The Countryside. Rolling Hills, picture-perfect villages and vibrant market towns. well, that’s not how I remember it. I grew up in a rural town at the edge of the Cotswolds and it was a far cry from the rural idyll that many believe. 

It was a town that had been forgotten. Well, that’s how it felt to me anyway. The only entertainment for the youth had been burnt down and was never replaced. The secondary school had given up on the students and had fallen into special measures. Any chance of me  gaining a good qualification was gone. 

The future seemed like a grim prospect. The industrial estate was beckoning me as it lit up the sky, its promises of money and its disregard for formal qualifications drew me in. I became trapped. The money stayed stagnant and the house prices rose, I couldn’t leave. My hopes of leaving this nothing to do town was now little more than a fantasy.