Inside Mustique, The Private Caribbean Island Beloved By A-Listers

Does Roger Pritchard, managing director of The Mustique Company, have the best job in the world? Lucy Cleland hangs out with him to find out.

The Man Behind Mustique: Roger Pritchard Talks Luxury, Sustainability & Island Life

I once nearly got a job running a paradise island. It was in 2011 and my business was still feeling shaky in the wake of the 2008 financial crash – we thought we might throw our coins in the air. There was a cohort of people whose vision it was to create the ‘Mustique of the Indian Ocean’ and so my husband, nine-month-old baby and I journeyed to a jungly sliver of heaven just off the coast of Mozambique to see if we were fit to run an exclusive barefoot hideaway. Fortunately, we were lacking and didn’t pursue the post. A couple of years later, there was a not-very-pleasant run-in with some Somali pirates…

Not so on the real Mustique, of course. No pirates – at least not in the traditional sense – have blighted the powdery white shores of this tiny Caribbean speck that has long been synonymous with glamour, exclusivity and privacy for the (mostly) European and American elite. Its 24-hour private security team – so discreet you don’t see them – would never have let the boats get near enough for even a peek at Mick Jagger’s morning dip.

Antilles

The storied island – made famous by Princess Margaret, whose beloved Les Jolies Eaux residence can now be rented by rich royal lovers the world over – is presided over by Roger Pritchard. As managing director of The Mustique Company for the past 17 years, this paradise is both his retreat and his responsibility. Does he have one of the most desirable jobs in the world? You’d think so when you catch sight of him holding court at the bar. It is a balmy Sunday evening at the Beach Café, where home-owners and guests from the Cotton House (the island’s only hotel) gather for sundowners, just one of the weekly social rituals that make this island feel like a private club.

Roger’s background is the lens through which you understand how he ended up running Mustique. Raised in Asia and schooled in England, he then served as an officer in the Army for seven years – including a stint in Hong Kong in the 1980s, patrolling the borders as scores of illegal immigrants from China and Vietnam tried desperately to make it ashore. He then went on to join DHL in Kuwait just before the first Gulf War kicked off (‘all the oil fires were burning and it was a bit like Mad Max’), before eventually meeting his wife in the Middle East, and returning to Asia for the next ten years. This exceptional international experience – in peacetime and in war – makes him more than qualified to manage the whims of 90 rich, well-intentioned homeowners. These include Tommy Hilfiger, Bryan Adams, and Jagger, of course – who each have a say over the running of Mustique and its pristine 1,400 acres. ‘I consider myself fairly thick-skinned and fairly resilient,’ he confirms with a wry smile.

Basil’s Bar

Which is all the better as curating the island’s rarefied mix of barefoot luxury, ecological sustainability, and impeccable discretion must require a deft hand and a calm sensibility. ‘You can’t just maintain Mustique,’ he says, as we chat in his air-conditioned office by the airport (which has to have the shortest runway you’ve ever seen). ‘You have to reimagine it constantly while keeping its soul intact.’

The fragile stewardship of Mustique’s soul then, very much lies with him – his hand firmly on the rudder of keeping the island relevant in terms of its offering (a glorious new gym, for example, had just opened when I visited in May – and a spa is slated for 2025), but never over-exploiting it. One of his missions is to enhance and protect its rich biodiversity – which is just as much beloved by its owners who hike its rugged coastal paths and swim its hidden coves, as is the heady calendar of cocktail parties.

Mandalay, David Bowie’s former home

The island, however, is not immune to the ever-increasing challenges posed by the climate crisis. Coral bleaching hit it hard (there is a restoration programme underway) and hurricanes are increasing in size and scale. In July this year, Hurricane Beryl felled over 4,000 trees and caused damage to many buildings. This pales in significance, of course, to how other nearby islands, Union Island and Mayreau, in particular, were hit, but this is where The Mustique Company galvanises into action. Within hours, Roger and the Mustique Charitable Trust had raised over $2m in aid from the homeowners and could despatch his fleet of private planes (the company owns five) immediately to help bring supplies to the more besieged areas. This aid, not just rallied in times of crisis, as well as being the biggest employer in the area, is a unique proposition, and helps the island maintain an entente cordiale with its less monied and less resilient neighbours. They are always ready, willing and able to step in to help out – a small price to pay, one imagines, for the safeguarding of their own mini utopia.

It is people skills that Roger thinks are his superpower. ‘I’m diplomatic and I will do my best to work out a win-win situation,’ he says. This might be pushing back on some residents’ desire, say, to build a golf course (that will categorically never happen, Roger tells me). For the solar panels project, it took him eight years to get them built. ‘There was resistance from some people who said it’s a heavy investment and we don’t need to do it. We’re a tiny little island, who cares about carbon footprint and fossil fuels?’ But doing the right thing for the environment is one of The Mustique Company’s pillars, so it was a battle Roger refused to lose – and he didn’t.

Fisher House

He is also a brilliant raconteur. Some of the stories he tells me are unprintable (one involving a Russian oligarch; another about the girlfriend of one of our more colourful ex-prime ministers, for example), but some are made for the annals (and I hope he’s keeping a diary). He was planning the much-hyped, Barbie-themed New Year’s Eve party at Basil’s Bar last year. A few weeks later, a call came through. Margot Robbie just happened to be sailing around the Caribbean and wondered if she might pop in on 31 December for the evening? Hell, yes. Keeping this information very firmly under his hat for the next few weeks, you can only imagine the astonished faces of the revellers when the real Barbie walked in and joined the jamboree.

And as I enjoy one last rosé-swashed lunch with Roger before setting off back to reality, it becomes clear that Roger Pritchard does indeed have an enviable job. Not just because of Margot Robbie rocking up to his New Year’s Eve party, but because he’s safeguarding a dream – where nature and luxury coexist. And for those lucky enough to experience it, that dream is one you’ll never want to forget.

Lucy stayed at Fisher House, which sleeps 10, from £15,500 per week, room only but including staff and use of vehicle. mustique-island.com

Lucy’s return flights from London Gatwick to Mustique had a carbon footprint of 2,090kg of CO2e. ecollectivecarbon.com