Inspirational English, Issue 39, July/Aug 2017 Inspirational English, Issue 39 July Aug 2017 | Page 4

Peter Taylor
Columnist, song-writer and playwright
It’s the strangest thing but even although I moved south from Edinburgh to London when I was 20
years old I didn't see myself as being a stranger in a different country but the truth is that I was, a wily
rough shod Scot amongst a bunch of extremely chirpy cockneys.
In the beginning the locals had quite a bit of fun with my accent, but after initially allowing this
scenario to upset me a tad, I decided to stop trying to beat them and join them, realising that it was
wiser to stop rolling my r´s so much, and slow down the electrifying speed at which I spoke, fit in more
readily so to speak ... and I´ve got to tell it worked a treat!
It has been many a haircut since those halcyon days in Britain’s capital city, and I now live in the south
of Spain. Up until not too many months ago all of us ex-patriots were breezing along whistling a
happy tune, soaking up the sun, sand and sangria, until that is, the shenanigans of the political arena
in the UK kicked in to such a degree that ´what’s gonna happen to us now?´ became the main topic of
conversation in the street cafés and bars.
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