Laurie Wickwire is a luxury gem specialist, diamond merchant and TV presenter. Her career has seen her rub shoulders with "models, superstars and Bond girls", mingle with the monarchy, and walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. In this in-depth interview, Laurie explains how clever marketing originally gave the diamond its luxury status; why potential bankruptcy almost led De Beers to dump tons of diamonds in the North Sea; the impact of the artificial diamond; and the effort to promote "real is rare".