As a child, Fiona Wylie holidayed in Jersey. It was fun, but she never imagined she would one day end up raising her own family there.
Her move from Northfields to Jersey’s beautiful west coast wasn't the result of years of careful planning and thought.
She and her husband Paul were happily settled in west London with their children Bella, now 15, and Toby, now 11, and their Tibetan terrier Jessie.
Then out of the blue Paul, who used to work for the Mayor of London, was headhunted for a new job as head of policy with the Jersey government.
The timing was auspicious because the pandemic was raging and the family was feeling hemmed in in their four-bedroom terrace.
“We had a small garden and we were close to parks, so we were much better off than some people, but we still felt quite trapped,” says Wylie.
“Would we have gone if the offer had come at another time? Probably not, no.”
It was with some trepidation that the family packed their bags and rented out their London house – they wanted to hang onto it just in case the move didn’t work out - and headed off to Jersey in January 2021.
Paul, 43, and the children had never visited the island, and travel restrictions meant they couldn’t make a recce before he accepted his new job.
After a long career in marketing Wylie, 44, had set up her own business, The Brand Champions, when the children were small because establishing a decent work/life balance in the corporate world was tough.
“Even just leaving at 5pm got a couple of raised eyebrows and comments about being a part-timer,” she says.
This meant she was free to carry on working from Jersey, zipping back and forth to the mainland by plane when necessary.
Most people who move out of London do so because housing costs are lower elsewhere, but Jersey, which has been a tax haven since the 1920s, is a magnet for the ultra-wealthy and as such is eye-wateringly expensive.
For their first couple of years the family rented a house, which cost them some £5,500pcm.
“It was an amazing house with a pool, my feeling was that if I was going to uproot my children we had to have something amazing, but the rent was crippling,” says Wylie.
After just over two years the family felt ready to put down roots. They sold their Edwardian terrace in London for £1m, and spent £1.7m on a larger four-bedroom house with sea views.
Life now is spent exploring the island’s 48 miles of coastline, hanging out at the beach, kayaking and paddleboarding.
Jessie enjoys long walks, and Wylie particularly appreciates how safe Jersey feels compared to London where she couldn’t get her mobile phone out in public for fear of it getting snatched out of her hands.
“On Jersey you don’t really need to lock your car or your house,” she says. “It feels a bit like going back in time, and the kids have more freedom than I could have dreamed of in London.”
Owning a home by the seaside also ensures that she is able to keep in touch with family and friends on the mainland.
“Our summer is completely booked out with people coming to visit,” she says.
“I don’t know how long we will stay – we always said we would stay while all of us are happy and right now we are all so happy.”
