Author Katharine Swartz has arrived in Oxfordshire from New York, via the Cumbrian coast

Almost exactly four years ago I was stepping on to these shores to start life as a vicar’s wife in the far reaches of Cumbria. My husband and I had decided to exchange the hectic pace of Manhattan for the bucolic country life, although nothing quite prepared us for the remote location or extreme weather of our tiny village on the Cumbrian coast.

The first day of school for our four children greeted us with sleeting rain and 70mph winds – as well as plenty of people who warmly welcomed us and helped us adjust to a very different kind of life, going from virtually anonymous in one of the biggest cities in the world, to being in the centre of a village where your every move is duly and kindly noted.

The first week we arrived, a stranger stopped me on the street to ask me if our youngest child was now sleeping better. I stared at her, open-mouthed, before stammering something about how my daughter was still struggling.

The next day two hand-crocheted afghans appeared on my front step, with a note about them being ‘magic’ blankets to help children sleep.

This was just the first in many examples of people’s kindnesses to us.

Despite the huge, initial culture shock, my family and I soon adjusted to village life, and it was a pleasure to know most of the people you pass in the street and to feel you are at the heart of a community.

As a writer, I loved the inspiration living in a Cumbrian village provided, and I used the location in several of my books.

My first novel, The Vicar’s Wife, imagines what life might be like for a vicar’s wife in a Cumbrian village in the 1930s, as well as following the story of a woman in modern times who moves to Cumbria from New York – art imitating life, naturally.

My second book, The Lost Garden, centres on the walled garden I’ve been uncovering and restoring, going between current day and 1919.

I managed to incorporate several of my own discoveries into the fictional garden – including a headstone from the 1700s and the mossy foundations of a building I imagined the use for.

Writing under the name Kate Hewitt, my novel Rainy Day Sisters is set in a fictional version of our village, renamed Hartley-by-the-Sea, and follows the lives of various villagers.

When my husband and I moved to Cumbria with our four and then five children, we expected to stay there forever.

We assured everyone we were in it for the long haul, and we happily put down as many roots as we could, renovating both house and garden, and fully involving ourselves in many aspects of village life. Indeed, in four years we became woven into the fabric of the community, and couldn’t imagine ever leaving.

But as many people know life is full of bumps and turns, and a few months ago, when my husband’s position was unexpectedly cut, we found ourselves sadly needing to move.

Some friends in Oxfordshire provided a way into a teaching position for my husband near Oxford, and we’ve now moved, rather ironically, into a former 200-year-old vicarage in a similarly-sized village.

It’s definitely been an adjustment getting used to life here – less rain and wind, but more people and cars – and I don’t know what this next chapter of life has in store for any of us, but I’m sure I’ll find inspiration for a whole new set of novels.

Already I’m imagining what kind of people once lived in this house, and what their story might have been. Meanwhile I’m enjoying exploring the Oxfordshire countryside as well as the picturesque villages and towns.

The Lost Garden by Katharine Swartz, published by Lion Fiction, is out now.