Stuart Alan Hill, born 1943, aka "Captain Calamity" after his failed attempt to single-handedly circumnavigate Britain in a tiny rowing boat with a sail cannibalised from a windsurfer, is what in the good ol' days before personal computers and political correctness we might have called a "shit-stirrer" - more here.
He's still in full flight on the tiny one-hectare island of Forewick Holm which he acquired under controversial circumstances - see here - , renamed Forvick and turned into the Sovereign State of Forvik which currently has 218 citizens — who pay an annual membership fee of £20 each — from as far afield as the Philippines, Thailand, and Russia.
I first heard about the Sovereign State of Forvik when I watched Martin Clunes' "Islands of Britain" in 2010:
At the time, Stuart Hill was still very much in the news but since then things have quietened down a bit and, considering that his tiny island which is closer to Norway than to mainland Scotland is on the same latitude as St. Petersburg and Anchorage (see Google Map), he's not even spending all his time there now.
As he says, "Plenty of wind and rain! We sometimes get some really good sunny spells, but one Shetland saying is ‘If you don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes!’"
I like nutters like him! They make the world a more interesting place - after all, aren't there times when we all wished we could secede from the rest of the world? (well, as long as there's a place nearby that sells Cherry Ripe ☺)
P.S. Here's a handy Instruction Manual on how to start your own micro-nation.
