Best Place to Live is in Happy Memories

THE Western Mail recently did a piece on the best places to live in Wales, as per The Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide, and it featured my own square-mile town of Llandeilo.

I was whisked back to my twenties, when work took me on an extended safari. First there was a year in Tregaron, which I had initially dreaded – I mean, a year at the back of beyond for a trainee young buckabout-town was too much to ponder – but I think I smiled and laughed more in that year than I have done in any year of my life. And I am a natural-born smiler.

That was followed by a cultural shock: from the horsey world of Ceredigion to the comings and goings of the grand ocean liners of the day gracefully drifting past my window – yes, a few memorable years in Hampshire and based in Southampton.

Next came a couple of years roaming the rich landscapes of Cheshire and living in glorious Chester – and finally 12 months based in Colwyn Bay before returning to my roots.

Many moons later, Best Places to Live lists suddenly started to appear, and I began to appreciate that I really could have happily settled in any of the aforementioned locations.

And a great truth dawned: the best place to live is... inside my head. Huw Beynon

Llandeilo