A Brit abroad who moved to Finland ‘by accident’ more than 40 years ago says he’s unlikely to ever return to the UK – because life in the Scandi country is, he says, better in almost every way.
Tim Bird, 70, first travelled to Finland – which has regularly been crowned ‘the world’s happiest country’ – in the early 1980s and, four decades on, is frank about whether he’ll ever come back to the country he grew up in.
‘I wouldn’t want to go back to the UK at the moment. Well, I wouldn’t want to go back to the UK, full stop.’
Tim was born in Cambridge and grew up in Deal, a small coastal town in southeast England.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Bird says: ‘As a very young man, I was looking for adventure, so I got a job as an English teacher.
‘I thought I ought to be doing something interesting with my life. So, I thought about going to live abroad for a year or two and see what happens. I didn’t have anything to lose by trying.
‘I thought I’d probably be away for one or two years, and I ended up staying for more than 40.’
Now a writer, editor and award-winning photographer with dual British and Finnish citizenship, Tim’s published a love letter to his adopted home, a book entitled Happy Land: Finding My Inner Finn: Forty Years In The World’s Happiest Country.
A love letter to Finland: Tim Bird, an English writer, editor and award-winning photographer, moved to Scandinavia in the 1980s to teach
Tim lives in a suburb of Finland’s capital, Helsinki, a popular travel spot for Brits
He delves into the truth about Finland and why it ranks so highly so often on lists about the world’s happiest countries.
It isn’t, he says, that the Finnish are obviously ‘happy’ people – it’s just that the country, famous for its saunas, cool cities and having a vantage point on the Northern Lights, understands quiet contentment.
Tim reveals: ‘You wouldn’t get off the plane and find that everybody’s necessarily laughing and making jokes – so it’s not happy in that sense.
‘But it’s about contentment. There’s more of a sense that enough is enough, and that there’s still a good standard of living here, generally.’
So, what’s the best thing about living in Finland?
‘Looking forward to the summer, because the summers here are great,’ Tim says.
‘It’s full of light. There’s a different kind of atmosphere in the winter, for obvious reasons, because of the climate, and then things really lighten up in the summer. The summers are great, so that’s our reward for surviving the winter.’
A sense of personal safety is also important, he adds.
Tim says the nature and scenery in Finland is incredible, and people love the outdoors
He argues that summer in the country is one of the things that makes it worthwhile
‘I don’t want to paint the Finns as saints. There are always exceptions, but Helsinki is a pretty safe city, and also honest.
‘If you leave your wallet or your phone on a bus, or forget it somewhere, there’s an extremely good chance that somebody’s going to hand it in. There’s crime, of course, but, it’s safer here, for sure.’
That trust extends to service too, he says: ‘If I need to have something done to my house, for example – I’ve just had some gutters renewed, and I could be fairly confident that the guy was going to do a very good job, and there’s no cowboys around.’
Can you earn a decent living? He says the country’s financial situation means Finns can enjoy a better quality of life.
Tim says: ‘It’s not perfect, but there are extremes of wealth. The starting point, the lower starting point, is higher, than it would be in the UK, for example. Things are more expensive here still, but the gap has narrowed.
Another core appeal of Finland is the immersion within nature – with plenty of green space.
Tim says: ‘They haven’t lost this connection with being able to go to the natural environment, sauna bathing, that kind of thing.
The Northern Lights are an unparalleled sight that draws in tourists to the country
In his new book, he shares why he thinks Finland is regularly voted one of the happiest countries
‘You might think that that would become uncool with young people, but in fact that’s stayed in the tradition.
‘Only a kilometre or so away from me, there’s what they call the Central Park, a strip of forest going into the centre of Helsinki.
‘It’s just forests with walking tracks, cycling tracks going through it. I could be there in 15 minutes on my bike.’
It’s a well-connected country, too. Tim explains: ‘Public transport in Helsinki and the cities generally is pretty good. In Helsinki, it’s very comprehensive, so we have trams and buses and local trains, ferries too, because it’s right by the sea, so there are some islands where you can get ferries out to.
‘Southwest Finland has this really beautiful archipelago, and there are parts of that that are not so well known.
‘There are routes that people know, and there are places that people know, but if you get a little bit off the beaten track there, go to some of the smaller islands, it’s great.’
Well-trodden paths and off-the-beaten-track experiences provide much to explore in Finland
Tim’s family is also a large part of what keeps him grounded in Finland.
He’s married to Eeva-Helena, a Finn, and holds dual citizenship.
The pair met when they were both working for a Finnish magazine publishing company in Helsinki. They married in 1997.
Tim said: ‘She had two daughters, my stepdaughters, who lived with us and who are now parents of our grandchildren.’
His stepdaughters, Tim jokes, speak better English than many native Brits – a positive side-effect of the world-class education system in Finland.
He adds: ‘I have a Finnish family, so that’s got me here. I’ve still got the English family, but it’s become easier over the years to get back to England relatively easily.’
He’s had the chance to explore the country in his decades living there
From its history tied up with the Soviet Union to its modernisation, the country has progressed in many ways – and Tim’s book charts the changing landscape through his own eyes.
It’s clear to see the country has afforded him a great standard of living, and has many reasons for its credentials as one of the best places to live.
As Tim puts it: ‘Finland has been good to me in many ways.’
Happy Land: Finding my inner Finn: Forty years in the world’s happiest country by Tim Bird is out now (Eye Books, £14.99)
