From “bijou terrace” to “palatial penthouse”, estate agencies have a category for nearly every type of house, flat or hovel in existence. But they’ll struggle to find a brochure-blurb term for Napenthe, the home of artist, bon viveur and renaissance man, Michael B White, near Pett Level, Rye, East Sussex.

To fully appreciate this home, you should ideally have a working knowledge of Enid Blyton, preferably The Famous Five stories. You get to Napenthe through a green door, located where the cliff meets the shingle beach at Cliff End — surely a cove with a “baddie” behind every rock. It’s dark in the doorway — the Famous Five’s soppy girl, Anne, would be terrified — then there’s a climb of several hundred steps, through overhanging greenery to a clearing. The sea slushes in the background, but otherwise there’s an “eerie silence”.

Then a huge bell rings at ear level, and there’s the sound of something substantial — perhaps a great beast — moving among the foliage. Michael B White himself appears, shouting: “Sarah, prepare to repel boarders!” A Blytonesque adventure should start here.

It doesn’t, but a meeting with White, 57, is not dissimilar in terms of melodrama. The artist, whose oils, watercolours, etchings and pastels have been exhibited worldwide, is quick to introduce the house.

“You know Big Sur in California?” he asks, assuming I do. “Well, there’s a clifftop restaurant there called Nepenthe, on the spot where Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth once planned to build a house. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor filmed The Sandpiper around there. It’s surrounded by Monterey pines, like here, and the view of the sea is similar. So I named the house after the restaurant — just changed the spelling slightly.”

He leads the way through the gardens to a wooden, blue- painted structure — more hut than house. Napenthe (then called Bella Vista) was built in the 1920s by the owners of the art deco pile next door, who used it as changing rooms for bathing. They also permitted camping in the grounds. “I’m forever meeting old locals who claim to have made love under canvas in my garden when they were young, which is rather nice,” says White.

During the second world war, the house was used as a lookout post to pick up enemy shipping and aircraft approaching from across the English Channel. You can still see remnants of green camouflage paint in the bathroom. It became a full-time residence some time later, before White bought it in 1988.

When you enter, you are immediately in the meet- and-greet part of the main room. The walls and floors are of mahogany, which White installed himself, and the Arts and Crafts furniture comes from a Rye antiques shop. With its clutter of teddy bears, letters, cards and books, the room is as comfortable as an old glove. From it, you walk out to the decked balcony.

“The deck is an integral part of the house,” says White, pointing out the view across the tree tops to the sea. “We have had wonderful bonfire-night parties here — rockets and champagne parties, we call them, with fireworks fired off from the deck and everyone watching from inside.”

“And do tell him about the community, dear,” insists his wife, Sarah Charles, 56, an exhibition designer. “The area is full of people who have come down from London, and there’s such a marvellous spirit here.”

Back in the main room, a step leads up to a sleeping area and a narrow slice of office space. Then there’s a galley, measuring no more than an arm’s length in width, where Charles, nevertheless, in 1990 managed to cater for 200 at her own wedding breakfast. There’s also a bathroom with a wonderful roll-top bath and Edwardian pedestal sink, above which are some lovely Victorian sepia prints of nudes.

A conservatory is built onto the side of the house, and outside we are back again to the acre of gardens on four levels, with the Blytonesque names the couple have given them: Gypsy Lawn, Pirate Passage and the Animal Path.

“We have seven nephews and nieces and 20 godchildren, and they adore it,” says Charles. But who will buy a home such as Napenthe? Although charming, it is still little more than a single room, a kitchen and bathroom.

“Quirky, one-off homes such as this occupy quite a strong niche market,” says Philip Selway of The Buying Solution, an agency acting for buyers. “These homes usually sell to middle-aged romantics, bored by conventional properties, as fun second homes.”

And what will become of White and Charles? “I’m buying a 1919 gentlemen’s cruiser to use as a gin palace off the coast of New Zealand,” says White. “Wherever we go we make homes, and we want to see Chile, Alaska, Patagonia and many more places before we die. It’s time to move on.”

Napenthe is for sale for £550,000 with Phillips & Stubbs, 01797 227 338, www.phillipsandstubbs.co.uk

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