My country memories: Roy Hudd

'During the war, I was evacuated from Croydon in South London to a tiny village called Maidford, just outside Northampton. Our whole family, including all my cousins and aunties, lived together in a row of condemned farm labourers' cottages - and they were condemned for a very good reason; one of my earliest childhood memories is narrowly escaping a falling thatched roof.

'Each property had just two rooms, and to get upstairs you had to climb a wooden ladder. In ours, at the end of the row, the village blacksmith had supposedly raised seven children - him, his missus and all the brood lived in just two little rooms.

'During that time I was very anxious to prove myself to all the local kids who'd grown up in the countryside. I was desperate to work on the land and eventually persuaded a farmer to let me lead a huge horse called Star around a paddock while the other workers picked potatoes and threw them into the horse's sack. I felt so important to be the one leading the mare. We stopped at a big mound of potatoes, and as I held the reins, Star stood on my foot. I was sinking further and further into the earth and the pain was almost intolerable but I couldn't let on for fear of being called a weak ‘townie'. I simply had to stay put and bear the pain - and I managed it because the others never found out.

'Of course, it worked in reverse when I came back to London - the boys made fun of me because I'd picked up a Northamptonshire accent. I simply couldn't win. I was brought up by my Gran. She used to sit by the fire in our cottage every evening, pour a glass of port into her Guinness and stir it with a red-hot poker. The cottage was inundated with mice, and she was hell-bent on catching them. She would sit with her drink, balancing a flat iron tied to a piece of string with her foot, and whenever she saw a mouse she'd let the string go so the iron would come crashing down. I'd be upstairs listening to the radio and watching her when she thought I was asleep - she never once caught a mouse in all the years we were there.

'The countryside was very important to my family. My aunties especially loved it in Maidford, even though they were all cockneys. Auntie Snowdrop even learnt to drive a tractor. I would sit in the hedges with big doorstep cheese sandwiches and watch them harvesting. Then I'd take her tea over in an enamel mug when she let me sit next to her on the tractor. She was proud to be working on the land.

'The pig-slaughtering event was an exciting day for the whole community and everyone got involved. I would never go and watch it, but you could hear the pig squealing from the other side of the village. I only used to venture down after the animal was being divided up, because it was a really big deal if you were the kid who got the pig's bladder.

'It was the nearest we ever had to a balloon in those days - we would blow it up and kick it around like a football all over the place; it was marvellous fun. Although I've lived in London most of my life, the experiences I had as an evacuee in the countryside stayed with me and we finally moved back about six years ago - not to Northamptonshire this time but to rural Suffolk. Our nearest neighbour is about half a mile away and our back garden actually houses the church. It's built on a tiny moated island which is teeming with all kinds of wildlife, including owls and woodpeckers, stoats, weasels and roe deer.

'I'm a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats, which is a fraternity of comics and singers, and the late Percy Edwards, the great animal impersonator, once said to me at one of our meetings that I should live in Suffolk because he knew I'd love it. Now, not only have I moved to the county, but we actually have water rats - or rather water voles - in our moat. Even after all those years of city living, it felt just like coming home.'

Roy Hudd is a comedian and entertainer. His book A Fart in a Colander: The Autobiography is out now (Michael O'Mara Books, £20). CL readers can buy the hardback book for the special price of £17 with free p&p. Call 01903 828503 and quote CL/ROY (UK mainland only, while stocks last).

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