Cotswolds is first class

It seems impossible to imagine that anyone would voluntarily give up glamorous Hollywood parties and non-stop sunshine to run a post office and shop in a sleepy Cotswold village. But award-winning scriptwriter David Wiemers and his partner, Paul Turner, a physician, have done exactly that. They took over the post office in Bourton-on-the-Water recently and vow that the bright lights of Hollywood will never lure them back.

So what made them do it? One reason, amazing as it may seem, is our unpredictable weather. "California gets extremely hot for weeks on end," says 49-year-old David. "It gets very tiresome."

Another is that Paul, also 49, a specialist in infectious diseases, was desperate to quit his job. "I just couldn't make any more life-and-death decisions on a daily basis," he insists. "I felt burnt out."

Fortunately, David can work anywhere. "I'd been writing scripts for 10 years and now there's email, I can work wherever I want to." They also thought it would be fun. "We wanted to be at the centre of a community, which we are."

Their choice of Bourton-on-the-Water is the culmination of a long love affair with the area. David first visited the picturesque Gloucestershire village in September 1985 and instantly adored it. "I was on a coach tour and only stayed an hour, but I thought it was as close to fairy-tale enchantment as I had ever witnessed. I came back 10 times."

With its buttery-yellow stone and six bridges crossing the River Windrush, it's no surprise that Bourton is known as the Venice of the Cotswolds. David and Paul, who have been together for 10 years, paid £426,000 for the property which came with a three-bedroom house, pretty garden that backs on to the river, and a sorting office in the local industrial park.

They opened for business on 10 February. "It's been a steep learning curve ever since," David grins. The shop part of the post office sells sweets, newspapers, magazines and souvenirs. Not only did they have no experience of selling anything, they have also quickly had to master a whole new vocabulary.

"In the States, we call sweets 'candy' and fizzy water is 'soda' or 'pop', and as neither of us smoke, when someone asked for 20 Sovereign we hadn't a clue what they meant. Or what a quid was."

Responsibilities are divided. Paul is sub-postmaster; David serves behind the counter in the morning and does all the ordering. "I am learning to choose gifts that might not be to my liking, but will sell," David says. They are beginning to get to grips with the likes and dislikes of the locals, who are mainly older with conservative tastes.

Do they mind the menial tasks? Both Paul and David look aghast at my question.

"Neither of us feel it is menial work," insists David. "Just my back complains when I'm lifting piles of newspapers at 5am. It means a lot to us that we are the hub of the community. Everyone has to come into the post office
sooner or later." They have yet to serve Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes, who live close by.

Liz Hurley has bought a £2.75 million farmhouse near Cirencester, 20 miles away. "She'll love it. People are so wonderful. It's lots of fun in the countryside."

David studied at San Diego State University then moved to Hollywood, where he was hired by Disney. His animated feature films include Tarzan and Winnie the Pooh, and he won an Emmy for Jim Henson's Muppet Babies.

Paul, by contrast, was born in Croydon and has British citizenship. His family left for the United States when he was six and he hadn't been back to England until David suggested a holiday in the Cotswolds three years ago.

"David and I talked about retiring to England because we think it's so beautiful, but it was years away," says Paul. "Then, last summer, I felt that if I continued with medicine I wouldn't live to retirement age, so we thought, why not move over right away?"

"We looked at businesses for sale on the internet," continues David. "And in August saw that the post office was up for sale. When we saw it, we knew it was everything we wanted. Unfortunately, so did several others and we ended up in a bidding war.

"We spent 10 days at a local bed and breakfast chewing our nails until finally we heard we'd won. We felt relieved and elated and then said to each other, 'What have we done?'"

They returned to California to sell their homes, which took 24 hours. "We naively thought we'd be able to move in within a couple of weeks, but it took six months. One problem was that everything has changed since September 11.

"Paul and I had to keep proving that we weren't terrorists or laundering money. It took us nearly four months to persuade the bank to let us open an account."

They are delighted to have been reunited with their two miniature schnauzers, Pretzel and Schnauger - which spent six months in quarantine.

Any concerns that two men living together might not be accepted by the locals quickly evaporated. "People have been very welcoming," adds David.

"We don't want to ruffle any feathers, so we haven't really 'come out'. We just want to be seen as business partners. We've had lots of dinner invitations and someone has even asked if I can help get his film script produced."

Of course, the romantic holiday view of living in the countryside is quite different from the day-to-day reality of working long hours in a cold, damp climate. Paul and David are up before 5am and work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. They haven't even had time to unpack. "We knew our first year would be tough," says David. "But we really want to make it work."