Experts believe the average person moves house eight times during their life, but Whitstable writer Linda James is packing her bags an incredible 47th time.

The 69-year-old novelist is swapping her seaside sanctuary in Priest Walk for the bright lights of Canterbury later this month after admitting she's bored.

The self-confessed "restless creative" has always lived life on the move enrolling at five different schools before she was 11 as a child in Swansea.

She moved to Whitstable three years ago from Tunbridge Wells after her husband David got a job in Canterbury.

She quickly spent thousands of pounds revamping her home, building a new kitchen and an outdoor log cabin during a seven-week complete refurbishment.

Mrs James said: "My friends get quite annoyed with me and say I need to stop this, but I'm a restless creative and I love change. It isn't because I'm unhappy.

"We often end up losing money, which sounds insane, but I just don't get satisfied staying in one place.

"My dad was a very restless person where as my mum was very family orientated so we ended up moving around Swansea when I was very young.

"Everyone says moving is stressful and the build-up is, but when we do I get a surge of energy. It has even spread to my sons now with one moving to Bavaria."

Previous homes include six years spent in Mediterranean island Malta and three years in Germany and a year in Vienna.

She also worked as a university lecturer, jazz singer and psyhiotherapist before she took up writing full-time.

Her seventh novel, The Image of Elise, is due to be published.

Despite setting up camp across the UK and Europe, Mrs James admitted she is still searching for a place to call home.

She said: "My heart is in Wales, but I can't go back there because it rains too much.

"A lot of school friends have gone back after travelling the world, but it's changed so much from when I was there it's like going forward instead of back.

Mrs James added: "I'd still say I'm looking for home. We are going to miss the shops in Whitstable, especially the butchers and the fishmongers."

But Mrs James will keep close ties with Whitstable as her writing classes resume at the Horsebridge Centre on April 28.

She will also appear at WhitLit - the town's first literary festival - on Saturday, May 10 to give a writers workshop at Whitstable Library at 3pm.