Circle of Friends

Islands are magical places – and they don’t need to be in far-flung locations to evoke that special pull. There is something about setting off from the mainland and crossing a stretch of water that brings with it a sense of adventure and the feeling that a different land awaits on the other side.

Set just off Hampshire on England’s south coast, the Isle of Wight has been luring and inspiring visitors for centuries. Charles Dickens said it was the prettiest place he had ever seen, and Virginia Woolf, Algernon Charles Swinburne and John Keats wrote here at different times. Probably the most famous writer of all who fell under the island’s spell was Alfred, Lord Tennyson – a monument to him stands on Tennyson Down, an idyllic spot