She was a royal bridesmaid, lived in a stately home and danced with Prince Charles. But Lady Emma Vickers ran away from her privileged life to join the circus and today prefers to surround herself with the kind of Kiwi knicknacks that ordinary New Zealanders take for granted.
Happily selling Kiwi kitsch to collectors from her shop in Wanaka, Emma (40) gets a bigger kick out of a stuffed possum than she once did from the priceless works of art that adorned the walls of her childhood home, Wilton House in Salisbury.
“I grew up with collections and history, and I’m still living with collections and history,” she smiles, looking around her shop, Codswallop and Balderdash, which is packed with everything from 1950s tea sets and 1960s psychedelic dresses to wooden tiki and unusual hunting trophies. In contrast, Wilton House, a 100-room mansion dating from the reign of King Henry VIII, was the location for historical movies like Pride and Prejudice and The oadness of King George.
Lady Emma, her little brother Lord William and their sisters had free run of the enormous manor and its grounds, where nothing was out of bounds. “When the house was open to tourists, we would hide under tables in the state rooms and jump out at them,” she laughs. “We’d climb trees in the park and ride our bikes around the inner cloisters.” The only part of the house they never visited was the cellar, which they thought was too scary.
The house was definitely haunted, Emma says. At age 12, she was playing with a friend in an unused tower when they heard a man and a boy talking in a room above them. Assuming it was the butler with Emma’s brother William, the two girls went up to say hello – but when they got there, the room was empty.
Emma’s godfather is the Duchess of Cornwall’s ex-husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles. She was a fl ower girl at Andrew’s wedding to Camilla, who is now married to Prince Charles. At the age of 11, Emma literally “danced with the Prince of Wales”
when her parents held a ball at Wilton. But rubbing shoulders with royalty did little for Emma, who was later dubbed “a rebel” in the UK media. “I was never drawn to the aristocratic lifestyle,” she explains. “Dad was a film producer, so we always had a mix of interesting people coming to Wilton and I preferred creative types. “I did date a few private-school boys, but I thought they were boring.”
When she left school, Emma went to New York, where she lived in a squat with homeless people. Exposed to the seamier side of life, including drugs and crime, she later said, “I saw lots of ugly things that made me not want to do them myself.” But the teenaged Emma soon decided roughing it wasn’t for her, and felt the pull of the performing arts.
At 19, she joined the circus as a trapeze artist, performing in London’s most prestigious clubs and theatres. Known for her trademark pink hair and pierced face, Emma met her husband, pyrotechnics expert Rob Vickers, while in Spain. “I looked, he looked, and that was it,” she says simply. The pair married at Wilton in 2005 and it was Rob’s love of action and adventure that brought them to New Zealand.
Emma learned stunt work and was a star performer at 2005’s Fight for Life, dangling 12m above the boxing ring. “I’d never been so scared before – I’d never performed at such a height,” she says.
Another life-or-death moment came when she was performing with a New Zealand circus and her safety line got tangled while she was 8m up in the air. She simply undid the line and completed the act. “If I’d have fallen, I would have died. Rob was furious when he found out!” she says.
The couple now live in Wanaka with their two children, Vanessa (3) and Vincent (1). Ironically, Wanaka used to be named Pembroke, after Emma’s great-great-great grandfather, the 14th Earl of Pembroke. Happy to put the high wire behind her now she’s a mum, Emma opened a shop selling “vintage stuff and nonsense” such as retro clothing, Kiwiana, collectibles and retro furniture. While Rob scours the country for items to sell, Emma runs the shop and looks after the kids.
“I’m looking forward to the time when they’re in school and I can go with him – after the thrill of the high wire, nothing matches the thrill of the fi nd,” she laughs. Currently, her favourite item in the shop is a stuffed, cricket-playing possum but she admits it’s hard to choose.
“There was no Formica at Wilton, for example, so I see it now with fresh eyes and love it more than anyone,” she says. In oay, Lady Emma is going back to England for her brother’s wedding, and Prince Charles is on the guest list. But she insists she won’t be staying long. This is one blue-blooded Brit who would rather be a true blue Kiwi any day.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
