I’m sure many of us sometimes wish we could escape and live a simpler life, free from all the aggravating trappings which see to cling to us. Sometimes when we have been on holiday, staying in rented accommodation which only has the basics, it seems so free, ad when we return to our busy cluttered lives with all the complications and difficulties, it seems wearying and frustrating.
Hope Bourne was a woman who cast aside all the usual stuff of modern life, and lived first of all in a series of lonely cottages, then in a small caravan only 14 foot long and six-foot wide. She was self-sufficient and lived on Exmoor, and then at Withypool when ill-health forced her to abandon her independence. While living alone she grew her own food, hunted, shot, and dressed animals.
She was born in 1918, and after her widowed mother died, from 1970 to 1994 she lived in her caravan, becoming famous through her writings and art work. There were two documentaries made about her in 1978 and 1981, and she published five books. her books were not just about he own life, they reflected the lives of the country folk around her, the seasons, the animals, and the old way of life, a way of life which has now vanished.
I sometimes have such a yen for doing something similar… but would my husband want to do that? Would my children want to? Would I really and truly like a life like that? I actually think the answer to all those questions is no!
http://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/environment/culture/exmoors-literary-links/hope-bourne
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-28064139
Lois Elsden 