The first time India Hicks came to Australia, she worked on a sheep farm that her parents owned near Bunbury, Western Australia. The idea was that the aristocratic Hicks, daughter of Lady Pamela Hicks and famed interior designer David Hicks, and erstwhile bridesmaid to Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles, would spend some time in the colonies, “building character.”

“I learnt what mulesing was on day one,” she says, dry as a gin martini. “And then I did it every day for the next month.” Just 18 at the time, Hicks recalls the experience – and other sheep farming practices – in vivid detail.