Martin Roach

Name: Martin Roach – Ghost-writer of celebrity autobiographies, Church Stretton:

Shropshire seems to be able to achieve this feat with some aplomb. I moved here from Tower Bridge in central London and already, after three action-packed years, the county has made an indelible mark on my family.

It nestles on the Welsh border like some hidden gem, and I'm already used to the question, 'where's that

then?' when I tell people in 'showbiz' where I live.

It is much more than where my bricks and mortar stack up now. Shropshire, to me, is about writing books about faraway places and famous faces against a backdrop you will travel a lifetime to beat.

It is about walking my wee man on my shoulders through Cardingmill valley, the stream overflowing from

the rain that sheets down, reinforced by the Welsh waters that surge across the border.

It is seeing my baby dancing at the 'shee-shee-sheep' in my garden, my wife running up to Lightspout waterfall and standing under it, shops where no one is in a rush (except me sometimes), farmers on the A49 waving you by as their tractors slide to one side.

It is writing in the Starbucks in Meole Brace fuelled by a grande-filter-with-room-for-milk-please, Chris and his chickens and my own words spilling out on the screen, but every letter I type seems dry and incapable of describing this small island.