Jack Gervaise-Brazier is a restless romantic. He was brought up on Guernsey, which filled him with a love of islands, but also a desire for wider horizons. As Jack was a head boy and a good historian and classicist, his schoolmasters assumed that he would move on to university and he was offered a place at Durham. Had he visited, he might have fallen under the seduction of its cathedral and other glories. As it was, he headed for a different City to pursue stockbroking and trading. Although he turned out to be a more than useful performer, he always intended to use this as a ladder, enabling him to start up his own ventures. These included a brewery on Guernsey and a rum company. But the restlessness persisted. This was all an interim.

Jack had always been interested in Greek mythology as well as its antiquities and landscape. He once sailed past Hydra in the Saronic islands, jewels in the wine-dark sea. As full darkness........

© The Spectator