Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. The ambience is quite deliberately that of a home, rather than a hotel and some of the rugs and other textiles were created for the hotel by the Eve Branson Foundation, a Morocco-based charity founded by Branson’s mother. At Virgin Casino, were all about bringing your online casino experience. “Welcoming, not posh, airy, fun and thoughtful,’ he says.

The decor was created by Mallorcan company Rialto Living and Branson’s design brief was simple. Son Bunyola is firmly Mediterranean, from the food to the scalloped pool parasols. Necker Island has a Caribbean vibrancy, Mont Rochelle, in Franschhoek, eschews the area’s cod French to offer a cooler, African-orientated take on South Africa’s most famous wine-growing area. (The exception is Mahali Mzuri tented safari tent in Kenya, a conservancy project which is owned in partnership.) All share a strong sense of place. They are all also, bar one, privately owned, by the Branson family. Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace were made with the cooperation of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, so much so. (He sold it in 2002, and it’s now part of the Belmond group as is Le Manoir aux Quat’Saison.) There are now eight properties in the Virgin Limited Edition portfolio, which, despite Branson’s comments - are one of the most quietly - and consistently successful - parts of the Virgin group. I didn’t get the girl back but then she rang me up to say she’d found a ruin in Deia.” That was La Residencia, which Branson helped buy in 1987. “A woman I was living with ran away with a man to Mallorca. Now 73, Branson paid his first adult trip to Mallorca in his 20s.

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