The personal touch

Strutt & Parker stalwart Mark McAndrew talks estates, sport and farming with

- Rupert Bates

MARK MCANDREW, a senior director at Strutt & Parker, is so much part of the agency furniture he could be the '&' in the company name: meet Mark 'McAmpersand', 37 years with the firm and counting usually acres. Such are the stellar estates McAndrew has acted for over the years, if discretion wasn't the better part of valuation, he could publish quite the list of individuals powerful, wealthy, famous and indeed infamous - who have sat in his car. His autobiography would be tales from both riverbank and passenger seat. McAndrew lives in London but Hampshire, where he grew up, is his haven; preferably fly-fishing on the banks of the River Itchen.