Browsing in a book store, as you do, I came across a Dick King-Smith book and vaguely recognised the name. Then I remembered, he wrote “The Sheep-Pig” which was later filmed as “Babe”. So far, so trivial, and reading on I found that he lives just outside Bristol. Hhmm. What with Terry Pratchett just the other side of the ancestral acres in Wiltshire anf Keith Waterhouse (“Billy Liar” and many others) living downtown, sufficiently integrated that he even drinks in my (ex-) local pub, that puts three of my top writers all in a 15 mile radius of Bath. What is it about the West Country that attracts such people (only King0Smith is actually a local)? Perhaps more importantly, what was it that I didn’t see that led me to Portugal?
No, it’s OK, it’s coming back now. Taxes, sunshine, wine. Yes, that’s a partial list. What was the other one……ah yes, not speaking the language down here so I don’t have to listen to the idiot politicians. Yes, that was it.