Damien Hirst buys a bed and breakfast

Artist Damien Hirst, who by some calculations is now a dollar billionaire, is to open a seaside bed and breakfast in Ilfracombe, North Devon.

During the summer, he paid £450,000 for Netherleigh, a seven-bedroom house in the centre of the town where he already owns a successful restaurant as well as a farm nearby. The local council have now received and approved plans to turn it into a B&B.

"We're delighted with the idea," a council member told the Independent. "Of all the places in Britain he could have chosen, he went with us." However, he adds a note of caution. "Of course, the only times that I've met Damien he's been drunk and lying on the sofa but I don't think that's any reflection of his plans for the hotel."