TV presenter, retail expert and author Mary Portas has spoken warmly about her connection to Stroud and the surrounding Slad Valley, highlighting the area’s creativity, activism and community spirit.
In a new interview for The Times’ Home section, Portas revealed that her Jacobean home in the Cotswolds has become the centre of her family life.
“I have a Jacobean house in the Cotswolds, which is my family home now. It’s where I spend weekends and family occasions,” she told The Times. “It’s in the Slad Valley, near Stroud, where Laurie Lee wrote Cider with Rosie.”
She went onto heap praise on Stroud’s renowned activism status and lauded her nearby Slad neighbour Simon McBurney, the Mission Impossible actor, playwright, and theatre and opera director.
“I’m in the Gloucestershire bit where the Extinction Rebellion activists live. I have such interesting neighbours, including Simon McBurney, the founder of Théâtre de Complicité,” she added.
Celebrating the region’s creative and cultural heritage, Portas said the Cotswold valley has become “a vital part” of her life.
