To have become the only female western spokesman for a nation of 250,000 Muslims is an unusual occupation for someone who, aged 18, took her first tentative steps as a debutante doing the London season. But then Mrs de Larouque consistently presents a remarkable, if not eccentric, figure. One year after she had been presented to the Queen, she was learning to fly in Kenya, the country of her birth. Today, yellow-haired and bird-like she insists on putting on Maldivian national dress for her COUNTRY LIFE photograph, while at the same time hugging her dachshund, Posie. 'I think I terrified your poor photographer,' she giggles, eyes, dancing with mischief.
She is, in fact, far from terrifying; bouncy, ebullient and enormously chatty instead, and, once she puts her mind to something, unstoppable. When she first visited the Maldives properly in 1980 - marriage to a British landowner,
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'They are very independent, very gentle and are never to be underestimated,' she says, describing her adopted people. 'They have their own language, Dhivehi, and their own religion. They take care of their elderly and live in small, gossipy, village -like communities. They are also deeply superstitious, like many people who live on the sea.' But Mrs de Laroque insists that tourism has not corrupted the Maldivians. 'It has simply allowed them to prosper, and opened their eyes to the way other people live,' she says. 'They think that we do not pray enough and they disapprove of the fact that we drink.' This has not, however, prevented them from naming a cocktail after Mrs de Laroque, called naturally, the Maldive Lady. 'I feel lucky to have been accepted by them,' she says.
Should she ever be invited to share her experiences on Desert Island Discs, Mrs Laroque has already chosen two essential items: 'A knife - for opening coconuts, digging out shore clams and finding water - and mosquito repellent.'
But she could find herself a castaway with no islands to visit. |