REMOTE ST HELENA
ater, zig-zagging along the island’s spine through
misty cloud forest, barren plateaus and black
volcanic valleys, I’m struck by the peculiarity
of this tiny island’s topography. But even stranger
is that it’s British, and has been for 360 years.
The Portuguese discovered St Helena in 1502,
but it’s been a British territory since 1659,
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Governor. The island is also notorious for being
where Britain exiled its arch-enemy, Napoleon
Bonaparte after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1815.
He never left, dying here six years later.
Nowadays, St Helenians (or Saints, as they
refer to themselves) are British citizens, and the
island still follows the UK’s lead in many areas
of life, from health and education to the legal
system. Touchstones of Britishness are
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engines, post-boxes and police cars, Union Flags
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pepper conversation (albeit in an accent that
sounds like Bob Marley doing an impression
of Blackbeard the pirate). And in its Georgian
houses, greengrocers, pubs and copper-spired
Anglican church, the island’s capital,
Jamestown, feels bizarrely like an English
seaside village circa 1950. Or at least it would do,
if it weren’t for the red volcanic cliffs looming