Are we too critical of others’ tastes? Absolutely; fantastically critical But it’s always been that way. I mean, we look at Georgian things and think how perfect they were and look back on it as a kind of golden age of design and architecture and they all had exquisite taste. What the book shows is that you’ve got to be comfortable with your own style Taste is different throughout the world. What is the taste in the Rocky Mountains is not the same as the taste in Manhattan, let alone in Riyadh or Buenos Aires or Berlin. It’s a great indicator of what a golden age we live in that things like sport and interior design and celebrity magazines are so high on our list of priorities because it means we’re not worrying about all the terrible things.”Every year Andrew Martin publishes an Interior Design Review and hundreds of people from around the world send in entries. I think it’s hard to feel happy in a home you’re not proud of.”One of the great fascinations is the interior design from history and I think it has an enduring appeal.

The thing about interior design is that people think of it as an irrelevance in life, but actually the way people dress their homes is very important for them. I’ve used stainless steel all over – a bit like you’d find on an aeroplane.”The interest in interior design at the moment is extraordinary, but it all adds to the sum of human happiness. In contrast, I think kitchens and bathrooms should be much crisper and more modern. In the West Indies, where they have masses of sun, they paint everything white. When you’re in a room that isn’t very big it’s better to make it dark, especially in dining rooms and studies. Black’s a great background and I’ve used it to paint the bedroom walls.

I’ve got Kuba cloths on the bed, Ethiopian shields made from hippo and a sketch by John Lennon of him and Yoko (it’s not that rare, he did lots). I have a Ming merchant cabinet from China and a 3,000-year-old Egyptian funerary mask that I picked up at Christies. The mask sits on a big coffee table next to a large Buddha, both of which came from Thailand. I’m a great fan of the ‘big’ principle of decorating: scale is important, go for fewer and bigger.”I’m generally a believer in painting light rooms light and dark rooms dark. On a recent trip I visited the head-hunter tribes in Naga land on the Burmese/Indian border. I was the first Englishman to go there for 40 years and it was fascinating; they are friendly and welcoming people.”I am always buying things on my trips and I particularly like textiles. I’ve got fabrics from South-east Asia, ikats from Central Asia, and an embroidered Ottoman-era coat, which hangs on the wall I found it in the grand bazaar in Istanbul.”I love auctions.