Emma B tunes into Hampstead

Radio 1 disc jockey Emma B has bought a threebedroom garden flat in Hampstead for almost £300,000 through Home. The main attraction is its proximity to Hampstead Heath. "Emma is devoted to her spaniel, Spencer, and likes taking him for long walks there," says agent Marc Lewis, who also sold her previous one-bedroom flat nearby for £188,000. Emma, co-presenter of Radio 1's Sunday Surgery, will share the property with her radio-producer boyfriend.

Calling all George Orwell fans. His former home in Portobello Road, Notting Hill, has become available on a short let at £1,000 a week. "It's decorated in a very traditional style with artistic furnishings appropriate to Portobello market," says Aylesfords. A blue plaque outside the two-bedroom cottage attracts a stream of admirers of the author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Mick Jagger's ex-wife Bianca has chosen a modest onebedroom flat in Pimlico for her new London pied-à-terre. The fourth-floor property, costing an estimated £350 a week, will allow her to be near her jewellery designer daughter, Jade, and two grandchildren, Assisi and Amba. "I love London, despite the outrageous property prices," Bianca tells me. The human-rights campaigner still retains her rented Manhattan apartment. "I usually prefer to rent places as it gives me more freedom," she adds.

Controversial Russian financier Boris Berezovsky has spent £4.25 million buying a high-security bolthole in London through Aldine Honey. It joins the £21.3 million villa complex he bought at Cap d'Antibes after fleeing Moscow in 2000. "The apartment has a seriously sophisticated security system, including bullet-proof CCTV cameras," says award-winning designer Nick Candy, who refurbished the four-bedroom Belgrave Square maisonette. "Boris has survived a number of assassination attempts." Berezovsky built a fortune from his oil, car and media interests, but went into exile when Vladimir Putin came to power.

Gordon Haskell, who scored a surprise Christmas hit with How Wonderful You Are, is investing the proceeds in property. "I've just paid off the £90,000 mortgage on my mother's house and a large chunk of my sister's mortgage," he says. "I'm now spending £120,000 on a house in Shaftesbury for my son, Jasper, and his mother." Haskell continues to live in a £100-a-week thatched cottage near Salisbury. "It's only got one bedroom, but you'd expect to pay £500,000 for my incredible view," he adds. "I'm now on the lookout for somewhere to buy for myself, either in Dorset or a London mews house."