Peter de Savary

JL: When did you start smoking?

PdS: I never smoked anything in my life until my 16th birthday, when I asked my father if he would let me try one of his beloved Havanas. He said I could have a cigar on two conditions: 1) that I gave him my word never to smoke cigarettes and 2) if I liked cigars to smoke fewer rather than more and always to smoke good Cuban cigars rather than any inferior tobacco. He then handed me my first Bolivar and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

JL: What do you smoke now?

PdS: On average, 6-8 Havana cigars a day, usually two Partagas D size, and 5-6 Partagas Lusitianas or Punch Double Coronas. I also like Hoyo de Monterreys and Ramon Allones very much, but I only like dark leaf cigars, nice chocolate colour - I don't like any pale leaf cigars. I also enjoy collecting interesting cigars and in 1997 bought a box of 163 Havanas rolled in the 1856 - for £17,600, auctioned to celebrate Christie's 230th anniversary. They're still the oldest and most expensive Cuban cigars sold at a commercial auction, and they're my favourite smoke. When my eldest daughter, Lisa, got married in April 1998 at Stapleford Park, the groom's father and I each lit up and enjoyed one of the world's oldest Havanas cigars to commemorate the happy event. They smoked much better than any modern Cuban cigar, much better.

JL: Can any of your guests at Skibo, such as Madonna, Guy Ritchie and Sir Sean Connery, smoke in their bedrooms?

PdS: No. It doesn't matter who it is, they've got to smoke downstairs. They can smoke anywhere downstairs except in one of the drawing rooms, which is set aside for non-smokers. And they can't smoke at the dinner table, until the ladies have left. The routine is you go to the cigar room, which was formerly the study of Mr Carnegie's personal secretary, and in there we keep at least 500 cigars spread over probably 20 different types of cigars. So you go there, and the butler will help you select, cut, prepare and light your cigar. The best place to smoke it is in the adjoining room, which is Mr Carnegie's library, which has comfortable squidgy chairs and great views over the loch and estate, with a drink appropriate to that time of day.

JL: Did Andrew Carnegie smoke?

PdS: No.

JL: Is it true you throw half of your cigars away?

PdS: I never smoke a cigar to what I call the limit as I find that once I've smoked two-thirds of a cigar and have had to relight it, that last part starts to get a bit acidy and moist. Some people would say, 'God, he's throwing away a lot of that expensive cigar', but I prefer to enjoy the quality, not the quantity.

JL: What happens to the dog-ends?

PdS: I'm not sure. I think my staff collect them and smoke them surreptitiously.

JL: You'll have to start paying them! So you must have a lot of empty cigar boxes, then?

PdS: Yes. I've kept all the cigar boxes I ever owned and now have thousands. I am going to panel a room in Skibo Castle with cigar boxes, from floor to ceiling, in due course, and it will become one of the great smoker' s rooms in Britain.

JL: Shame you can't take a few stogies with you, when you pop your clogs.

PdS: I'm going to have my coffin lined in cedar wood - a cigar humidor is always lined with cedar. And when they finally put me in my box they've got strict instructions to place one of those very large Hoyo de Monterreys on top of me.