“I once saw a TV programme about a schizophrenic man living roughly in a caravan, on the outskirts of a remote village. It was a very sad tale and the local people treated him quite kindly, much like the ‘village idiot’ used to be treated by rural communities. I reflected on the fact that he’d chosen to live in the country, and I sometimes think people who struggle with city life might have a better experience doing the same thing. This is not an option many people consider, and although it involves simple preferences – cultural facilities rather than fields, job and social opportunities rather than riverbanks – I think some part of it rests on addictive living. Society is inherently addictive, and we become slaves to lifestyles and expectations we did not create ourselves, which derive from the glamour of designer-this and designer-that living, chasing material dreams as exemplified by celebrity lifestyle. There’s a moment in the film Trainspotting when the anti-heroes take one look at the rural beauty on their Scottish doorstep, and go scurrying back to the squalor of Glasgow. The empty spaces reflect back to them their own impoverished internal lives.”

(*James Lomax on his amazing TXP photosite jameslomax.com*)