Interior designer, consultant and TV presenter Naomi Cleaver has found a home away from home on Nevis in the Caribbean. Words Jonathan Trew

When she isn’t influencing the country’s taste in interior design on prime time programmes such as Other People's Houses, Trade Secrets and Grand Designs Live, Naomi Cleaver divides her life and work between London and the Caribbean idyll of Nevis. Chatting from the veranda of her island home, Naomi is like her on-screen persona: bright, informative and educational. Especially the latter.

“It’s pronounced Neevis,” she gently corrects me at the start of our interview. “It’s tempting to pronounce it like Ben Nevis but it is Neevis.”

I stand corrected. Having bought a house on the tiny island with her husband Oliver in 2004, Naomi has had plenty of opportunity to get the pronunciation right. Her husband, an advertising executive, had been going to the Caribbean on holiday for years and he first took Naomi to Nevis in 1994.

“Princess Diana had just been to Nevis and that sort of put it on the map in some senses,” says Naomi. “It’s very quiet, rural and beautiful so we decided to come on holiday here. The people are really friendly. I know that sounds a bit of a cliché but people are incredibly friendly, kind and polite.”

In the ten years between first visiting the island and buying a property there, Naomi and Oliver travelled around most of the Caribbean but settled on Nevis because of its tranquillity. When they first visited, the airport was a landing strip with departures and arrivals written on a blackboard. Facilities have improved since then but the runway is still too small to take large planes, a factor that has checked the over-development prevalent on other islands.

“In our opinion, Nevis is the best island in the Caribbean,” explains Naomi. “At 48 square miles, it’s not the smallest island in the Caribbean but it is compact. It is mostly undeveloped and unspoiled. The government have thankfully pursued a policy of very high-end development here. It’s just how the Caribbean used to be years ago.”

Read the full article in our June 2009 issue.