Rural Writer Finds His Book Club

It is an idea universally indulged that escaping to a far-flung spot, preferably surrounded by landscapes of stunning natural beauty, will spark bouts of unnatural creativity. Four years ago, I tested that proposition when my wife and I left London for a tiny cottage in a remote valley in the Black Mountains of South Wales. It felt like another world. The view from the window was of sheep rather than the top deck of red London buses. Our nearest neighbor was a farm a 20-minute walk across three fields. We couldn't hear them watching television or smell what they cooked for supper.