked at each other as if to say ‘no way!’ ?‘But just before we walked out of that flat, we said ‘can we look through the balcony doors?’ So the agent got them forced open, because they were all rusted and we went out and stepped onto the balcony. The view from there was just wonderful - and that was when we decided to have a go!’

The rest, of course, is local history. When asked about how the South Hams has changed over the past thirty years, Tony answers: ‘I’m taken aback at the way the place is changing shape, with old buildings being knocked down and new ones being built.

‘I don’t want your readers to think that we forget all the people who want somewhere to live, I just don’t like the way in which the applications are handled.

‘I mean a really good example is the recent Bigbury-on-Sea application, the lovely, old Warren Cottage. Why it’s not listed, I can’t imagine. We’ve got a black and white postcard with a picture taken from the island, and the only building there is Warren Cottage - and now it’s going down.

‘On the positive side, it’s very noticeable, indeed as ex-hoteliers, the number of beautiful establishments that are being created now. Some of them have been renovated without being spoilt and have become lovely places. With the exception of those planning decisions, there are good people wanting to make the South Hams a wonderful place to live and visit.’

After sixteen years on Burgh Island, Tony and Beatrice have relished the opportunity to explore the South Hams since leaving the island: ‘We have got to know all the lovely places that we couldn’t go to before, whether it’s to eat and drink, or just to walk. There are so many lovely places in the South Hams and above all, we’ve made so many friends. To put it in a nutshell, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed life since we left the island - getting to know the area and all the people who live here. We’re still relatively new compared with some people here!’

Since 2008, Tony and Beatrice have been organising the Aveton Gifford Classic Car Show every summer. They originally conceived the idea to raise money for a new preschool in the village, which is now built and thriving. The show is now held in aid of children’s projects in Aveton Gifford, and last year funds were distributed to the primary school’s swimming pool, the village tennis court and the junior cricket club: ‘I suppose ‘career’ is a grand name for it - but it does take three months every year from when we announce it. We’ve always liked classic cars, and I own a ‘tomorrow’s classic’ - a 27 year old Mercedes.’

This is all leads to the question, whatever next?: ‘I suppose my other career is that I write now. I’ve only written non-fiction so far, Beatrice doesn’t want me to write fiction as it would be too naughty!’

‘I wrote three children’s stories once, and the grandchildren absolutely loved them, so maybe in my dotage I’ll turn to that.

‘There’ll be something next. I can’t stop!’

‘Whatever Next?’ is published by Matador Books and is available in shops across the South Hams.