Opinion: Dark winter days are already here in Britain – spring can’t come soon enough

The onset of winter, when darkness descends, the temperature plummets and the rain is incessant, was always going to be one of the more challenging aspects of returning to Britain after many years in Hong Kong.

Last winter, my first back in the country, had some novelty value. The frost on the fields was beautiful. The snow, in December, created magical Christmas-card scenes. And cosy evenings in front of a log fire appealed.

Now I will find out how quickly that novelty wears off. The rain in recent weeks has been relentless, with Britain being battered by storms.

Roofs were ripped off houses in some parts of the country and there was widespread flooding. In Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, residents felt they had been struck by a tornado. Hailstones, meanwhile, were said to have been as big as golf balls.

But it is the dark, rather than the weather, that comes as the biggest shock as winter arrives. It crept up on me and then pounced when British Summer Time ended and the clocks went back an hour, on October 29.

Sunset is now at 4.20pm. The days will continue to get shorter until the winter solstice, on December 22, by which time there will be less than eight hours of daylight.

This has a dramatic impact on daily life. There are no street lights in the village. Walks need to be taken in the afternoon. Many shops in the area close at 4pm.

I have dug out my heavy winter coat, waterproof boots, and woolly hat and gloves. Soon I will need to scrape the ice off my car windscreen before venturing out onto treacherous roads.

All you can do is hunker down, light a fire, cook some hot food, open a bottle of wine and look forward to spring. Only 122 days to go.