India Jane Birley

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India Jane Birley also known as Jane Birley (b. 1961) is a British artist and the co-director of the famous London nightclub Annabel's as well as her father's other establishments George and Harry's Bar.^[1]

[edit] Biography

Born in London,^[2] Birley is the daughter of Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart from her marriage to nightclub mogul Mark Birley. She is the step-daughter of billionaire Sir James Goldsmith. She has two brothers Rupert (deceased) and Robin from her mother's first marriage; and three siblings Jemima, Zac and Ben from her mother's second marriage.

In 1980 while training at an art school in Madrid, she met and married Jonty Colchester, an interior designer. In 1985 they were divorced. The granddaughter of society portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley, Birley's own work as a painter (the 1999 couples portrait "Conrad Moffat Black (Baron Black of Crossharbour) and Barbara Amiel" appears at the National Portrait gallery. She illustrated her mother's book, 'Copper: A Dog's Life'. Birley also organized an exhibition on the origins of sex^[3] and has a noted collection of erotica, much of it antique. In 1993, after a brief engagement to another man, 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 lived separately for many years they remained married and presented themselves publicly as a married couple. In October 2004, when asked by The Evening Standard why she had no children Birley answered,"I'm not able to".^[4] 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.^[5]

Since 2003 she has been the co-director of Annabel's with her brother Robin Birley. He was dismissed in 2006 after India Jane (who says she added the moniker "India" to her given name Jane because she liked India so much) told her father she was livid with Robin for having the father of her son investigated. Robin says he did it with her best interests in mind, but she is reported to be no longer talking to him and she has stayed on to run the club with her father Mark Birley, who came out of retirement for the occasion and is also not speaking to Robin, having sided with India Jane on the matter.

Ms. Birley is known for being emotionally volatile and has said she suffered emotional abuse and neglect as a child from her parents. She says this made her eat dog food, out of a desire to be a dog, as they are loved. Her brother Robin suffered severe facial injury as child when he was attacked by a pet Tiger; Ms. Birley was at his side during the gruesome attack.