'Superwoman' Nicola Horlick dithers over Sydney move

In the vocabulary of Nicola Horlick, famous for juggling the demands of multibillion pound share portfolios with those of her five children, indecision is a word that has rarely been heard - until now.

Ms Horlick, it seems, is unable to decide whether her family is to relocate to Sydney or remain in London.

The family packed up their belongings last month after Ms Horlick unveiled plans to accept a senior role with the Australian financial services company AMP.

Ms Horlick and her husband Tim even bid farewell to more than 320 friends during a lavish party at the Victoria & Albert Museum, only a stone's throw from their home in South Kensington.

Yesterday, however, it emerged the family had returned to London and were in the process of considering whether to relocate to Australia at all. The main obstacles were the business commitments of Mr Horlick, an equally high-flying financier who is co-founding managing partner of the London-based venture capital company nCoTec.

The impracticalities of commuting between Sydney and London had made the family reconsider the move, according to Ms Horlick. "The point is that Tim recently went to see the rugby and it was the first time he had been to Australia," she told The Independent.

"The plan was for him to spend two weeks in England and six weeks in Sydney. When he experienced the jet lag and the journey first hand, he realised how difficult it would be." She added: "It would have been hard for me too. I've been to Sydney three times recently. It was the first time in 22 years that I had spent more than a week apart from him."

Mr Horlick confirmed that it would not be feasible to conduct his business from Sydney.

"I was never going, given that my business is based in the UK and cannot be relocated," he said. "Nicola is now reconsidering given the logistical and practical difficulties involved in such a move."

For Ms Horlick, her difficulty in choosing between the cities is all the more remarkable given her unwavering temperament in dealing with the most difficult of obstacles.

She acquired her fearsome reputation in 1997 when she was suspended from her £1.5m a year job at Morgan Grenfell.

In a fine example of corporate dramatics, she stormed the company's Frankfurt offices with a string of journalists in tow to demand either her job back, or compensation.

Her "superwoman" reputation was attributed to her being the mother of five children, including Georgina who she nursed during a 10-year battle against leukaemia before she died at the age of 12 in 1998. Her sixth child Benjamin was born the following year.

After writing a book entitled Can You Really Have It All? during a six-month working hiatus, she returned to the corporate world, setting up SG Asset Management.

However, the job came to an end in the summer, prompting a public row amid claims of the company's poor performance.

Yesterday, it was clear that the couple had, at one stage, been serious in their attempts to relocate in Sydney.

Items of furniture from their London and Hampshire homes - including a limestone sculpture of Georgina - were packed up and shipped to Sydney and her children were enrolled at schools in the city. Meanwhile, hundreds of friends attended a bohemian-themed party at the V&A, ranging from Nicky Clarke the celebrity hairdresser to the Labour donor Sir Ronnie Cohen, to wish them farewell.

For Ms Horlick, however, there appears to be little point in being embarrassed about their apparent volte-face.

"We did throw a party to say goodbye to everyone but that was when we originally thought we were going," she said.

"We have not actually made a final decision. I'm on gardening leave until next March so there's no rush to commit. I'm just doing the school run at the moment."