EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Tycoon rows with armed neighbour on tropical Caribbean isle

He has amassed a stupendous fortune, contended with unspeakable trauma and done profound good by acts of philanthropy. 

But perhaps Ian Wace should minimise his attempts at manual labour – judging, that is, by an incident which has ignited raucous debate across the tiny idyllic Caribbean island of Canouan.

None of this could have been envisaged by Wace, when, less than two weeks ago, he donated £5million worth of equipment for use in restoring buildings on Canouan, where he has a house, and neighbouring islands severely hit by Hurricane Beryl in July last year.

But last Friday, Wace, who, as I disclosed, has separated from his third wife, model Saffron Aldridge, decided that he’d get his own hands dirty – using a leaf-blower on a public road. 

What happened next is disputed. But, according to one version of events, a local woman, on her way to the bank, paused until Wace turned the leaf-blower towards the other side of the road.

Once he’d done so, she resumed walking, only for Wace to turn around as she drew level with him and, it’s alleged, ‘started to blow the dust on her’.

An altercation followed. The woman reportedly asked Wace if he didn’t have any manners, to which Wace, who co-founded Marshall Wace hedge fund with Sir Paul Marshall, allegedly replied: ‘I’m cleaning your country.’

Bracing words were exchanged, with Wace telling the woman not to attend a party he was giving that evening, to which he’d invited Canouan’s entire 1,200 population.

Matters might have ended there, had the woman not been the wife of Terry Bynoe, a well-known Canouan figure who styles himself an activist.

Alerted of the incident, Bynoe, who was equipped with a firearm, confronted Wace. Things became abrasive, with both men allegedly ‘chucking’ each other – the local term for ‘shoving’.

The aftermath was even livelier. When Bynoe and his wife went into a shop, they were reportedly followed by a ‘crowd’ of men, armed with bottles, who allegedly threatened to kill Bynoe. Police interceded and escorted the Bynoes to the police station, where Bynoe was held for 11 hours and had his firearm removed.

Wace, who witnessed the loss of his first wife and both their children in a road accident, declines to comment. Bynoe has assured a local radio station that he is ‘not a madman’, adding of Wace, who turns 62 this month, ‘the man is doing a phenomenal job. I still don’t have anything against him’.

Daughters call ‘fault’ over Annabel’s skirts

Annabel Croft dazzled viewers with her sparkly costumes on Strictly Come Dancing, but she had a dressing-down at home from daughters Amber, 28, and Lily, 25, for wearing miniskirts in her 50s.

‘Age is a consideration in how I dress, as my daughters said to me many years ago, ‘Mum, you’re too old to wear that now’,’ says the tennis star turned TV presenter, who is 58.

‘A skirt I was wearing that was too short. It was something I wouldn’t have thought twice about, but I probably wouldn’t do that any more because they were right…

‘I’m glad they said it because who else was going to say it to me?’

Kit’s new job – as The Batman

As Jon Snow in Game Of Thrones, he tried to protect The Wall from the armies of the undead. 

But now Kit Harington has a new role – as bat keeper at the 15th-century farmhouse in Suffolk where he lives with his wife, fellow Thrones star, Rose Leslie.

To win permission to convert a barn on the £1.75million property into guest rooms, Harington has been told to create a new roost for bats, which are protected by law.

A new report for Babergh District Council says: ‘It is the responsibility of the owner of the property, Mr Christopher [Kit] Harington, to manage and maintain the compensatory bat roost on site, long term, to ensure it remains suitable for bats.’

Daniel Craig’s suspenders suggestion

Keen to leave 007 behind as he promotes his new film Queer, Daniel Craig says he was a stickler for detail with his character William Lee, based on US writer William S. Burroughs. 

‘Let’s talk about the underwear,’ Craig enthuses. 

‘It was my idea to get garters for the socks… there are some really beautiful photos of Burroughs and his lover lying in bed in that underwear, wearing suspenders on his socks. So I kind of wanted to recreate that image.’ 

Chris Martin’s gift to Rolling Stone journalist

Coldplay’s Chris Martin sought to impress a Rolling Stone journalist visiting his Malibu home with a special gift – a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories – and a party trick: Read a sentence from any page and the singer can tell you exactly what story it was from.

‘I turn to page 327 and read a few nondescript lines,’ the writer records. 

‘”That’s not The Adventure Of The Copper Beeches, is it?” he asks. (It is.)’ 

Had Martin subtly influenced the recipient? He had ticked stories ‘he loved most with a blue marker’ beforehand. Elementary!