Since Covid cast its evil spell over our bustling cities, I can finally see the appeal of my ‘boring’ hometown

As a teenager, Jenny Eclair was desperate to escape the place she grew up in on the northwest coast. When she visited it this year, however, she saw it in a new light

Street art that highlights the current fear of urban life is seen on the wall of Crazy Pedro’s pizza restaurant in Manchester (Getty)

This past year has made us re-evaluate many things, including I suspect the choices we’ve made and the circumstances we’ve ended up in.

When I was younger I couldn’t wait to get away from the town I “mostly” grew up in. I say “mostly” because I moved around quite a lot up until the age of eight. However, once my father left the army, I spent the next 10 formative years of my life living in what I considered to be a “boring” town on the northwest coast.

I couldn’t wait to get away, first to drama school in Manchester and then to London where, in real life, Piccadilly Circus looked exactly like the postcards.