The very idea of life on a tropical island appeals to popular fantasy: the sea, the sky, the sand, the tranquillity, the escape-from-it-all...Mental images abound at the mere mention: white linen and straw hats; hibiscus and palm trees; languid cocktails taken on the verandah; the intensity of colours and the sound of the sea. This fantasy is reality to India Hicks, David Flint Wood and their two children. Over the past five years, India and David have impeccably restored, built or redecorated three houses and one hotel on the island. Each interior reflects India's keen sense of colour and style, inherited in part from her father, David Hicks, and influenced by her travels with David Flint Wood to India and Africa, and from the wealth of Caribbean style that surrounds them.


'Island Life' celebrates India's unique style, which mixes classic European and Caribbean influences, and their houses and the island are beautifully portrayed by leading photographer David Loftus. Following a unique design influenced by the authors' meticulously made sketchbooks and journals, a mix of tracing paper (used innovatively to recreate some of India's designs), gloss and uncoated papers are combined to give the book a novel approach. This is the first book to reveal the secrets of India's style which have long been championed by style gurus such as Ralph Lauren, who shot his catalogue at their home, and Martha Stewart.

India Hicks is the daughter of the late David Hicks and granddaughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten. After working for 10 years as a model in Paris and New York, she went to live in the Bahamas with David Flint Wood who had escaped from a career in advertising to run an eight-room hotel. They have two sons and live an idyllic life on the tiny but devastatingly beautiful Harbour Island. Their houses have been used as locations for fashion shoots by Vogue, LL Bean, J. Crew and Ralph Lauren among others. India Hicks still works as a fashion model and both she and David graced 50-foot billboards across America in the latest Banana Republic ad campaign. India also writes interiors features for House Beautiful, US. David Loftus is one of the UK's leading photographers. His work regularly appears in leading glossy magazines and he is well-known for his work with chefs including Jamie Oliver and Tamsin Day Lewis.