A former Birmingham Mail journalist has told how he has escaped the “rat race” and moved to Turkey to build a new life.

Andy Probert spent ten years working as a reporter in the Mail’s Redditch office and had also worked for the Bromsgrove Advertiser and Impact PR in Warwickshire.

But after years spent holidaying in Turkey and buying a holiday home there, he and his partner Sylvia decided to take the plunge and move, and have now settled in the small coastal resort of Altinkum between Kusadasi and Bodrum.

Andy, (37), told HoldtheFrontPage: “We wondered what it would be like to opt out of the rat race and relaunch ourselves over here.

“Sylvia came over in March and found a job as an estate agent, and I moved across in July.”

Andy is now working with friend Hasan Bayrak on local English-speaking weekly newspaper The Voices, which Hasan set up a year ago, and has also been acting as a stringer for some of the UK nationals.

Among the stories he has already covered was the death of a six-year-old girl from London who was burnt during a fire-eating display while on holiday at a Turkish hotel, and that of a 69-year-old Lancashire man who died after being bitten by a snake in Altinkum.

He was also one of the first British journalists on the scene following August’s Marmaris bombings, and provided freelance cover for The Sun and other nationals until the papers were able to fly their own reporters in.

Andy said: “Journalism here is very much the same as it is in the UK, and similarly the media is seen as a major player in the country.

“I’ve been working hand in hand with journalists here and they are just as cynical as they are in the UK! But they are absolutely fascinated by my ability to do shorthand.”

Andy said one of the most noticeable differences in Turkey was the ease with which journalists are able to speak directly to those in authority, without jumping through various hoops as you might in the UK.

The pace of life is also more relaxed and the temperature is currently around 25C.

Andy said: “I go to work in shorts and sandals now rather than a shirt and tie.

“Life here is pretty laid back 90 per cent of the time and there doesn’t seem to be that mentality of working five days a week, nine ’til five.

“We can drift in at 12 o’clock on a Sunday and do a couple of hours and then go and walk the dog on the beach and enjoy a nice meal.

“So far it is working quite well.”