INDIA ROSE JAMES ON INHERITING SOHO: I WAS TOLD I NEVER HAD TO WORK, EVER
The granddaughter of porn publisher Paul Raymond grew up treating Soho as her playground. She talks about motherhood and sobering up
October 22, 2020 | Hilary Rose
Heiress is a Georgette Heyer sort of word, all ballgowns and tiaras. It doesn’t usually conjure up an image of a young woman with pink hair, half a dozen hoops in each ear and an Eddie Van Halen T-shirt. Clearly, heiresses aren’t what they used to be and besides, India Rose James’s is no ordinary inheritance.
James is the 28-year-old granddaughter of Paul Raymond: porn publisher, Soho property magnate, and a man who had the dubious distinction of opening the UK’s first strip club. When he died in 2008, he left her a share of his fortune worth £329 million. At the age of 21, she was richer than the Queen.