CATEGORIES

From a jester to The King

LAST week, The King visited St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Smithfield, London EC1, in anticipation of a major restoration project and the 900th anniversary of the hospital’s foundation.

Beauty in a bridge

THE footbridge that connects the rugged headland of Tintagel, Cornwall, to the mainland, completed in 2019, has won the Building Beauty Awards organised by the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust.

Tasty and trustworthy

ATERRIFYING statistic I heard recently is that there are more food banks in this country than McDonald’s,’ says S. J. Hunt, CEO of the Country Food Trust (CFT).

Harrying back

WE might soon see hen harriers circling above the skies of the congested A303 after a conservation breeding scheme was announced by Natural England.

Let there be light and song

WHEN thinking of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, you would be more than forgiven for training your mind to turn on the radio at 3pm on Christmas Eve to hear the soft solo treble of Once in Royal David’s City echo from the lone chorister at King’s College, Cambridge.

No time for sentiment

After shovelling silage and feeding his sheep on a damp October morning, John Lewis-Stempel takes aim at a grey-squirrel drey in a bid to warn off its absent occupants from targeting songbirds

The phoenix rises

London is the centre of all things Eastern and Oriental this week

Changing places

A modern masterpiece leads a pack of three fine homes in the north of England

Clamberers not climbers

AS do most gardeners, I have a clear image of what I expect from a plant. Dahlias must be bright and bold, sweet peas overloaded with perfume and delphiniums the colour of a Mediterranean sky.

All fired up: The garden at Gresgarth Hall, Caton, Lancashire The home of Sir Mark and Lady Lennox-Boyd

In a non-stop firework display of sulphurous yellow, flaming scarlet and glowing amber, this garden lights up the soul–and the autumn skies, reports Non Morris

A song of chance and fire

Autumn colour is often fleeting and notoriously hard to predict, but pick the right plants and, sooner or later, you will revel in a glorious blaze, says Steven Desmond

COUNTRY LIFE BEST IN CLASS 2022

COUNTRY LIFE'S editorial team has pooled knowledge and instinct to share a highly curated selection of 70 items that epitomise craftsmanship, aesthetics, function, durability, quality and are a pleasure to own Compiled by Carla Passino

Dabbling with pretty ducks

Ornamental waterfowl are an endlessly cheering and fascinating addition to any stretch of water, but they can make a mess. Vicky Liddell asks experienced keepers for their advice

‘Governed for God’s praise’

In the first of two articles, David Robinson revisits an exceptional and little-known survival of the Premonstratensian canons, one of the less-familiar monastic and religious orders of medieval Britain

This fortress built by Nature for herself

COUNTRY LIFE’s Picture Editor Lucy Ford salutes the wild and often untamed beauty of Britain with her pick of the striking images from this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards

The empathy of accompanists

A soloist may get top billing, but, as all professionals know, the recital is really a team effort of equals with their piano accompanist. Henrietta Bredin talks to one of the great exponents of that art

Newt tales

HAVE you seen The Newt?' It was the question everyone asked me back in the summer of 2019. Friends said that I would like it.

Burnished credentials

The garden at Blackland House, Calne, Wiltshire The home of Mr and Mrs Ed Nicholson Famous for its spring bulbs, this garden comes into its own in autumn with its crisp underpinning of geometric forms, says Mary Keen

Manors maketh Man

Two centuries-old manor houses wear their history well-one is connected to our Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey

A passion for pattern

Tess Newall has taken time off from painting murals to design a collection of wallpaper and lampshades, finds.

Splendid isolation

What did the legendary interior designer Veere Grenney learn from spending lockdown in a Palladian folly? Giles Kime finds out

Together in eclectic dreams

Next week, Anouska Hempel, high priestess of carefully considered eclecticism and founder of Blakes Hotel, will be honoured at the V&A Museum

A tomb with a view

Long or round, large or small, prehistoric tumuli dot the countryside. Vicky Liddell explores the history, folklore and literary influence of burial mounds or barrows and reveals how they were nearly lost to the 18th-century digging mania

In praise of decency

Queuing for hours to pay tribute to our Queen was a typically moving display of British thoughtfulness, but other examples abound in the countryside, finds Margaret Casely-Hayford

A seat of legal learning - Lincoln's Inn, London WC2, part II The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn

In the second of two articles, John Goodall examines the architectural development of Lincoln's Inn from the late 17th century to the present day

For love of Florence

Tom Richards will soon be head of the Florence Academy of Art. He speaks to Arabella Youens

In search of sunshine

Arabella Youens explores what you can buy (and how far your budget will go) in short- and long-haul destinations

A perfect pearing

IF pears were a person, you'd have nothing to do with them.

Flame throwers - Thenford Arboretum, Thenford House, Northamptonshire The home of Lord and Lady Heseltine

More than 3,000 different trees–in particular, the fine collections of oaks and maples–are about to put on a striking autumn show, writes Charles Quest-Ritson

Speaking truth to power

Cartoonists have been holding political figures to account since the Georgian era. Charles Harris retraces the history of a proud tradition of British satire