My countryside: Freya North

'My parents can’t tell one end of a horse from another – they are die-hard townies. Yet, when I was seven, I asked to have riding lessons and they found a stable not far from where we lived in North London. Every week, they faithfully ferried me there and back again. As well as learning to ride, I helped muck out at the yard. The whole experience gave me a love of the country way of life, and of nature. I always knew I would end up leaving the city – although it did take more than 40 years.

'I spent every holiday on my Aunt Sally’s farm near Crickhowell in Powys. The entrance was on a quiet lane, marked only by a big white boulder, where your car would tip, nose-first, down a steep track that led to the house – it was like dropping off the edge of the earth. I loved it there and spent my days riding a fat little pony called Boris up and down the neighbouring mountain.

'I became vegetarian when I was eight. There were mainly horses on Aunt Sally’s farm, but I then became friendly with a nearby family who kept sheep. One year, I helped to rescue a tiny brown lamb that had been rejected by its mother. I called him Sherbet and bottle-fed him for about a week. Then one day he simply died. That night, it was lamb chops for dinner but, having bonded so closely with Sherbet, eating one of his distant cousins was too much for me and I gave up meat completely.

'I’m not sure I would have moved out of London had life continued bubbling along happily. But, three years ago, I left my partner, my parents sold my childhood home and then my mum was diagnosed with cancer. In moments of extremis, you can sometimes be gifted with a strange strength. I really needed a fresh start, so found a lovely village in east Hertfordshire, near where I stable my horse, and moved there with my two children, Felix and Georgia, who are now aged 12 and 10.

'When we first arrived there, Felix and Georgia were quite shy of the space; they were so used to the confines of our city garden or the local park that they just didn’t know what to do with it. But gradually they ventured out, going further every time, and now they’ve had many adventures – we have 50 acres. I tell them not to come back until they are hungry.

'There are just six houses along our lane and yet I feel less isolated than I ever did when I was living in the city. For my first few months here, I cocooned myself inside but then a teaching assistant at Georgia’s school invited me to the Christmas panto, and, by the following summer, had roped me into having a stall at the village fête, where I sold my homemade elderflower cordial to help raise money for a local play area.

'I have become a real tree geek since moving to the country. More than half of our land is woodland, including some very old hornbeam coppices that, in this part of Hertfordshire, would once have been used to make charcoal for the malting kilns in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. They have a beautiful fluted bark like a Grecian column. I’ve been known to stop the car suddenly and make the children get out to look at particularly stunning specimens.

'I used to get satisfaction from a well-stacked dishwasher – now nothing gives me greater pleasure than a well-stocked log pile. I have help to manage the woodland, but I know every single one of my trees and check up on them when I’m walking our two dogs, Twig, an English pointer, and Bee, a cockapoo. My woodland has never scared me; I have grown to trust it. The trees almost entirely surround our house, like an embrace. They give me great solace.'

Freya North is the bestselling author of 12 novels, including her most recent book, 'Rumours' (Harper Collins, £7.99). Visit www.freyanorth.com for more details. Visit the All About You bookshop to buy 'Rumours' at the discounted price of £7.49, with free p&p.

Photo: Alamy

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