Latest Update: the information about crime now includes a link to the Police's own reporting; write-up now expanded.

What follows is an attempt to summarise life in Caversham and this region of England. If you were asked to sum it up to someone thinking of moving here, what would you say?

Let's start with that most basic necessity, a roof over your head. To be blunt, buying or renting a house in these parts isn't too brilliant - give or take minor variations, it is about the most expensive area in the whole of the UK outside of London itself, and in comparison with elsewhere you don't get that much floor space for your money.

On the up-side, on the culture front the area is very well served by theatres, cinemas, concert venues and places to go generally - all tastes are catered for. With London just up the road you could be forgiven for thinking it was bound to be, but even if you never go to the capital you should find plenty of things to see and do. You'll be hard pushed to find an area that's better served anywhere else in the UK.

It must be said that to take advantage of life in the area personal mobility - e.g. a car, motorbike or even a bike - is important because public transport leaves one heck of a lot to be desired. Having said that, a car isn't the answer to all your problems either - on the whole commuting/travelling times are hideously poor in the south-east. It's busy! And this is all too true of Caversham and Reading - where the local planners seem as devoid of good policies as anywhere else. (Reading, the town where they put the ring road through the middle and now wonder why it's busy.)

Looking at employment in the region and the costs of goods and services, the south-east generally is very definitely among the better regions of the country. Localised problem areas aside, you should be able to find work and you shouldn't be paying through the nose for your utilities, food and what-have-you. Petrol, for example, isn't as expensive around here as it is in some more rural locations.

To give a context, if you are an employer or starting up as self-employed, Reading and the immediate area is one of the few parts of the UK where it is virtually impossible to get a Government or EU grant to help you! That must mean something positive.

Of course there are down-sides to the area being relatively affluent other than the price of somewhere to live - as the traffic problems suggest, it's crowded in the south/south-east. If you're looking for peace and quiet - somewhere to get away from your fellow man where you can't hear the roar of cars and 'planes - you'll find it hard going around here. And it's getting worse: it seems more and more people want to get away from London and similar cities and so the surrounding areas are just getting busier and busier. Couple that with pretty moronic housing and regional development strategies at a national level over the last several years and there's good reason to not feel too optimistic.

However, all that shouldn't fill you with too much dread - let's face it, it's only a couple of hours to the coast or the Cotswolds if you want a weekend away from it all. And people moving here from London seem to find it a step in the right direction - so perhaps all things really are relative.

As for the other broad brush strokes depicting life in any given area:

Health: Looking at the longer-term, health care standards, life expectancy figures, pollution measurements and similar indicators all suggest the south-east as a reasonable place to be (and Caversham's no exception). The Royal Berks Hospital in Reading seems to come out quite well in many surveys / studies / people's experience.

Education: In general, educational statistics suggest that in terms of class sizes and exam successes, the south-east is a pretty good area to send your children to school in - although increasingly education seems to be something you have to judge on a school-by-school basis.

Crime: As for the curse of modern times - crime - again the south-east's population is on the receiving end, probably caused by the high population density. Reading, in particular, does pretty badly when compared to national averages. In late 2009 the police introduced national mapping of crime trends and you can visit the Thames Valley Police's region by following this link. From there you can zoom in to Reading and Caversham.

At the time of writing (21st October 2009) Caversham North's crime rate was up (5.4%), as was Caversham West (20.6%), Lower Caversham was down (5.5%). On the whole, not great news. For all these statistics, traffic offences (speeding and such like) aren't included - the rising crime concerns stuff like burglaries, robbery, violence etc. Today, at least four police officers were operating a speed trap on the Henley Road near Caversham Park. You can only wonder at their priorities. The evidence does encourage the belief that they increasingly concentrate on 'crime' they can get a tick for rather than anything of real concern.

So, speaking very generally, living around here means you are paying a lot for somewhere quite small to live but you should have a job to pay for it, you probably spend a fair amount of time in traffic queues or stuggling with public transport and it's hard to find someone local for a bit of peace and quiet but some less busy places aren't far away; you've plenty of attractions and entertainments to go out to for the evenings and weekends; you're likely to enjoy an above-average standard of health, your children are likely to be well educated but crime is a bit of an issue ...

On the whole, it could be worse and it could be better. Pretty normal then, really.