We bought a house in Oxford. Just one problem: it's 60 miles from my desk | Graeme Wearden

It should be a time for sleep, or at most quiet reflection. But in our house, at 4.17am exactly, the peace is shattered as I blunder out of bed to subdue the alarm clock in the far corner of the room.

We fled the capital almost a decade ago, swapping a rented flat in Kennington, south London, for a mortgage on a ramshackle old house in the Oxford suburbs. It's a nice area with a decent primary school and a rather fine pub round the corner. Just one problem (apart from the old roof falling off): it's 60 miles from my desk.