HAPPY ENDING

A Cotswolds-based book led Jutta Betz and Andreas Erbe to take a novel approach to rural life, splitting their time between Britain and their native Germany

For Jutta Betz, loving this area of England started in an unusual way. While living in the countryside outside Frankfurt, she read an English crime novel based in the Cotswolds. The descriptions of rolling hills, bubbling streams, meadows dotted with sheep and ponies, and quaint villages filled with old stone cottages sounded so inviting, she decided to check it out for herself.

Soon, she persuaded her husband, Andreas, to book a holiday in a quintessentially English hotel in June, when the roses were in full bloom and lambs were still skipping in the meadows. That was back in 2016. ‘Our first few days in the Cotswolds far exceeded our wildest expectations,’ says Jutta. ‘We were both so smitten that we decided to live in the UK for half the year and spend the other half in Germany.’