Today, the words are flying. In London, the charity shops in Richmond are bulging with my donated clothes, and hundreds of my books have found new homes with a simple, “Free. Please take”, sign outside our old front door. And here’s the secret. I’m writing in a different turret now, in Cambridge.
Since 2015 my wife Dawn and I have been renting our dream home by the Thames in “Old Isleworth”, west London. Then came the news that many renters dread – our landlord decided to buy a chateau in France and, with just two months’ notice, kicked us out to sell our home to fund her French castle fantasy.
Then we rallied, stuck some flip chart paper on the kitchen wall, blasted out Sly and The Family Stone and made a colourful plan worthy of a drunken circus ringmaster. Not exactly joyful but with a definite attitude of, “OK then, bring it on!”.
square RENTING First PersonAt 74, I got evicted - I was homeless, and terrified
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We looked for similar properties, and found a couple of places that were “OK”, in the area we once called home. But in an almost surreal twist of fate we found ourselves invited to join bidding wars, offering rents way above asking prices for places we didn’t particularly like, by brash young men in cheap suits. We needed a bit of luck.
And here’s a surprise, we think of ourselves less of a married couple now and more of girlfriend and boyfriend. Here by the River Cam, we’re surrounded by young lovers on bikes, young lovers in punts, and young lovers experimenting with living together in first-floor flats. They are working things out as they go along and sharing a cake in the cafe downstairs rather than buying individually wrapped delicacies to be consumed in private. Love on a budget. It’s a boyfriend and girlfriend town with a romantic street culture. We can’t help joining in, even though we’ve been together for 26 years.
What’s remarkable about our situation is how our past generosity has created a safety net we never anticipated. We have little money, but our “currency” appears to be goodwill. We’ve done a lot of generous things in our work life and social life. And now – this is a surprise – people want to help us.
Glamorous as it may sound, these places are in various states of renovation. Lack of Wi-Fi may be good for retirement meditation but not for continuing to run a business. There’s lot to be taken into account.
square BILLS 'I went from a five bed house to being homeless. Mental health help must include debt issues'
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Do we wake up in our king-size bed at 3am thinking, “WTF?!”. Of course. Do we let it trouble us? Of course not. The secret code is courage. When one of us loses it, the other keeps the project on track.
We have lived “on tour” as performers – me in the band Scritti Politti and Dawn as an actor in her twenties, touring Europe and America. So we’re used to tightening our belts in the bad times and buying crates of champagne for the tour bus in the good times. “If you don’t know the dark, how are you going to recognise the light?” might be our current bumper sticker.
It has prompted us to question deeply held British assumptions about the necessity of property ownership to feel safe. We’re moving away from that UK obsession with “personal castle” as a tangible but spurious form of existential security, promoted relentlessly by Margaret Thatcher and her gang to get us all into debt.
You could, if you were feeling generous, say our landlord did us a favour. We’re three grand better off every month with no responsibilities, and we’ve got a spring in our step.
At 70, when many expect settled security, we’ve found freedom, renewed romance, and the discovery that living with less can mean experiencing more. Our serendipitous story, though completely personal, might present an upbeat counterpoint to the fear that many renters face, showing that even life’s unwelcome surprises can sometimes lead to unexpectedly joyful adventures.
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