The songwriter behind Sir Cliff Richard's Mistletoe & Wine is selling the luxury home he bought with the proceeds of the Christmas hit.
Leslie Stewart bought the five bedroom Victorian villa in Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, following the huge success of the 1988 festive song.
The 69-year-old lyricist is now downsizing and has put the property up for sale for £630,000.
Mr Stewart co-wrote the song with musician Keith Strachan and fellow writer Jeremy Paul in 1976, 12 years before it was released by Sir Cliff.
The five-bedroom luxury home (pictured) is on the market for £630,000 and was bought by Leslie Stewart following the huge success of Sir Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe And Wine - which he helped write in 1976
The house comes with a large kitchen and breakfast room (pictured), and there is also an annexe with a separate kitchenette and living room. Mr Stewart said that the property had been a great family home and that he will be sad to move out
The separate annexe with kitchen and living room (pictured) can be used by guests staying in the property. But future owners could choose to do what they wish with the area
The property has five bedrooms including a master bedroom with a large en suite (pictured). Mr Stewart moved into the large detached property around 27 years ago, hoping to upsize in order to give his family more space
Mr Stewart would like the property to go to another family. He says it has been a 'a very happy family house' for him, his wife and children. One of the rooms in the property is a sizeable dining area (pictured)
Leslie Stewart (left), 69, co-wrote Mistletoe And Wine with musician Keith Strachan and fellow writer Jeremy Paul in 1976, 12 years before it was released by Sir Cliff (pictured right in 1991)
It was written for a musical, The Little Match Girl. The producers wanted them to create a satirical Christmas carol type song for the show.
Mr Stewart came up with the lyric 'It's a time for giving, A time for getting, A time for forgiving and for forgetting' while he was out walking his dog and raced home to start working on the song.
The original song won an Ivor Novello Award and the musical was turned into a film in 1986, which starred Roger Daltrey.
Sir Cliff came across the track and adapted it to his own style and added a few more religious lines to it.
The song was released in November 1988, it sold 750,000 copies and was number one for four weeks.
Mistletoe & Wine is among the top 10 most popular Christmas songs and it earns about £100,000 a year in royalties.
Mr Stewart bought the five bedroom York Villa in Cambridgeshire (pictured is a study) a few years after the festive song became the 1988 Christmas number one. He had actually written the song several years prior for a musical, The Little Match Girl
A breakfast room (pictured) leads out onto a sizeable garden, where Mr Stewart has converted an old railway carriage. He got a set designer to convert some of the carriage into a wine cellar
There's plenty of space at the property if you like to read books, with shelves adorning the walls of some of the rooms - such as this drawing room (pictured)
Among the rooms at the house is a music room (pictured), where Mr Stewart has placed a piano and shelves for musical scores. He also has a number of guitars in the property. The songwriter was tight-lipped about how much he earned from the popular Christmas record but said part of his income was made up from royalties from both the song and previous TV shows
Pictured is just one of five bedrooms at the £630,000 five-bedroom property in Cambridgeshire. Mr Stewart is now looking to downsize after his children moved out of the property
Mr Stewart was tight-lipped about his earnings but said part of his income was made up from royalties from both the song and previous TV shows.
He said: 'The song is a bit different from the original, it was never written as a one-off but as part of a musical.
'Cliff wanted to make it more Godly, I resisted, but in the end we said okay.
'And I find it very hard to be critical of his version because it was very successful.
'I'm quite grateful it did well, it was the third best-selling single of the 1980s so it was incredible to be involved with and I still get royalties from it.
'It's a part of my income, I'm still writing so I make money from that and then things that I wrote 20 years ago still pays out from television reruns and things.
'We play it every Christmas, we start our Christmas morning with it. But a lot of the time it just passes me by, I think I tune it out, like muzak.'
He has written episodes and scenes in TV shows including Peak Practice, Holby City, Casualty, Monarch of the Glen and Down to Earth, much of which has been done from this property.
The property comes with a sizeable garden in which Mr Stewart has also placed on old railway carriage. In the summer he likes to cook outside, and potential buyers would also inherit the carriage should they go through with the sale
There is a small conservatory (pictured) attached to the side of the property, which lets in a lot of light during the summer months
In the garden of the property, there is a Victorian railway carriage which Mr Stewart had part of converted into a wine cellar (pictured). The rest is a fully practical cafe with a cooker and coffee machine
Sir Cliff Richard released Mistletoe and Wine in 1988 and it has been popular around Christmas time ever since. Pictured here is a scene from the music video released in 1991
His house has a kitchen/breakfast room, drawing room, dining room, music room, an annexe with a kitchenette/living room, bedroom and bathroom, a master bedroom with a large en suite and dressing room, three more bedrooms, a bathroom and an office.
In the garden there is a Victorian railway carriage which Mr Stewart had converted into a wine cellar.
Mr Stewart said: 'We were looking to move house about 27 years ago and just liked it straight away.
'It has quite a lot of land, which was great for the boys, and the house had a lot of room. We upsized essentially and now I'm downsizing.
'I love it, it's been a great family home and I will be sad to leave it but the kids have grown up, it's just me and my border terrier rattling around now.
'The railway carriage I inherited, it was just a log and coal store room. I got a set designer I knew to convert some of it into a wine cellar and the rest is a fully practical cafe with a cooker and a coffee machine. It's great to cook out there in the summer.
'I'd like it to go to another family, it's a very happy family house.'
So can you live off the profits of a Christmas hit?
In 2005, the English guitarist and songwriter Greg Lake wrote a letter to The Guardian in response to a question about the plot of a movie.
The question asked by a reader was: 'In the film About a Boy, the man played by Hugh Grant never has to work another day in his life because of the proceeds he receives from a Christmas single his father released. Could one really make a living in this way?'
English guitarist and songwriter Greg Lake (right) addressed the question of whether someone could live off the profits of a Christmas single for the rest of their lives - such as Will, played by Hugh Grant (left), in About a Boy
In response to this, Mr Lake made reference to his 1975 song I Believe in Father Christmas which managed to reach number two in the UK Singles Chart that year.
The song, he claimed, gets played on the radio every year around December and he gets the occasional royalty cheque as a result.
But it never got him quite enough money to retire and live on a Caribbean island. Instead, he continued to tour until he passed away in December 2016.
In an amusing plea, he asked Guardian readers to request their local radio stations play the tune so he could be a little closer to that Caribbean island.
Linkhienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/11/22/songwriter-behind-sir-cliff-richards-mistletoe-and-wine-is-selling-his-luxury-home/
Main photo article The songwriter behind Sir Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe & Wine is selling the luxury home he bought with the proceeds of the Christmas hit.
Leslie Stewart bought the five bedroom Victorian villa in Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, following the huge success of the 1988 festive song.
The...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/11/22/12/6514160-6417949-image-m-73_1542888392918.jpg
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