Homes gossip

‘Posher than Posh’ Sophie moves closer to her mum

Singer Sophie Ellis Bextor has finally sold her three-bedroom Victorian terrace home near Portobello Road. The four-storey house went on the market at £1.65 million last year, was then reduced to £1.5 million and has now gone for £1.3 million through Bective Leslie Marsh.

The Twickenham-born songstress has already moved with her husband, Richard Jones (bass guitarist with The Feeling), and their sons Sonny and Kit, to family friendly Chiswick where four-bedroom family houses cost from £1.5 million to £2 million.

The new pad is conveniently close to the singer’s mother, former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis, who lives with her second husband, TV executive John Leach, and their two children Jack and Martha.

Sophie, who once boasted that she was "posher than Posh", became an international star in 2000 with the dance track Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) followed by hits such as Murder On The Dancefloor and Take Me Home.

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Fans of Welsh rock legend Sir Tom Jones will be disappointed to learn that he has changed his mind about leaving Los Angeles and returning to live in Britain.

Reports claimed he was selling his colonial-style mansion on Mulholland Drive because Linda, his wife of 53 years, was homesick.

“Tom and Linda are staying put, but might buy a London property,” an aide explains. “Whenever Tom tours Britain he has to stay in hotels or with his son (and manager) Mark who has a house at Henley.”

The sexagenarian Pontypridd-born “Sex Bomb” has spent 35 years in California, until recently in a Bel Air mansion once owned by Rat Pack crooner Dean Martin.

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No sooner has Guy Hands, buccaneering chairman of private equity group Terra Firma, paid £7 million for a seven-bedroom, ocean-view mansion in low-tax Guernsey, than his right-hand-man, Peter Cornell, is looking for a similar property.

Not wanting to upstage his boss he plans to spend only £5 million on a five/six-bedroom spread near the island’s capital St Peter Port.

With Labour upping higher-rate taxes, the Kent doctor’s son relishes the fiscal Shangri La, with its Fifties charm, splendid beaches and slower pace of life, for himself and his family.

He joined the firm in 2007 shortly after it had paid £2.4 billion for the EMI Group, whose artistes included Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and Damon Albarn.

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As the Glorious Twelfth (12 August) approaches, Scotland’s grousemoors are proving to be a valuable hedge against recession. CKD Kennedy Macpherson is selling the scenic 8,652-acre Lochindorb estate in Morayshire for £5 million.

“It works out at about £4,500-£5,000 for each brace of driven grouse, which is pretty impressive,” says a friend of the owner.

This well-managed estate, which includes a nine-bedroom lochside lodge, cottages, three trout lochs and a bothy, won the Purdey Gold Award for conservation last year.

“Whoever buys the moor will be able to host some fabulous houseparties in the lodge,” adds my source.