Back home we held a conference. I had proved that I could cope with whatever country living threw at us. So now – should we look for a country home and then a job near – or a country job and then a home near? We decided to do the easiest first – so we drew an eighty mile radius circle round London in the atlas and agreed that Peter should apply for the first Senior English post that came up within that circle.

The first one advertised in the Times Educational Supplement was on the edge – Northgate Grammar school in Ipswich, Suffolk. We didn’t know anything about Ipswich – or indeed Suffolk, but it was country, not London, so Peter applied, had an interview and got the job – just like that. The die was cast.

Peter’s brother offered to drive us down in February to look round, while Spikey looked after Gale. Once we got out of London we found a heavy frost and roadside fields covered in patchy fine snow. The sky was very grey. I sat in the back knitting socks for Gale out of white knitting cotton which was not on coupon,s in a complicated and intricate lacy pattern on four needles.

In Ipswich we drove past the school buildings to have a look at them, headed out of town to look for our cottage in the country. Of course there were none – no To Let signs – no For Sale signs even. No empty properties. Everything looked bleak and each house and village turned its back on us.

Suddenly Bill shouted “Look – an empty house!” and there, across a small field was a dilapidated shell. He stopped the car and both men raced across – and came back laughing like crazy – “There’s a goat in the kitchen!” they shouted.

Disheartened but not despairing we gave up as it began to get dark and headed for home. It was quite dark when the car broke down and we had no idea where we were. Luckily we were too far from a garage and pushed it there – but it was too big a job – they couldn’t do anything that night. Wearily we tried to hitch a lift but no-one stopped. As petrol was still rationed there were not many vehicles anyway. Finally in the distance we saw a well lighted something bearing down on us, so we all three stood in the middle of the road shouting and waving. It stopped, and when we ran to it, turned out to be a Grey-Green coach bound for London – not as we had hoped a free hitch, but very welcome for all that. We had enough money between us to pay the fares and eventually got back to a warm house and a welcoming Gale and Spikey, with very little accomplished but one beautiful white lacy sock. We decided to wait until the Easter holiday before visiting Ipswich again.