In 1986 Tony Porter and his wife, Beatrice, gave up their successful careers as fashion consultants in London's West End to buy Burgh Island and its near-derelict, long-forgotten Art Deco hotel. Up to their necks in debt and with a massive programme of repairs and maintenance ahead of them, they gradually laboured to restore it to its former glory and into the beautiful, luxurious place it is today. Written with warmth and wit, The Great White Palace is not only the fascinating story of this extraordinary hotel's renovation, but of the island itself. Originally the site of a medieval monastery, it has been a notorious smugglers' paradise, and the rich and famous have been holidaying there since the hotel's inception in 1929.