Brendon Grimshaw was a newspaper editor in his late thirties when he did what others do only in their dreams: He bought a deserted island in the Indian Ocean that came complete with rumours of buried pirate treasure.

Five decades later, Grimshaw, 86, owns Moyenne Island still, having transformed it from a £10,000 “hunk of waterless bush,” into a haven for birds and tortoises that reportedly drew offers of $50-million or more before it was declared a national park in 2008.