I wish to write to you about Ventnor, a town with more artistic talent and originality than anywhere else on the planet.

I have been to London, Stoke, Portsmouth (several times) and on a school trip to Germany as a young person and none compare to my slice of paradise right here.

What makes Ventnor so much better than all of the other towns on the Isle of Wight is that it has a uniquely comforting 'familiarity'.

It is like Groundhog Day but with lots of very lovely things repeating and a comfort in this joyous repetition.

For example, should you pass the Crab and Lobster, you may spot some dishevelled looking fellows such as myself and friends who are regulars on the scene!

Debauched but friendly and while some may query our choice to drink the same drinks in the same pub on the same days (yes days plural) We are very comfortable in our routine.

We know we shall see the same faces and have the same conversations every day/week/month/year, with a few details changed of course, but we flipping love it!

I myself have not left the town to venture to the likes of Bonchurch, Shanklin or St Lawrence for around four months now.

I have my work in V-Town, my flat and my girlfriend, I actually feel quite sick when I depart the town to go elsewhere, I hate leaving and find the other areas grotty by comparison.

I hear people say 'you must travel Martin, experience life on the other side...'

As stated, I despised London on my one and only trip in my 20s, cried the whole time I was in Germany as a child, Portsmouth was full of strangers in cheap-looking blue polyester shirts with Jobsite adverts on them.

I have no time either for any of the other towns over here and no need to ever leave the big V. Would you leave heaven for a place in purgatory?

The lovely thing is that there are lots of people who share my mindset, people who would happily spend all of our time here and never become restless.

The most beautiful sites and sights are in Ventnor, the best people and as stated previously, the best arts scene in the world.

Whether you like music, comedy, poetry, film, eccentric street buskers, superb charity shops or theatre, V-Town knocks spots off any of these other areas.

Where else could you get five CD albums for £1? Not bargain bin CDs, chart albums such as Will Young.

What inspired me to write this is a former friend of mine who visited Austin in America in 2019, then returned to live in Brighton and came back gushing about the festivals and live events in these cramped hovels, before trying to return to Ventnor as if he would be welcomed with open arms.

If you like all the other places so much then surely stay there. Needless to say I soon severed all ties with him.

Even the Twilight film cast such as Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart stayed here when they visited, although I am not so keen on Katie Price, who I believe at some stage darkened our town.

If you have never been to Ventnor, or if you live in another part of the Isle of Wight then you are wasting your life in my opinion.

You have something upon your doorstep which is so much more fulfilling, the sunshine capital of the Isle and the artistic heartbeat of this little Island (but I want to keep this part secret as do not want us being flooded with all the other townsfolk)

I do urge overners to steer clear also as I do not want our town to lose its identity as being a local town for local people to enjoy full time, not for rich capitalists to leave empty properties for ten months a year.

To anyone wanting to move over here, try Shanklin or Sandown perhaps, they let anyone in over there!

I will wave at your from paradise.