Conkering heroes

Few games rival conkers for sheer excitement. Simon Lester ponders the merits of round-topped nuts versus flat-sided cheesers and exposes the nefarious tricks some use to win at all costs

Is this the best year ever for berries?

The sunny, yet wet summer might have been a dampener at the time, but the resulting autumnal berry haul is a feast for mice and men

A light touch

Nels Crosthwaite Eyre's Hampshire house demonstrates her innate ability to create smart, but relaxed interiors that reflect the tastes and needs of a new generation

Sod's Law

I AM currently consumed by the inequity of Sod’s Law, the annoying precept that when you least want things to go wrong, they invariably do.

Underneath the Arctic sky

A veteran minesweeper is enjoying a new lease of life as a charter boat touring majestic Norwegian islands. Hugh Francis Anderson sails away on HMS Gåssten

Crop values

AS familiar as apples may be, most of us have only tasted a minuscule sliver of the 7,000-plus varieties available. If you grow your own, you open the door to a world of flavour and texture far superior to those in the shops.

After Christo

The swashbuckling dahlias still thrill, but Mary Keen, a lifelong friend of Great Dixter, is equally impressed with how the garden has evolved in the care of Fergus Garrett

Flights of urban fancy

To mark the upcoming 75th anniversary of the publication of Richard Fitter's seminal book London's Birds, Jack Watkins takes a look at the changing face of the capital's avian population

The man who built COUNTRY LIFE

Edwin Lutyens gave London the Cenotaph, COUNTRY LIFE its offices and generations of children Nana, the Darlings’ dog in Peter Pan. Few men have made a greater mark on pre-war Britain than the architect who strode like a stork, reveals Carla Passino

Going for a Burton

THE Hampstead home of actor Richard Burton, in which he lived when he first met Elizabeth Taylor, is up for sale.

Fresh fields and pastures new

The racing world not only develops first-class runners, but also first-class property

A seafarer's choice?

The Velvet Room at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, is decorated with a highly unusual silk. Annabel Westman offers a new interpretation of its imagery and purchase

Written in stone

From epitaphs to large-scale monuments, letter carvers can elevate even the most straightforward inscription to an elaborate work of art

On gossamer threads

Wreathing the land like an ethereal veil, mist turns valleys into an opal sea, coats moss with an emerald glow and wraps the tingle of the skylark into a wispy enigma. John Lewis-Stempel revels in its silvery beauty

Sailing with the silver darlings

Sailing and fishing from a 30-ton boat with no engine, entirely subject to the whim of wind and tide, is no mean feat, says Joe Gibbs, as he joins the crew aboard St Vincent, a restored early 20th-century 'Zulu' herring drifter

Season of mists and mellow artfulness

Vincent van Gogh painted it as olive trees buffeted by the wind, Claude Monet as frothing orange leaves, David Hockney as a triumph of woodland colours. Michael Prodger explores how autumn's many beauties have long inspired artists

A living fossil

This year, two connected institutions in the heart of London celebrate their 900th anniversary. In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at their foundation story

A sporting canvas

WITH two rangy bay horses’ conker-brown coats glistening in the dawn sunshine, warm breath emanating from their nostrils into the cold air like puffs of smoke and mist wreathing the parkland behind, two elegant tweed-jacketed and peak-capped members of hunt staff escort a pack of hounds on their morning exercise…

Green light for urban planting

THE Prime Minister should declare a national mission to ‘regreen’ Britain’s towns and cities, according to a think tank called Create Streets.

Following the North star

Victorian artist Marianne North braved jungle rapids, forests and mountains to capture the blowsy beauty of tropical plants on canvas. Carla Passino paints the life of a woman who defied conventions to forge her own path

The nurseryman's nursery

Tilly Ware visits Marchants Hardy Plants in East Sussex, one of the most beautifully designed and horticulturally significant nurseries in the country

Private passions

Next week's sale of Robert Kime's personal collection offers a rare insight into a brilliant, but enigmatic designer

The magic carpet goes electric

Specialising in cars so smooth you won’t spill your Champagne, Rolls-Royce was born for the all-electric market–and the Spectre is well worth the two-year wait

Just another day in paradise

The chatelaine of Meikleour has not only transformed her husband's home, she's also introduced a host of fisherwomen to the delights of the Tay, discovers David Profumo, as he joins Mrs Reel Life for a day in piscatorial heaven

Last of the summer wine

As the warm September sun begins to wane, John Lewis-Stempel visits John Clare's grave, where he laments the sad demise of Nature's favourite son and wonders why the peasant poet's genius was never fully appreciated during his lifetime

You've got to roll with it

Incorrectly considered a pest, the woodlouse-a land-based crustacean with a hard, armadillo-like outer shell that rolls into a ball to protect itself-plays a pivotal role in our gardens and literature

Under pressure

Barometers and altimeters have saved thousands of lives since their invention, although their occasionally inaccurate predictions have caused tempers to flare

The need for tweed

Given the chance create his very own 'estate' Harris tweed, David Profumo knocks at the door of Donald John Mackay, the Hebridean weaver who has changed an entire industry

And the beat goes on

Wrestling through brambles or wading through sodden cover crops are all in a day’s work for beaters. Essential to the success of a shoot day, they also often have the best fun, enthuses retired gamekeeper Simon Lester

Here's one I trained earlier

Any gun who's ever looked enviously at a neighbour's dog sitting patiently on the peg, as their own over-excited charge lunges on its lead, may want to consider buying a pre-trained gundog