Saffy's rural retreat

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Appearing on the arm of one famous boyfriend after another, Julia Sawalha was a glamorous fixture on the celebrity circuit.

But the actress who played Saffy in Absolutely Fabulous has chosen to turn her back on showbusiness to live on a canal with a hippy.

And according to friends, she has never been happier.

Julia, 36, broke up in February last year with Alan Davies, star of the detective series Jonathan Creek.

In June, she went to the Glastonbury rock festival and met Richard Annetts, who lives with a bull terrier on a narrowboat on the Kennet and Avon canal in Bath.

She moved in with 37-year-old Mr Annetts, who is known to friends as Rich, in a community of what the town's posher residents call 'water gipsies'.

And she stayed there until just before Christmas when she decided to rent a first-floor flat nearby. The couple now divide their time between the barge and the flat, making the journey between the two in Mr Annetts's black Morris

As active members of the West Kennet Boaters' Community they have clashed with British Waterways and other river residents on various issues including whether or not they should pay for moorings, since their community is ' continuously cruising'.

On dry land, Julia and Rich have also become quite a fixture on the travellers' circuit in Bath, frequenting hippy pubs including The Bell, where they spent a particularly wild Rio-themed New Year's Eve.

A friend said: 'Julia has found the love of her life in Rich. She really has turned her back on showbusiness and has become quite a hippy.

'They have spent much of the last six months cruising around the canals. Julia just wanted to get away from all the media attention and finally seems to have found happiness.' The once-fashion-conscious actress now prefers to wear 'grunge' style clothes. 'It's as if she's gone from riches to rags,' said a fellow drinker at The Bell.

Like his new girlfriend, Mr Annetts is a former high flyer. The son of a local government officer, he worked in the City before opting for a simpler life.

He told the Mail: 'I am surprised at the amount of interest in us. I don't want to get involved with talking about our relationship as it is very private.'

At the family home in Westbury, Wiltshire, Mr Annetts's mother Sophie said: 'Richard is a lovely boy - what else would a mother say of her son? But we don't see much of him, unfortunately. He comes round every so often to drop off his washing.

'Richard has had a few girlfriends over the years, but he seemed quite taken with this new one. The first thing I said to her is, "Which one are you?" when he brought her round. Then he introduced her simply as Jools.

'Richard has his own life totally separate to ours - I must say I know nothing about it at all. But he describes the canals as a brilliant society - like a floating village.'

Mr Annetts is a major contrast to Julia's previous boyfriends. Before her two-year relationship with Davies, who she was wrongly reported to have married, she dated the actor Dexter Fletcher.

Her name has also been linked with the comedians Keith Allen and Richard Herring, and the sculptor Carl Duncan.

Julia and Davies met on the set of Jonathan Creek, when she was hired to replace Caroline Quentin. Davies was pathologically protective about his private life and caused a huge rift between his girlfriend and her actress sister Nadia after the couple were pictured in a glossy magazine at former EastEnders star Nadia's wedding.

Nadia - who made no secret of her loathing for Davies - announced her sister's break-up with him last year during an interview to promote a daytime TV show. She said at the time: 'There was nothing about him I liked. I don't think he's a very nice man. He didn't like me and I didn't like him from the instant we saw each other.'

But with the arrival of Rich on the scene, all that acrimony appears to have changed. Julia recently spent more than a week staying with Nadia and their father at the family home in South London.

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