William, It Was Really Nothing

I spent my childhood on the West Sussex coast and my mum still lives in the village of Felpham where the most famous resident, at least between 1800 and 1803, was the poet, artist and mystic William Blake.

The cottage he lived in, down by the sea, is just opposite The Fox Inn where Blake once got himself into a spot of bother with the law... He was acquitted by a court in nearby Chichester in 1805 (162 years before the Chichester court found Mick Jagger and Keith Richards guilty of drugs offences in the famous "Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?" court case).

Both cottage and pub are great examples of the flint (and often thatched) buildings of this part of the world.

Apparently Blake moved out of the area after the locals complained that he and his wife Catherine were sunbathing naked in their garden...

As someone else who moved away in search of another kind of life, I'd like to apologise to William on behalf of the local populace!

The big news of the day is that Goatee and his Lovely Other Half have arrived at the family homestead and the celebrations have commenced!