India Jane Birley

India Jane Birley (born 14 January 1961) is a British artist, heiress and businesswoman. She was a co-owner/manager of her father's London nightclub, Annabel's, in its later years, as well as some of her father's other establishments.

Biography

Born in London, India Jane Birley is the daughter of Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart from her marriage to nightclub mogul Mark Birley. She has two brothers, Rupert (presumed deceased) and Robin; and three half-siblings, Zac, Jemima, and Ben Goldsmith from her mother's affair with James Goldsmith, the man who would become her second husband.

In 1980 while training at an art school in Madrid, she met and married Jonty Colchester, an interior designer. In 1985 they were divorced. She was subsequently engaged to Amir Farman-Farma, a wealthy Iranian aristocrat, but the marriage was called off. In 1993 she met Francis Pike, a historian, and they were married.

They lived in Bombay and London before Pike relocated to Germany and Morocco. Though they have lived separately for many years, they remain married and present themselves publicly as a couple. In October 2004, when asked by Evening Standard why she had no children Birley answered, "I'm not able to". She has since had a son, Eben, and while the father was initially described as her husband, he was later revealed to be Robert Macdonald, her Alexander Technique teacher of the time.

Birley, the granddaughter of society and royal portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley, is a painter whose 1999 portrait, "Conrad Moffat Black (Baron Black of Crossharbour) and Barbara Amiel", appears at the National Portrait Gallery (London). She illustrated her mother's book, Copper: A Dog's Life. Birley also organized an exhibition on the origins of sex< and has a noted collection of antique erotica.

Beginning in 2003 she was co-director of her father's nightclub, Annabel's, with her brother Robin Birley. Her father left her the club and the bulk of his estates; her brother Robin sued to overturn the will and a settlement was eventually reached between the siblings. She has since sold Annabel's for over $100 million and is no longer involved with the enterprise.

External links

• Queen of Clubs by Emine Saner, Evening Standard, Oct 4, 2004.