21st March 2021

Things are changing. Over the last year, more than a million foreign-born people have left the UK, a larger number than the population of Birmingham, and the greatest amount since WW2. But, others are now arriving to fill the empty spaces, including visa-waving Hong Kong residents. When I wrote my best-selling Pensioners in Paradis, things were very different. Twenty years ago, we all hankered after the sunshine of France and Spain. It was so easy to up-sticks back then and become expats. But, rather like my book, which has just run out of contract (my publisher Crooked Cat Books has now closed), the momentum has now completely reversed. As predicted, Brexit proved too difficult. Removal companies in the Costas report that they’ve never been busier. British expats don’t want to apply for Spanish citizenship, can’t afford extortionate private health insurance, and legendary bureaucratic EU dithering over Covid vaccines is the final straw. 150 years ago my grandfather, fleeing from E. European pogroms, was welcomed here. TG for the legendary welcome he received in Britain.