Geoff lives in the beautiful setting of Ashland, just north of California, where his backdrop is the Cascade Mountains.

Yet Geoff still feels the pull of his homeland and shared his feelings with the Mail's Head of Features CHRIS CORDNER.


GEOFF Ridden considers himself a lucky man.

He lives in a Californian town which has 12 cinema screens and four theatres.

White Christmases and fantastic skiing is the norm in winter. Belting hot summer days are just as likely.

Yet even though he is now an American resident (with the Green card to prove it), Geoff says: "I still feel an attachment to the town, and I always look for Pools first on the football results."

He's a former West Hartlepool Grammar pupil and recalls many of the teachers such as Brian Harkness, and his brother Alan.

He adds: "'Black Harry' Spence taught me English, and offered me a job at the school just after I graduated. 'Pop' Saunders was a true character.

"Herbie Wakeman used to cycle in to school from Caledonian Road.

"I remember Ron the music teacher as being truly inspirational and as being, from time to time, at loggerheads with the stern Mr Houlton, not least about what we then called 'pop' music: he preceded Jock Roberts."

They were happy days but Geoff was a man for travelling.

He went to university in the 1960s "Leeds, actually, but that seemed quite far in those days," he says.. "I came back at Christmas, Easter and in the summer, working for the Post Office at Christmas and cutting grass verges in the summer, but it was not the same.

"For one thing, when I left, the place I lived in was called West Hartlepool and it was in County Durham. Behind my back it changed itself to be Hartlepool in Cleveland, and what seemed to me to be a lively town centre, focusing on Lynn Street, was knocked down, and a soulless monster erected in its stead.

"That saddened me because, if I can claim to be any kind of performer or musician, I learned my craft at the Folk Club on Sunday nights at the Market Inn."

Geoff lived and worked in Ghana in West Africa in the early 1970s, and, on returning to England, taught for a time at the University of Durham before moving to and settling in Winchester, "where I taught for more than 30 years at what is now the University of Winchester.

"My parents still lived in Hartlepool, until my father died in 1985, and my mother moved south to spend the last decade of her life closer to me.

"My visits north became increasingly infrequent and I had less and less contact with my Hartlepool relatives.

"But that changed in 2001 when I met an American academic and we decided to try to forge a life together.

Geoff was separated from his first wife and began a long-distance relationship. "Even after we were married in 2003, I was in Winchester, with some seven years to go before I could look to retire, and she was in Ashland, Oregon – 6,000 miles away with an eight-hour time difference.

"My son was grown up and living in London, my step-son still in high-school; so my wife and I lived and worked on separate continents, spending as much time as possible together, and flying many miles in the process."

Geoff's new wife Terry was keen to discover his childhood home town.
Geoff said: "We have been to Hartlepool several times in recent years.
She has enjoyed meeting my relatives there – although I am not totally convinced that she has always understood what was being said."

He retired from the University of Winchester last summer. "By October I was a US resident, and I now have a social security number and pay taxes in both countries," said Geoff.

He managed to get a contract to write a book and said: "Writing that text kept me busy in my early months in Oregon.

"I also joined a very good choir, and my musical education was increased.

"Ashland is also the Shakespeare capital of North America and I had been doing talks here for several years. Suddenly, the Shakespeare Festival got really interested in this British guy who not only knew about Shakespeare, but also looked like him, and they've given me as much work as I can handle.

"I even responded to an advertisement asking for volunteers to train to present a classical music programme on the radio. I passed that, did the training and now frequently do substitutions when regular presenters are on holiday.

"The audience seem to like me because of my accent, and the station loves me because I will do a five-hour shift for free!"

Geoff adds: "Ashland is a great place to live. The weather means we can ski for several months of the year and live outdoors and cycle for the rest of the time.

"One of the most striking differences between being here and being in England is the feeling of space and emptiness.

"Oregon is the same size as England with a population of around four million, almost all of whom live in towns which fringe the single motorway which runs north-to-south through the state.

"So there is a lot of opportunity to get away from people.

"I don't feel particularly detached from England: I can read the newspapers on the web (including the Mail), listen to BBC radio online, and even get some UK television programmes.

"So, I'm happy, and I know I've been very fortunate, but the sun is so strong now it is making the keyboard too hot to type – time to end my letter from America."