![]() ![]() ![]() There was no danger from traffic because there wasn’t any. This road was our social centre and playground, where we’d spin tops, roll marbles, play five-stones and chase the girls. Our cottage looked up a steep bank to a road that was built in the 18th century. ![]() When I returned after 20 years’ exile, I heard the blackbirds’ accent and knew I was home. Not many people know that in Slad the blackbirds sing with a Gloucestershire accent. I knew every flower, weed, stoat, badger and bird. I lived there until I was 19 and left home to see the world and make my fortune. I was dumped into the long grass, aged three, and left grizzling among the beetles and grasshoppers. In those days, cottages were called by the family name, so ours was Lee’s Cottage. There were seven children, three inherited from Father’s first wife, who died young. Home for most of my youth was a thick-walled Cotswold cottage in the village of Slad, near Painswick. Home for most of my youth was a thick-walled Cotswold cottage in the village of Slad, near Painswick ![]()
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