My childhood home was built by my parents on a 'smallholding' owned by my grandfather which was originally intended to provide a living for returning soldiers from the Boer War. Family holidays were always in the countryside in 'the West Country' or Wales. Leaving home for University was an opportunity to move away from crowded south-east England, to Aberystwyth, a town on the west coast of Wales with a population (at that time) of 11,000 plus 3,000 students. Those of you who have visited the town will know that it has a small town atmosphere and is separated from the densely populated areas to the east by the Cambrian mountains. Its unique appeal is also partly due to its landscape, and the strength of the Welsh language and culture. After completing my first degree I was pleased to stay for a few more years to work on a PhD in agricultural geography. This place undoubtedly left its mark on me, and here I would gladly have stayed, having met my future wife, and 'put down roots'.
However this was not to be, and my interest in 'things rural' and especially remote and sparsely populated areas had to be set aside during four years spent teaching geography in a Sixth Form College just north of London.
'Deliverance' came in the form of an opportunity to move to north-east Scotland to work at the University of Aberdeen, on a research project on the UK Less Favoured Areas. Later I moved to the nearby Scottish Agricultural College, where I was a lone geographer in a department mainly staffed by economists. This was a great opportunity to learn new skills, both from colleagues/supervisors and through my own mistakes, and to become familiar with the strange world of EU-funded rural development research.
My connection with Nordregio began in 1992, through attending a conference in Umeå, organised by the now disbanded PIMA (Planning issues in Marginal Areas) group. Here I met the late Lars Olaf Persson, who was a key person in developing subsequent collaboration in several EU-funded projects.
Since joining the staff of Nordregio in 2005 I have had the privilege of indulging my interest in rural and remote areas in the Nordic context, visiting Nordregio once a month, whilst continuing to live in Aberdeenshire, and at the same time having many opportunities to visit and learn about rural areas across the EU. This is a kind of mobility which my grandfather, who lived his whole life within ten kilometres of his birthplace, could never have imagined...