James Hilltout is one of those incredibly lucky people who just loves his job.

In some ways that’s not surprising because the 53-year-old is a full-time professional tennis coach, and if you like tennis it tends to follow that you’ll enjoy working in the sport.

“It’s a real passion,” said Hilltout, who coaches at Moreton and Bourton Vale tennis clubs. “I’ve never regarded it as work, it’s my hobby.”

And it’s a hobby he’s been playing for the best part of half a century, because he first started hitting tennis balls at the tender age of five.

And again it’s not really surprising that he got hooked almost as soon as he reached school age because his mum Barbara was a professional tennis player back in the day.

“I was very lucky,” said Hilltout. “My mum was a very good player and used to play with the likes of Fred Perry back in the 50s.

“I grew up in Cheltenham and she was head coach at East Glos so I guess I was always going to play tennis.”

And that’s exactly how it panned out.

He left what was then Whitefriars School after sitting his O-levels at the start of the 80s and, although he probably didn’t know it at the time, the most important exam he took was French.

That’s because at the age of 16 he headed off to Avignon, a city in south-eastern France’s Provence region, where his sister Jeannette was living, and took his first steps as a tennis coach.

“That was my main occupation,” said Hilltout, who would spend the next decade coaching in Germany, Belgium and Holland as well as France.

He also played a bit in Belgium and Holland but aside from the tennis he has great memories of his time the other side of the English Channel.

“The 80s were a good time to be in that part of the world,” said Hilltout, “it was a wonderful time. I saw the Berlin Wall come down and that’s one of the great moments in history.

“I remember walking through the corridor from West Germany to East Germany before the wall came down and there being Russians everywhere. That was a real eye-opener.”

And while he was learning a lot about life, the young Hilltout was also learning plenty about himself in the world of tennis as well.

So why did he become a coach at such a young age?

“I just wasn’t good enough to be a player,” he said. “I played to a good county and regional standard in England but the best players were much better than me. That’s when I decided I wanted to coach.”

That coaching journey brought him back to this country at the start of the 90s and he pretty much came full circle because he landed a job at East Glos, the place where his mum, who these days lives in the Dordogne in France, used to work.

“I also worked at county and regional level and for the LTA which involved taking under-16 squads over to France to play,” said Hilltout, “that was very good.”

And around this time he also became involved first with Moreton Tennis Club and then Bourton Vale Tennis Club, two clubs he is still very much involved with today.

Moreton have about 100 members who play on two floodlit astroturf courts while there are 50 to 60 members and two floodlit hard courts at Bourton.

Hilltout took over as coach from Ann Furkins when she retired and he said: “I think what we’re trying to do is provide a facility so that everyone can play. The clubs are for the community and offer the chance for children to get involved in sport.”

And Hilltout is dismissive of suggestions that it’s a sport only for the elite.

“There’s people from every walk of life at the two clubs,” he said. “For me it’s all about making tennis accessible to everyone.”

Hilltout, who is married to Aina – a former opera singer from Norway – and lives in Brockhampton, near Cheltenham, reckons he spends 40 to 50 hours every week coaching “as long as it’s not snowing!”

And there’s one youngster, in particular, who has caught his eye at Bourton Vale.

“Arthur Hanson is a very good prospect,” he said. “He’s playing a lot of county tennis and is number two or three in the county for the under-9s. I’ve got a lot of hopes for him, he’s going very well.”

And if there’s one person who can help young Arthur develop his game, then it surely has to be James Hilltout.