The first time Lawrence Wood visited Lanzarote the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was still in power. In 1968, the Spanish island represented a different proposition to investors. “A former employer was renovating an old camel stable in La Asomada,” recalls Wood, who instantly fell in love with the island. His old boss offered to sell him a patch of the land, but it wasn’t until the early 1980s that he took him up on his offer and started building his future home.