Burnout in London‚ so we moved to the Peak - we just love it. The story of how I set up Peak Princess‚ inspired by my god-daughter Tilly.
The 5am alarm would go off 3 days a week telling my husband to get ready to run across London to train his early morning City trader clients. I'd fall into a shallow sleep listening to the news headlines only to be woken at six to cycle 45 minutes across London to BBC Television Centre to my job producing Radio 4's lunchtime and drive-time news programmes The World at One and PM [or could just replace with "as a BBC radio news producer"]. Home in time to watch Channel 4 News, cook dinner & fall asleep listening to The World Tonight at the same time as watching the 10 o'clock news followed by Newsnight.
We both had burnout. I'd got glandular fever and was totally exhausted by the adrenaline fuelled deadline culture of producing daily radio news. We had to escape. But how?
Nik took a gamble and left his celebrity clients to go freelance as a health & fitness writer. And I landed another dream but deadline driven job producing BBC radio documentaries for an independent production company based in Manchester. The Hope Valley line commute's a big improvement on the Tube but I was still having to travel with regular trips to London. I handed my notice in and took a career break.
Picnicking in the park with my god-daughter Tilly a few months later I had my eureka moment. She was wearing a little pinafore dress. I asked Mum Jo how much she¹d paid for it and was astonished. My Mum was a dress-designer in the 60s whose designs featured in Vogue and my grand-mother was a milliner. I¹d been taught to sew as a child. Six months later, I was launching my first collection of childrenswear - Peak Princess...with love sewn in, handmade in the Peak District.
It's not so much a micro-business as a nano-enterprise. I design and make everything myself from my sewing room cum spare bedroom. All my designs are named after friends' children who also model the clothes for my website.
Do we miss London? Not one bit. We moved to Chinley just over 3 years ago and have never looked back. We worried we'd miss friends and family but sometimes it seems like we're running a B&B juggling everyone who wants to come and stay in this glorious part of the Peak District.
We both love the outdoors. But cycling to Shepherds Bush in the dark or tripping over tourists in Hyde Park wasn¹t my idea of fresh air. In the city we'd have to drive for an hour to go mountain biking. Now Kinder's on our doorstep. Cracken Edge and Eccles Pike are our morning runs. What's more, we have the world¹s best local - The Old Hall Inn - just a five minute walk away where we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with friends old and new.
Now a typical day in the "office" means Nik's on the fells testing trainers or a new mountain bike, while I cut a new pattern. Lunch is a walk in the park with the dogs combined with a visit to the Post Office to post dresses to my lovely customers. We really are living the dream.
