Country Life

Rhiane is a civil servant and the founder and chairwoman of Black Girls Hike—an organisation dedicated to helping black women reconnect with Nature and tackling the lack of representation. She was recently shortlisted for Campaigner of the Year by Th

NEW research by the RSPB suggests that the environment would be better served by splitting land into areas of natural habitat and high-yield farms (a land-sparing system), rather than combining food production and conservation everywhere (land sharin

Fleet of foot in ice and snow, the mountain hare is made for survival in wind-blasted northern uplands, particularly the moors and scrubby forests of the Highlands, where it retreated after the introduction of the brown hare by the Romans. Lepus timi

1977 September 8 unpublished Tourists pose for photographs on one of the stones at Wiltshire's iconic prehistoric monument Stonehenge. The image was taken for an article in 1977 that called for the urgent need to halt erosion of the stones and tackle

THERE are few who have not explored the High Weald in their imagination, for this is the home of Winnie the Pooh. His Hundred Acre Wood in Ashdown Forest, high on the Weald Forest Ridge, is the heart of this medieval stretch of Kent, Surrey and Susse

EVERY year, magazines promise ‘a Christmas like no other’—proof, if any were needed, that we should perhaps be a little more careful what we wish for in future. How many of us, 12 months ago, could have imagined we’d be considering carving (and eatin

I’m very lucky as I live right next to Wells Cathedral, so will head next door for the morning service—it’s the perfect way to run up an appetite and a thirst. This year, we’re going to serve a red I found at the bottom of the wine rack. It’s a very

IMAGINE precious metals, translucent enamels and coloured gemstones, brought together by a master goldsmith with breathtaking precision, and you have the very essence of Fabergé. This, however, is only part of its unique magic. The remainder derives

DARTMOOR’S Baskerville Hall is one of the most famous country houses in English fiction. The arrival at its doors of Dr Watson, in the company of Sir Henry Baskerville, is a vivid piece of cinematic direction, artfully combining the Gothic horror tal

Sheherazade Goldsmith is the founder and designer of the fine jewellery brand Loquet London FRANK SINATRA sang of New York, ‘If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere’, but Cy Twombly was exceptional in abandoning New York for Italy, just as it

ONE hundred years ago, in late December 1920, a letter landed on the doormat of an Oxford home. It was addressed to a three-year-old boy named John and the envelope bore an exotic stamp priced at ‘2 kisses’. Inside was a hand-painted card showing a f

AT its best, gingerbread is still regarded as the most Christmassy of treats—decorative domiciles are all the rage at this time of year, instigated by Victorian interest in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. But how did this foodstuff, neither quit

OUT, damned spot,’ cries Lady Macbeth in Act V, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy. Perhaps if the Bard’s conniving villain hadn’t been sleepwalking and mimicking washing to rid her hands of the blood of Duncan, the playwright would have had h

WHITE truffles are hardly the most subtle of ingredients, being neither shy or retiring. Because these splendiferously brazen Piedmontese beauties announce their presence long before they’ve arrived, sashaying into the room on a thick, extravagantly

CASHMERE is the answer to most Christmas-present prayers. Go a little bit extra this year with one of Joshua Ellis’s sensational cashmere stoles, which can jazz up a simple dress or hide a multitude of sins. With roots in the Yorkshire countryside th

ENGLISH sparkling wine, and English wine in general, used to be considered a somewhat eccentric and quixotic enterprise. The story was of a few retired majors in the South Downs indulging a hobby or a not very realistic dream. All that has changed. T

A mini pillow to tuck comfortably behind your neck. To lie down and read a book in the afternoon underneath a cashmere blanket from The Monogrammed Linen Shop is pure luxury. It must be a book that you don’t mind lending, because, hopefully, your gue

WHERE do all the lost dresses go? This is a question that haunts curators such as me. For every exquisite example of haute couture in our collections, there are always others that we wish we had. One such was Christian Dior’s Zemire, from his autumn/

Crab Apple Blossom, £325, Clive Christian Notes: marine bergamot, apple blossom and green rhubarb (www.clivechristian. com) Opus 1870 Eau de Toilette, £110, Penhaligon’s Notes: yuzu fruit, English clove rose and cedarwood (0800 011 9877; www.penhali

MANY people who intend to put down roots in the country face a rather common conundrum; should they restore an existing house or start from scratch? Both options present a different set of challenges, as well as exciting opportun ities. For man y, th

FEW Georgian country houses have remained as charmingly untouched by time or 20th-century development as handsome Netheravon House in the ancient Wiltshire village of the same name. Netheravon, on the steeper eastern side of Salisbury Plain and on th

Built in 1909 by renowned local architect Fred Rowntree (who also built Rowntree's Cocoa Works in York), Cherry Hill in the Howardian Hills is a glorious example of early-20th century architecture that has been sympathetically restored in recent year

IN the still, cold days of winter, scent lingers, seemingly enriched by the thin air so that it hangs heavy with exoticism. None more so than the perfume produced by the small waxy blooms of Viburnum x bodnantense Dawn, which are as full of hope and

A VISIT to a well-organised apple store in November is always a wonderful experience. The early eaters that, although lovely, will not keep, are a distant memory. We now see before us those sterling kinds that ripen on the tree in October, but whose

BEYOND the dark gloss of traditional wreath-making components such as holly, ivy, fir and berries are myriad more magical and delicate ingredients, many of which you can grow in the garden or find in hedgerows. Depending on where you live, the first

BACK in 2016, Danny Dyer, an East-enders actor, featured on family-history TV programme Who Do You Think You Are? . Famously, he discovered—as he unscrolled a large, hand-drawn family tree—that his great-grandfather 22 times over was Edward III, leav

SAINT-JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT sits pretty at the French base of the Pyrenees. With its white chalet-style houses, precision-stacked cords of wood under their long eaves, it is typical of mountain towns in Continental Europe. Less usually, Saint-Jean has a

COMMUTER-BELT Surrey might seem an unlikely place to find a direct link to one of art’s greatest painters, to the Medici Pope Leo X and to the fabled tapestries he commissioned for the Sistine Chapel. However, The Lightbox, Woking’s neat gallery and

UNSURPRISINGLY, my travel plans to Cuba are in disarray. My cigar year used to be punctuated by events that took place with a metronomic regularity—the annual Festival del Habano in February and the Partagás Festival in November. Usually, I would att

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