Proof of the pudding is living the good life

I GREW up in suburban Totteridge, almost at the end of the London Underground’s Northern Line.

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With tongue in cheek, I dub it the “Beverley Hills of north London”. In truth it was quintessential suburbia, closely akin in spirit to Surbiton where The Good Life’s Tom and Barbara, played impeccably by Felicity Kendal and Richard Briers, tried to live self-sufficiently off the “land” provided by their 150-foot long back garden.

Inspired by the Good-Lifers, my father bought four chickens and installed them in a DIY residence my mother called “the chicken pagoda”. We collected fresh eggs daily and before you ask if the neighbours objected, let me explain the family next door kept three goats. Yes, in an ordinary garden and yes, for the milk.