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Deborah the snapper Dragon

As a judge on our photograph­y contest Deborah Meaden says you don’t need flashy equipment – she took a winning wildlife shot of her own with her phone

- Richard Barber

Deborah Meaden has always loved all animals. But it wasn’t until she sold her stake in caravan park operator Weststar Holidays in 2007 – a sale that boosted her healthy bank balance by a further £19 million – that she had time to indulge her passion. ‘I’ve become a keen observer of wildlife,’ she says. ‘When you see wild creatures, not only their interactio­n with each other but the tough times they have, it’s fascinatin­g.’

The Dragons’ Den businesswo­man has a property in London’s affluent Primrose Hill but her main base is a ten-bedroom converted farmhouse in Somerset, which she shares with her husband, Paul. The couple didn’t intend to farm their land so Deborah, 58, introduced wildlife on to the property. ‘There was a pond already and we’re close to the Somerset Levels so there’s a lot of water around. The animals had been forced to the edges of the land when it was farmed so all we had to do was take down a few fences and metal barns, plant some trees and let the meadows revert to being wild.’

The result was instantane­ous. ‘Wildlife quickly re-establishe­s itself if you let it. So the hares came back followed by otters – much to our surprise – and roe deer and foxes, even adders. Snakes are beautiful. We’ve got chickens and I’m aware they’re vulnerable but I very much believe in the circle of life.’

Known for her love of nature, Deborah appeared on BBC’s Countryfil­e in 2016. And while she can’t claim to be a serious photograph­er, she was tickled that a shot of hers was awarded photograph of the day. ‘While everyone set up their fancy equipment, I was there with my iPhone 5 and took a picture of a mayfly. It looked straight into the lens, as if it were posing. I have my phone with me all the time and photograph anything that takes my fancy.’

So she’s thrilled to be one of the judges for our Great British Wildlife Photograph­y Challenge, now in its fourth year. ‘The only challenge is in picking the winners. The standard gets higher every year. But I do like a challenge.’

Deborah was born in Somerset but when her parents parted, moved near Colchester with her elder sister, Gail, and her mother. ‘As I grew up, I tended to live where work dictated. But there was a real feeling of coming home when we bought the farm. Somerset has an earthiness about it and it’s full of people who have lived there for generation­s. Also, it’s not really a tourist destinatio­n, which I’m grateful for.’

She still travels for work, which includes six weeks from late April filming BBC2’s Dragons’ Den, which is split into two segments. The latest series has just resumed, with Deborah joined by fellow investors Tej Lalvani, Jenny Campbell, Peter Jones and Touker Suleyman. ‘I love the show but I enjoy getting home. I like to ride my horses so I organise my weekdays in London, and in Manchester where we film, and then back home to Somerset.’

She’s been in the Den since its third series in August 2006. So how did the producers find her? ‘I genuinely have no idea. When they approached me, I wasn’t at all keen. I’d never wanted to be on television and told them so. I had no wish to step into the limelight. I thought I’d lose a bit of control.

‘But I was immediatel­y at home in that chair. I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d still be there 12 years on.’

It’s evolved over the years, she says. ‘It’s more fun these days and Evan Davis has a real twinkle in his eye. He’s a fantastic presenter. He’s got a brain the size of a planet and yet he has the ability to put across complex stuff in a really accessible way.’

If Dragons’ Den made her recognisab­le, Strictly turned her into an overnight star. Partnered with Robin Windsor in 2013, Deborah was eliminated in Week 5 to universal protest. ‘I was genuinely sad to go. I loved dancing with Robin, who is a great friend.’

Courtesy of Dragons’ Den, she’d got used to being recognised in the supermarke­t ‘although, to begin with, people weren’t sure why they knew me’. All that changed with Strictly. ‘People would come up and say, “Hello Deborah, how are you?” And when I was voted off the show strangers would ask if they could hug me.’

There is one drawback to having a public profile, though. ‘I’ve always been an intrepid traveller, much more interested in what I’ve come to see than in where I’m going to stay. Now I have to choose more discreet hotels where I’m not recognised or, at the least, not approached by guests.

‘If you’d asked me ten years ago where I’d been happiest, I’d have told you it was back-packing with the man who would become my husband. That’s not quite so easy any more but it’s the price you pay for being on TV.’

She met Paul when he was working for the man she’s always called Dad (her mother’s second husband, Brian) in the leisure business he owned. ‘Paul was fixing the machines in the arcade as a summer job. We broke up because I said I didn’t want to settle down, get married and have a family.

‘I was in my mid-20s and fiercely independen­t, as well as stubborn. I worried I’d lose my identity, which is ridiculous – if you meet the right person it adds to who you are.’ They eventually married when she was 34 and she says now, ‘It was the best thing I ever did.’

Paul now runs their smallholdi­ng,

‘The mayfly looked into my lens as if it were posing’

where ‘we grow our own vegetables and we’ve got the animals. All of that needs management. It means I can go do my business and come home to an immaculate property. Paul makes my life better and frees me to do what I like.’ He is, she says, ‘very cool’ about his wife’s public profile. ‘He’s very confident, so was never in danger of being emasculate­d by my TV celebrity.’

Deborah has never had children. ‘People always draw conclusion­s. At one stage, I thought if it happens, it happens. And it didn’t. But we’re quite happy we didn’t have kids. It wasn’t a question of sacrificin­g children for my career. That’s just the way it panned out. I do have lots of rescue animals – three rescue dogs, seven rescue horses and we adopted two Welsh sheep – so they satisfy my nurturing side.’

She has been a long-time supporter of the Brooke charity, whose president is the Duchess of Cornwall, an internatio­nal organisati­on which aims to improve the lives of working horses throughout the world. In 2014 she teamed up with champion jockey Richard Dunwoody on a fact-finding mission to India for the charity, where she was shocked at the terrible conditions many animals endured. She told Weekend at the time, ‘It’s no good letting your emotions get on top of you. These people have unimaginab­ly hard lives – it’s not just the animals that are worn out by impossibly hard conditions. The way to bring about change is to help them understand how things can get better for them too when they look after their animals.’

Deborah currently has more than 20 businesses in her portfolio – and a rumoured £ 40 million in the bank – although her involvemen­t varies. ‘Sometimes, they just want my money and occasional access to me. With others, I’m more heavily involved.’

So why does wildlife matter to her? ‘It would be a very lonely planet if we destroyed our wildlife. To live in a healthy environmen­t, we need wildlife, clean air, trees. More people are aware of that with Sir David Attenborou­gh’s fabulous TV shows. I’m a huge fan. I’ve met him three times and on each occasion I turned into a gibbering idiot.’

Finding herself tonguetied is an unfamiliar situation for the formidable Deborah Meaden, however. ‘I don’t suffer fools,’ she admits, without apology. ‘ Things go wrong because people won’t broach a difficult subject. But that’s exactly why you should be talking about it. Don’t pussyfoot around. Say what you have to say and say it clearly.

‘I’d be mortified if people thought I was nasty. But I am a plain speaker. It’s very easy to wander through life saying everything’s lovely. That’s not kind, though. Kindness is being caring enough to say what you really think. It doesn’t have to be harsh but it has to be truthful. And people appreciate that.’ Looks like judging the Wildlife photograph­y entries this time round is going to be especially lively.

Dragons’ Den, Sundays, 8pm, BBC2.

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 ??  ?? Deborah with her beloved rescue horses
Deborah with her beloved rescue horses
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