He has, in his time, sashayed around in a sarong, sported a top-knot and, during his legendary wedding celebrations, seated himself in splendour on one of two gold thrones – while his bride, Victoria, perched on the other.
These days, though, Sir David Beckham, 51, has contentedly settled into a tweedier existence, whether enjoying a day’s partridge shooting with his pal Guy Ritchie, ‘guest-editing’ Country Life magazine or tending to the broad beans and carrots he grows on the 26 acres at his Oxfordshire retreat.
But Sir David, who spent his infancy in Leytonstone, East London, and adolescence in Chingford on the capital’s north-east outskirts, now finds his rustic credentials being called into question. As if that were not galling enough, I can disclose that the person levelling the charges against him is an ecologist of 24 years’ standing.
Asked by the local council to evaluate developments on an island Becks inserted on his man-made lake at his Cotswolds residence, Melanie Dodd observes that, when first proposed, the island’s purpose was to increase the lake’s ‘value for wildlife’.
David and Victoria have embraced the rural lifestyle in recent years
