You have a home in Friston Forest. What made you choose to live there?

It chose me, really. My husband’s father owned a house in Friston, which we now have. And so about 40 years ago, I came down to Sussex without really having been before – I had been to Glyndebourne many times, and to Petworth and Arundel to buy furniture, but not to many other places. I’ve got to really love it. East Sussex isn’t as grand as West Sussex – there aren’t as many big country houses and so on – but it’s full of pretty villages and great walks. We come down from London every weekend, and all through the week I’m dying to be back.

I’m speaking to you [on Zoom] from Kingston, near Lewes, I take it you’re in London?

Yes, I am. I love Lewes. It’s got a very odd atmosphere, and they keep burning the Pope, which, being a Catholic, I’m not very fond of, so I tend to avoid that. But it’s got some lovely buildings and a lot of interesting independent shops, which is becoming unusual. In Italy they say ‘all the world’s a village nowadays’ meaning every high street is full of the same chains. London’s got like that unfortunately, with Louis Vuitton and Chanel and so on, but Lewes has retained its personality. Oddly enough it doesn’t really have a very, very good hotel. Should I say that?

Well The White Hart has scrubbed up recently.

I know it’s changed hands. I looked at it a long time ago. I would have loved to have bought it, but somehow it was a bit daunting.

Did you choose to open the Star Hotel in Alfriston because it was just round the corner from your home in Friston?

Strangely enough, before buying the Star, I hardly ever went to Alfriston, maybe only five or six times in 40 years! But during Covid my daughter [Alex Polizzi] and I saw it was for sale, and it wasn’t expensive, and we thought shall we, shan’t we, and finally we bought it. I’d already opened one hotel, The Tresanton in Cornwall, and another, The Endsleigh on the edge of Dartmoor, but this was quite a different prospect.

So you’ve got to know Alfriston now!

It’s a very pretty village. Actually too pretty, maybe, a sort of picture-postcard 15th-century village, with a great church they call ‘The Cathedral of the South Downs’. We’ve got some wonderful individual shops and a lot of talented people around. Practically all the work at The Star was done by locals. We used the local blacksmith, Thomas Gontar, for our gates and table bases; a local carpenter, Peter Brett, made the tabletops, and Scott King made the waiter station, library and coat area. There’s a shop called Objet Trouvé over the road, run by a woman with very good taste and an unusual eye, Amanda Lawrence. She painted our Elizabethan floors in the restaurant and a very complicated floor with flowers in the meeting room upstairs. It nearly killed her, but they’ve really brought the place to life. And then there’s Diana Kelly next to the hotel. She’s an interior designer, and, during Covid, we looked at fabrics and chose schemes together. Our library has been stocked with local history books by the couple who run Much Ado Books. That’s a wonderful bookshop, run with such passion.

You and Alex did an awful lot of work on the hotel…

We completely rebuilt it, actually. The builder was quite astonished, because we knocked down parts of the building to create a courtyard, for summer dining, and he’s normally called upon to build up rather than to knock down. We bought the shop next to the hotel, and that allowed us to have an extra courtyard. Nobody wants to eat inside in the summer.

I stayed in the hotel in the winter with my wife, and it was up there with the best hotel experiences we’ve ever had. So many nice touches, the place is clearly run with a lot of passion. We loved the artworks.

I hate any of our guests being unhappy, I really do, so we bend over backwards to try and make them happy. As for the artworks, we’ve filled the place with art from local artists alive and dead. We’ve got several Vanessa Bells, and two Duncan Grants, and I’ve just bought a Roger Fry. Some of the paintings I’ve bought from Emmett & White in the village, and others at auction, at Christie’s or at Gorringe’s in Lewes, where we’ve bought a lot of our furniture, too. Brown furniture goes for so little nowadays!

Beyond Alfriston and Lewes, do you get out and about much in the rest of Sussex?

Not as much as I’d like to. We have quite a big garden at Friston, which I spend a lot of time on, because I’m passionate about that. But William [Shawcross, her husband] and I go to practically everything at Glyndebourne, even getting returns, last minute, we love it, it’s still the best of the private opera houses. We’re looking forward to Billy Budd, and Tosca, which we’ve got tickets for. We used to do picnics for parties of eight or so people, but we only do that once a year or so now, it’s so tiring and I’m pretty old. If we take people, we eat in the Nether Wallop restaurant. Often we just take a sandwich and a bottle of wine. Or a picnic hamper from the restaurant at The Star!

That’s a good plug! You’re obviously an art lover, what Sussex galleries do you enjoy going to?

We often take private parties to Charleston, everyone loves it. The garden’s very pretty, a real cottage garden, beautifully done. And the Towner has been very good for Eastbourne, which certainly needs an injection of something or other. I don’t always like their exhibitions – they’re very woke, aren’t they? – but it’s worth going if just for the Ravilious Gallery. We don’t get out to West Sussex very much, but when we do, we often go to Arundel, and in particular to Spencer Swaffer, just opposite the castle. Not a gallery of course, but an antique shop, which sells a lot of art: I’m always tempted by something there.

Beyond the bar in the Star, which has kept a very pubby feel, which I’m pleased about, can you recommend any pubs?

The Ram in Firle is always full and noisy and good fun, and the Eight Bells in Jevington, which we can walk to, has just been redone and does good food. Then there’s the Plough and Harrow, in Litlington, that’s always a joy.

Do you do a lot of walking?

Not as much as I’d like to, because as well as my three hotels, my main job is with the Rocco Forte Hotels where I run the building and design side. We’ve got 14 hotels all over Europe, mainly in Italy, so I do a lot of travelling. But when I can I go up the Downs, or take a walk to Berwick Church, with its Charleston murals.

Other than Sussex, where would you like to live?

I’ve got a little house in Cornwall, and I’d like to live there, its so friendly and feels like a different country, so different from London, which I’m tiring of. Otherwise, I’d love to live in Italy, the most beautiful country in the world. In Rome, I think, it’s small enough that you can walk everywhere and every corner has a beautiful building with beautiful objects inside. I like Giorgia Meloni, too!

I quite fancy her, actually…

I hope your wife doesn’t read this.