Antigua is one of those places where you can take your time: watch an hour or two of cricket, sit on the beach, or try a bit of yachting. You might even exert yourself enough to summon the waiter for a bottle of Wadadli. Meaning “our own” in translation, the beer was named after the island – or the name it had after what the island was called before British invaders took it over the island in 1632. But whether the island will remain “our own” for much longer is a question the 80,000 inhabitants of this Caribbean island might well soon be asking.

The locals take the daily invasion of tourists as they are bused from cruise ships to the beaches or to ersatz steel band nights with a relaxed shrug. They barely notice the rich and famous who have homes there, such as designer Giorgio Armani and writer Ken Follett, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and rock musician Eric Clapton, who owns an alcohol drug rehabilitation centre there.