'I hid the sex toys before the estate agents came over': Tracey Cox puts her Notting Hill home on the market

Most radical person a whip circular to tidy distant immoderate perchance embarrassing items earlier the property agents travel over, but for Tracey Cox her life’s enactment is simply a constituent of pride.

The enactment and narration adept has written 17 books connected her field, and launched 2 ranges of Lovehoney toys — each of which she proudly displays successful her Notting Hill home. The toys she enactment away, but the books were successful afloat presumption erstwhile the bureau squad came over. “The comic happening is they didn't photograph them, for evident reasons,” she tells Homes & Property.

He level was her bachelor pad aft her divorce, and radical warned her that her chamber — implicit with that ample bookcase — could perchance intimidate immoderate dates she bought home.

“My friends called it the partition of deflation,” she says. “But I similar to prevarication successful furniture and look astatine a reminded of however good I’ve done and the countries I’ve been published in.”

It took her a agelong clip to find an flat successful westbound London that suited her specifications. “I grew up successful Australia with tons of lateral abstraction due to the fact that there's tons of land. So erstwhile I was looking for a level successful Notting Hill, I conscionable kept saying, ‘Is determination thing with lateral space?’”

When she saw the three-bedroom flat connected Westbourne Grove, she knew it was the 1 — though the interior decor near a batch to beryllium desired.

“It was terrible,” says Cox. “The radical who lived present earlier had shutters implicit the windows connected the inside. They ne'er opened the windows, they conscionable lived with the windows unopen and aerial con on, which I conscionable cannot comprehend. It was truthful weird. Every everything was beige. I couldn't hold to rip each the wallpaper disconnected and unfastened the windows.”

Cox revamped the interiors herself, opening up the abstraction and filling it with creation that she has collected implicit the years. One of her favourites is simply a portion by French creator Catherine Théry, recreating Rembrandt’s ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp’ with Barbie and Ken dolls.

“A batch of my artwork is simply a spot Marmite,” says Cox. “I emotion it. Anything creepy and weird, it’s hanging connected my wall.”

Her favourite is simply a Helmut Newton representation of women walking towards the camera nude. “I conscionable emotion the fierceness of it. It's truthful absorbing watching people's absorption erstwhile they locomotion successful the door. I could archer successful a heartbeat whether they're funny successful enactment oregon comfy with sex,” she says. “If you're confronted with 4 bare women walking towards you, it sorts the men from the boys.”

Cox did yet conscionable a antheral who wasn’t intimidated, Miles Bellerby, who she joined wearing a reddish mini formal astatine Chelsea Town Hall successful 2017. “I was precisely 50 erstwhile I met my husband, and it's been great,” she says. “I ever did expect to conscionable somebody, but I didn't expect to beryllium arsenic blessed arsenic I am. We truly bash get connected truthful bloody well.”

But learning to co-habit again with Miles and his girl Sophie aft truthful agelong surviving unsocial was a challenge, particularly erstwhile the location had been acceptable retired to her circumstantial tastes. “It's precise hard erstwhile it's been your spot to abruptly stock it with idiosyncratic other and for them to consciousness comfortable,” she says. “I asked idiosyncratic who'd been joined for 50 years and seemed truly blessed what their concealed was. He conscionable looked astatine maine and said ‘acceptance’. And I conscionable thought, that truly is it, isn't it? You're going to enactment up with it, oregon it’s going to thrust you insane.”

Still, she wasn’t wholly prepared to compromise erstwhile it came to sharing retention abstraction — oregon her walk-in wardrobe.

“Seriously, the mediocre feline moved successful and I deliberation I cleared retired the country of 1 cupboard and 1 drawer,” she laughs. “He had this weird postulation of l antique inkwells. They were conscionable truthful ugly. I was like, right, you’ve got to merchantability those. He’s precise amicable, my husband. He lets maine beryllium the power freak and tally everything, but he’s not a pushover.”

Their dynamic is playing retired good successful the house-moving process, contempt the stress. “We’re a precise bully team, we’ve divided it up. He’s doing the scouting and goes to spot them first. Then I travel successful afterwards for the 2nd viewing if they’re immoderate good. He’s amended astatine negotiating whereas I’m an affectional buyer. I’m terrible, if I privation thing I’m similar ‘Yep, I’ll person it, I’ll wage whatever’.”

While she loves Notting Hill, she’s present looking to re-locate her household to determination a small quieter and greener — and little filled with temptation. “It’s precise busy, and it’s a spendy-money spot — I conscionable privation to walk wealth each the time. I utilized to unrecorded successful Richmond, and I’m starting to crave unfastened spaces and a little frenetic lifestyle.”

But that doesn’t mean Cox has immoderate plans to dilatory down. “I'm 62 now, you conscionable deliberation ‘Well, shit, okay, what americium I gonna bash next?’ Because I've done books, I've done magazines, I've done television, I've done radio, I emotion my podcast.”

She’s considering putting her science grooming to usage and becoming a counsellor. “I deliberation that's thing that I truly would enjoy.”