This month in our ‘Living the Good Life’ spot, local home designer, Alison Hutchinson catches up with wicked stepmother Victoria Merrick

Victoria originally came to the UK from Sydney, Australia, in her 20s and when she returned at 40 she found London to be a very different place. With a background in restaurants she was originally asked to set up an espresso school to train the catering and restaurant industry how to use espresso machines and become baristas. This was before the rise in coffee shops in the UK and she was at the beginning of the coffee revolution. At 42 she found her now husband and inherited 4 children when she married him (hence the wicked stepmother title – although anything could be further from the truth). She moved to Lincolnshire and as she puts it ‘surrendered everything that identified me’. Being the sort of person who throws herself into everything wholeheartedly she embraced family life and decided that she would devote the next 10 years to raising a family.

It’s a familiar story, but once the children were old enough for Victoria to start thinking of something else she knew that it couldn’t be running another restaurant. Her learning the good life workshops, which started with 6 in the Spring and 6 in Autumn and now run to 70 a year, came about quite by chance.

“The business of learning the good life at Wicked Stepmother’s World evolved organically,” says Victoria. “I was interested in gardening but not very knowledgeable so I thought I’d get someone really good to come and teach me and they could teach others at the same time. That was our first course,” she said.

Victoria is passionate about what she does and all the courses are to do with things that she’s interested in which is why so many of the latest courses have moved towards more sustainable living – keeping hens, bread making (2 June), make do and mend (8 June), the healing garden
(11 June), as well as keeping bees, making rustic chairs and willow weaving. Being so busy organising the behind the scenes catering (using seasonal vegetables) and pulling the courses together means she never gets to sit in on a whole course but she does rave about the bread making day she did with Linda Hewitt and now makes all her own break and joked “I really should be able to wrap a parcel by now, I’ve seen Jane Means do it so many times.”

With so many courses running throughout the year you might think Victoria was too busy to think of what comes next but she already has it mapped out. She’d like to be able to offer students accommodation as well as the great hospitality they get during her courses.“I’d like to renovate one of the farm buildings into a carbon neutral building and run courses from here. We have a vineyard on the farm so it would be good to run wine making and appreciation classes too,” she explained. Here, here to that I say, so look out for more innovative classes and start learning the good life for yourself.

• For more information on courses on offer contact Victoria on 01652 628560 or
www.learningthegoodlife.co.uk. Home Farm House, Somerby, Lincolnshire, DN38 6EX
• If you are ‘living the good life’ and are interested in being included in the magazine please get in touch. Alison Hutchinson Tel: 01572 747318/ 07973843020.