‘The Dotty Duchess’, Jane Percy, is the Duchess of Northumberland and star of a fly-on-the-wall TV series which has been seen by millions. She worked alongside King Charles when he was still Prince of Wales.
Duchess of Northumberland speaks to The Mirror about her children’s novel
She revels in the nickname ‘The Dotty Duchess’, has a collection of stuffed animals and is a ‘great admirer’ of King Charles.
Jane Percy, the indomitable Duchess of Northumberland, was the star of a fly-on-the-wall TV series which has been seen by millions. She worked alongside King Charles, when he was still Prince of Wales, over 15 years as Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland.
She stepped down last year to focus on her latest venture, the biggest play structure in the world, the £17.5m ‘Lilidorei’, which has a slide as high as the Angel of the North, 20 miles of fairy lights and 1500 Christmas trees.
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But she said of the monarch: “‘I’m a great admirer of HM The King and he was possibly one of the most extraordinary Princes of Wales ever in terms of his achievements.
“His work ethic takes some beating. I’ve seen first hand how much he cares about all sectors of communities and how he genuinely understands their needs.”
She was “honoured” to have welcomed so many members of the Royal Family to the North east as Lord Lieutenant. “The visit of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Alnwick back in 2011 was extremely special,” she said.
“They attended a garden party to celebrate and thank local caregivers then went on a walk around the town.
“Alnwick was buzzing with excitement, the sun was shining, and thousands of people turned out. It was a really special day for so many people.” She met Charles several times in her role, and he stayed at Alnwick Castle during one visit back in July, 2012.
She has just written a children’s book, ‘Amanita’, sold with an illustrated guide to the land of Lilidorei. She thinks it would be a ‘good idea’ to send one to the King, though she admitted: “I imagine he is sent endless copies of new books.”
The C4 series ‘The Duchess and her Magic Kingdom’ celebrated her eccentricity.
It showed her collection of stuffed animals including dogs and rats (she carries a stuffed beagle with her on the train to London) and saw the naturists arrive to try naked pottering about Alnwick Garden. The popular visitor attraction was designed by the Duchess and is close to the ancestral home of the Percy clan, the famous Alnwick castle seen in the Harry Potter movies. She said of her stuffed animals: “I genuinely love them and it upsets me terribly when I ask my children which dogs they want when I die, and they say: ‘Oh God we don’t want any of them’.
My husband Ralph says our home is like a museum with all the bones and skulls. For Mother’s Day, I did get a skull from the children but I know my husband will get rid of all of them when I am 6ft under.
“I cannot explain it, I love dogs, and I have a stuffed beagle that I take it up and down to London on the train. It is the size of a small table, and wrapped up in a carrier; I lifted a stuffed spaniel the other day and there were moths under it. “To me, it is almost like they are alive; I could not have my own dogs stuffed because I cannot leave them on their own in the dark. “I have a Spinone which is the size of a donkey.”
Ever loyal ‘Mario’ does not make the launch of ‘Amanita’ as he is off for a walk. Explaining her inspiration for Lilidorei, and her quirky take on life, she added: “I am not different for the sake of it, but the big specialists in London said that it is best to be different in the play world.
In Dubai, the shopping centre there was the same as one in Kent. With Lilidorei, you are never going to see it anywhere else. Why not think outside the box and do something different? I do not want to do what other people have done, ever.”
True to her word, for Lilidorei’s Christmas launch two years ago, she took me for a ride down the attraction’s giant slide in total darkness. Even in a power cut, she was promoting the virtues of her latest venture (the electricity came back on in the nick of time).
She has just returned from the Middle East talks to sell the Lilidorei brand out there. “I have been to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, we are looking at taking it to other countries,” she added. “America is probably most likely to open the first one outside the UK.
“My new little book of characters brings it all to life. Amanita, called Anita in the human world, is a misfit, not like other children. “She starts to sprout wings from her back, is adopted, then gets to meet her real dad. The Amanita mushroom grows underground and makes ‘Yule’. The King drinks it, it keeps him alive and that keeps the magic of Lilidorei going. “It is fun and I can run and run with ideas about it.” An astute businesswoman, she realised the need for a winter attraction at Alnwick after opening the garden, popular in summer. Thanks to Lilidorei, November and December are now their busiest months. With 243,000 visitors to the Garden and Lilidorei last year, the revenue went up from £48,000 in 2015 to £750,000. Alnwick Garden is a charitable trust, with the money raised reinvested in the area and its people.
It employs 230 staff, with 9,500 hours of work carried out last year by their team of 90 volunteers. The Duchess, a mum-of-four, combines family duties with her business life.
She explained: “The main objective is to raise aspirations, to make it accessible to everyone. When we started the Alnwick Garden, no journalist could pronounce Alnwick, they all said ‘Aln-wick’. That is not the case now. Successive Governments drop plans for the North east. So we do things ourselves.”
At the garden, that includes cage fighting, Mr Gay UK and a ‘Naturists evening’. “Mr Gay UK was a huge success for us,” she said. “The Naturist thing is a funny one but there are people who want to take their clothes off to garden, and it is an annual event. They tend to be the older generation.” It is ‘not as glamorous as you might think’ says Alnwick Garden chief executive Mark Brassell. The Duchess, 67, added: “People say why did we do cage fighting and I said why not? They did not expect it in the garden. But they miss the point, it was built for the community. “Some of the volunteers resigned over hosting it but we had one of our biggest ever takings that night.” The Duchess is married to Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, the titular owner of Alnwick Castle who has a £517m fortune, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. They wed in 1979, and live in the Scottish borders. Her next pet project may be to help the older generation reconnect with society. She tells how many young people (including her own children) have left the North east for work, leaving parents and grandparents behind; she flies to Florida regularly for long weekends to see four or her eight grandchildren there.
“It is exhausting and while I can do it, I must do it, to have that relationship,” she said. “They say loneliness is the biggest killer of all, and that is why volunteering with us is so important.
“They are primarily older people, but get together and chat. Journalists have apologised after they had a go at us, but never understood what the Garden was going to do for the local economy. It helps to address loneliness so that criticism has gone away now.” *To order the book, click here
