Daily Mail
March 5, 1997
By Steve Busfield and Jon Clarke

Forget fame, I'd rather be a country boy like our Jake says star

From wealth to beautiful women, Ralph Fiennes has all the trappings of fame. But the star also has a secret yearning... to be a simple country boy.

He claims he would readily swop his glamorous lifestyle for that of his younger brother, who works as a gamekeeper.

Jake Fiennes, 27, spends his days drudging fields and hedgerows on the 2,500 acre estate of his employer, Sir Nicholas Bacon at Raveningham, Norfolk. His closeness to nature is a world away from the Hollywood hype and movie milieu of his millionaire brother.

"Whenever I go to see Jake, he frogmarches me over the estate, shows me a dead hare and plucks pheasants," said 34-year-old Ralph before the British opening of his multi-Oscar nominated movie The English Patient.

"I am envious of his life. It is very different from the feeling of being here. I can see the attraction in that."

After leaving school, Jake worked for two years on a farm in Australia and has been a gamekeeper for the last six years. While Ralph is more often seen in dinner suit these days, his brother's favoured workwear is gumboots, khaki trousers, checked shirt and waxed jacket.

The love life of the Fiennes brothers is also very different. Bachelor Jake dates veterinary assistent Mel, while Ralph - recently separated from Moll Flanders star Alex Kingston - is now seeing actress Francesca Annis.

Their homes are also a stark contrast. Jake lives in a low-rent two bedroom cottage on the estate while his brother is said to have homes in London and Los Angeles.

"I am not envious at all of Ralph's life," said Jake. "But I agree that he might well be envious of mine. I am very happy doing what I am doing. The attraction is that I am out all day in the countryside that I love. Working with nature is all part of the cycle of life. I know Ralph is doing very well, but I wouldn't want to do what he does."

Jake has a twin brother, Joseph, wo is also an actor. Another brother, Magnus, is a composer and there are two sisters, Martha, a film director, and Sophie, a photographer.

"I am very different from the rest of my family," said Jake, whose black labrador Tosca is rarely far from his side. "I am a country boy at heart and I like a quiet life. Here on the estate I can see kestrels and short-eared owls. I see things no one else sees - a stoat chasing a rabbit, a fox moving her cubs before the sun rises. You see all these things happening. If you blink, you miss them."

As Ralph savours his latest Oscar nomination, Jake lists his own big moments - winning a McNab countryman's trophy in Inverness for bagging a salmon, grouse and stag on the same day.