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Man
swaps Spanish villa for British caravan

by Simon Tulettstulett@thekmgroup.co.uk

From two houses, a successful business, and almost everything
money can buy to a few pounds in the bank and a caravan in a field
near Swanley.

To many people, this riches to rags story would indicate more of
a nightmare than fulfilment of a dream.

But for Jack Edmunson, losing everything and starting again is
the best thing he could ever have hoped for.

So disillusioned with what he calls the “rut of modern living”,
the 56-year-old gave up a marriage, a teenage son, his livelihood,
and almost all of his material possessions to find meaning in his
life.

He even abandoned his birth name to begin a new life
incognito.

And now instead of a £750,000, five-bedroom home in Cheshire, a
£350,000 holiday home in Spain, and an £800-a-day job as a
logistics consultant, he is going back to basics in a £12-a-day
caravan with £173 in the bank.

Mr Edmunson, as he is now known, has written a
semi-autobiographical book about his experiences and says its
subject is “what everyone wants to say and do but will never admit,
especially to themselves”.

Written from his new home in Stones Cross Road, Crockenhill, Mr
Edmunson says The Sun Sharer, the first in a trilogy of novels,
offers a glimpse into an “unfulfilling” marriage, “superficial
friends”, and obsession with material goods.

The author said: “With my ex-wife everything was names, names,
names - if you haven’t got your Versace sunglasses you’re
nothing.

"We got to the point where we were buying more and more material
possessions - not what we needed, just something slightly
better.

“I just started thinking, 'Haven’t we lost the plot?’ We’re just
trying to make our lives marginally better and we’ve lost the
basics.

"People make life, not places or possessions.”

But he does not regret his dramatic lifestyle change.

“All I’ve got is boxes of books, a laptop and my car, and I can
live on about £40 a week,” he said.

“Where I am I can go for a walk in the fields in the morning and
it’s beautiful. There’s a sense of freedom.”

PROCEEDS from the books have been earmarked for a new scheme to
engage children in a greener way of life.

Mr Edmunson said even if sales of his novel trilogy threaten to
make him a wealthy man once more, he will never return to the
lifestyle he once had but despised.

His plan is to create a new movement - Children in the Evolution
(CITE) - designed to combat global warming through technological
advances and a change of attitude in the world leaders and
inventors of tomorrow.

“The world is too greedy,” he said. “There’s millions and
billions of us in the world, but we all need to tackle global
warming together from a technological point of view.

“It’s not just about re-using plastic bags and driving less.
It’s about changing attitudes, breaking down barriers and using
technology to our advantage to create a greener way of doing what
we do already.”

The project, which would involve special CITE centres across the
UK and Europe, would come after Mr Edmunson has bought a field for
his caravan in Catalonia, his former Spanish home.