[jpab]

According to Google maps, Southam is about 25 minutes drive to Coventry or 15 minutes to Leamington Spa. It's not in the "middle of nowhere" in any important sense.

And Leamington is quite attractive - not a bad place to live. Coventry is probably ok too. Personally I would much rather be in a town like Leamington Spa than Birmingham or Milton Keynes. In general, small and medium size towns in the UK are far nicer than the big cities.

[andrewingram]

Yeah, once you're outside cities, most non-retail businesses tend to be found on the outskirts of towns (in business parks) or further out than that. My dad would usually drive 25-30 minutes to get to his office, so 15 minutes from Leamington is basically nothing.

[qmmmur]

Personally I wouldn't call anywhere in the UK 'remote' till you start going far north. I've lived in AU first, then GB so maybe my view is biased.

[mrkwse]

Remote can mean isolated and disconnected as much as faraway and distant. Plenty of the UK is remote in that sense. I work in a part of Surrey where, despite there being frequent trains to London, the actual town and surrounding area is very hard to get around without a car (and the public transport options there are are significantly less frequent than trains away from the place).

Infrastructure is as much a factor as proximity I'd say.

[qmmmur]

This is true and my experience is the UK has terrible infrastructure and cars are necessary so I agree.

[Closi]

I’m from Leamington, loads of people here work for Codemasters.

[wdb]

I have worked in Coventry for a year and I stayed in Birmingham as the hotels in Coventry and area are depressing. As the restaurant options are much better in Birmingham compared to Coventry.

Did enjoy the small Chinese place in the city centre though :)

[gambiting]

Also Leamington has a few big developers too(Ubisoft has a studio there) so it's not like it's a complete games development desert out there - there is big industry around.

[merrvk]

No Coventry is not ok. You’re right about leamington though

[benjamoon]

Ha, first time I’ve ever seen Coventry mentioned on HN and it’s getting bad press! I live here, it’s nice (if you stay in Earlsdon).

[dijit]

I’m from Coventry. It deserves the bad press.. sadly.

[jpab]

Ah, ok. I haven't been to Coventry since I was a kid. I should probably have looked up some information or something before posting.