They say never meet your heroes for fear of disappointment, and while I'm not sure I really have heroes as such, if I did, Benjamin Zephaniah would be among them.

He is a great poet, at his best when his words roll off his tongue with seemingly no effort at all, a committed vegan who writes passionately and creatively on the subject, and a principled man not afraid to air his views – he publicly rejected an OBE in 2003, saying the word empire reminded him of slavery and how his "foremothers were raped and (his) forefathers brutalised".

So it was almost with trepidation that I asked for an interview, fearing that all my illusions would be shattered.

As it turns out, he is just a really nice man to talk to. He was more than willing to come to Peterborough for the interview, accommodated the ET by posing for photographs and even gave us an exclusive performance of one of his poems for our website – see the link below for information.

The reason Benjamin had come into the ET's radar for interview is that he is now resident of South Lincolnshire – he moved to a village near Spalding two years ago.

Benjamin cites his reason for moving to the area as a desire to get away from a hectic London life.

If the pages of celebrity magazines are to be believed, this seems to be a common trend, but the likes of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire – within easy reach of the capital – seem to be most popular.

For Benjamin, however, South Lincolnshire was the place to go.

"I was living in East London and I kind of had this weird criteria which was I wanted to be away from the showbusiness trendy set and I wanted to have a small village with a local pub and a little post office," he said.

"I didn't want to be around motorways, I wanted to be away from the hustle and bustle. So I chose South Lincolnshire.

"The London lot think I'm crazy, they keep saying 'you'll be back soon' and they're quite surprised when I say I love it.

"In a strange way I appreciate some things about London more now.

"When I leave London, about when I get to Peterborough I kind of relax and I know I'm out of the hustle and bustle."

Benjamin has settling in well and enjoyed becoming part of the rural community, although he does get still recognised.

"It's very nice now. People are very gentle," he said. "I walked into my bank the other day and they clapped me because I'd been on Mastermind."

As well as being fond of village life, Benjamin is also keen on Peterborough.

He said: "When I have friends from abroad I really like saying 'get out of London, come up to Peterborough'. I've got friends from China and Japan and on their websites they've got photos of Big Ben and then Peterborough."

Benjamin was brought up in Birmingham, and says he cannot remember a time when he wasn't creating poetry.

Click here to see Benjamin Zephaniah perform his piece titled This Poetry