Blur bassist-turned-cheesemaker Alex James has revealed that life in a country house is not without its setbacks.
The musician, who lives with his wife and five children on a 200-acre farm in Oxfordshire, revealed that they recently lost two geese and a dozen hens to a Cotswolds fox.
The star told The Sunday Times he was not particularly upset by the predation, although his girls and boys were “distraught”.
He told the paper: “Our two geese and a dozen silkie hens, all called Dave, were eaten by a fox a few weeks ago.
“The kids were distraught. I wasn’t so sorry about the geese – they do 12,000 poos a day and need to be followed with a pressure washer.”
James and his wife Claire moved to the farm from London in 2003, where he now makes cheese and runs a food and music festival called the Big Feastival.
