I moved to the countryside to escape Londoners – now I'm surrounded by them
telegraph.co.ukmoved to the countryside because I wanted a life that was totally different – and for a while, because that’s what I was looking for, I found it.I left a small flat in east London for a cottage down an unmarked lane in Somerset.
After almost two decades of living in London I revelled in the novelty of my new rural life: making a point of buying eggs at the side of the road, dating local farmers, and learning about cows.I came to the countryside chasing a fantasy Simple Life, and for a while I managed to create it – volunteering on a community farm, learning to butcher a pheasant, refusing to read anything besides the Mendip Times and getting a thrill out of waiting three hours for a bus (that sometimes never appeared).I sold my designer city clothes and bought dungarees, ditched my New Yorker subscription to listen to Gardeners’ Question Time.
I gave up weekends at the Tate having lunch in expensive restaurants and instead went to the local agricultural show.For a while, it was bliss.
But my Waltons fantasy has been rudely interrupted by the actual reality of all the other bloody Londoners moving next to me.
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