The Caribbean island of St Lucia has its celebrity devotees but few stray from the beach. GEOFF HO discovers what they are missing

DARK, wild , mysterious, and rebellious. No, not the pirate ship that has sailed eerily into view as I glide through warm, azure Caribbean waters but the enigma that is Amy Winehouse.

The beautiful Caribbean island of St Lucia is the ideal place to escape the cold, gloom and darkness of a British winter.

We visit the tiny jewel of the Caribbean.....

Relaxation is something at which I have always been spectacularly inept.

THE sweet-scented breeze, the tropical beaches, the nights spent chilling around a jerk chicken barbecue sinking my fifth rum punch. . .

Ben Hall visits the island of St Lucia, an explorer’s paradise....

“Welcome to my beautiful island”, says our hostess Berthia Parle in a voice like melted Cadbury’s Caramel....