Cowes resident and former newsreader Kenneth Kendall celebrated his 80th birthday with a party at his art gallery in the High Street, organised by his partner of 14 years Mark Fear, 60. "It was marvellous. I even managed to blow out all the candles on my cake," Kendall tells me. "I think I am going to turn into a cantankerous old gentleman: I have warned everyone that I'm not going to do anything that I don't want to do, and I may well become selectively deaf." The 200 guests, including old friend Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, spilled out on to the pavement, before the crowd went on to finish the evening with dinner at the 1930s themed Royal Yacht Squadron ball.
Adds Kendall, who once famously handed out condoms during a Cowes week as part of a safe sex campaign: "I do think that safe sex is still relevant, and I dare say I would hand them out again - were I to be asked."