CATEGORIES

Farming's Brave New World

Five leaders in the field give their visions for reinventing British agriculture, from capitalising on Brexit and feeding a pandemic-hit nation to rewilding the soil, mob-grazing and facing up to lab-grown meat

Nothing here but a bothy

Once frequented by farm labourers and shepherds, lone bothies–often located amid some of Scotland’s most remote countryside –offer a welcome (and sometimes secret) refuge for wanderers, reveals Freda Lewis-Stempel

‘This enchanting spot'

Sheringham Hall, Norfolk, part I The home of Paul Doyle and Gergely Battha-Pajor In the first of two articles, Jeremy Musson looks at a house and landscape that constitutes one of the most important expressions of Regency Picturesque theory to survive in England

Life after the deal

IT has been almost two weeks since the UK began its new relationship with the EU and two weeks since the trade deal was signed into law.

When it comes to the crunch

Our fondness for celery has endured, but how can something composed almost entirely of water be quite so delicious? Ian Morton explores its virtues

Real resolutions

COVID-19 preoccupations may have meant that personal New Year resolutions have largely gone by the board, but that doesn’t let great national institutions off the hook. Agromenes has picked four that need real change in 2021.

Taking stock

Don’t emulate Macbeth’s witches by boiling stock to death, advises Tom Parker Bowles–slow, low and steady always wins the taste race

Missing you pig time

Far from being lazy, dirty and sweaty, pigs are actually house proud, affectionate and fond of the odd game of hide and seek, John Lewis-Stempel assures us

Chugging off the coal cliff

THE future of steam railways is in jeopardy, says the Heritage Railway Association (HRA), with coal produced in the UK likely to run out by 2022.

California dream

Calistoga residence, California A new garden for a new-build home succeeds in being both contemporary and belonging to the landscape, says Christopher Stocks

The foreshadowing of the watercolourists

Huon Mallalieu finds both the familiar and some unexpected, exquisite discoveries among the forerunners of the English School

The galanthophile's galanthophile

Joe Sharman started breeding snowdrops before anyone else and, after 10 years of meticulous work, he created the most expensive snowdrop ever sold. Today, he continues his quest for ever more curious and enchanting variations, finds John Grimshaw

Striking out

The director of the Garden Museum on wild swimming, skyscrapers and damp

Fresh fields and pastures new

Farms and estates are more popular than ever, both as investments and as places to escape the rigours of city life

The designer's room

Douglas Mackie invoked Sir John Soane and Nancy Lancaster in his scheme for this Belgravia dining room

The apogee of English taste

In the second of two articles, Jeremy Musson looks at the restoration of an outstanding Regency house and its garden, both integrally conceived with a celebrated Repton landscape

Inside the catmint trial

Under the auspices of the RHS, dedicated plant committees and trials teams grow different varieties of the same plants under controlled conditions, providing gardeners with unrivalled information. Judge Val Bourne reports from the Nepeta Trial

A life in oils

Keith Pask’s lifelong passion for painting burns as brightly today as it did during the Second World War, thanks, in part, to the pages of COUNTRY LIFE. Nick Hammond meets this remarkable nonagenarian

You'll Never Walk Alone

Grafham Water is alive with human and avian company

If You Go Down To The Jungle Today

On a trip to Africa’s self-proclaimed safest country, John Goodall finds a Rwanda free from the grip of its turbulent past and comes face-to-face with two of its most astonishing and heavily protected residents

The lands that time forgot

Britain is full of hidden treasures, from haunted forests to flower-filled meadows, secret stone circles and saintly volcanoes. Annunciata Elwes tours 50 lesser-known treasures of this country to tick off in 2021

The sweet taste of success

We’ve all done it: eased the lid from the golden tin, only for a cloud of powdered sugar to erupt over the car. Amazingly, A. L. Simpkin’s sweets have now been our faithful travel companions for 100 years, reports Julie Harding

When Gounod met Georgina

When, 150 years ago, the French composer encountered the voluptuous singing teacher, sparks flew and London and Paris were agog. Henrietta Bredin recounts the tale of their short-lived, but tumultuous relationship

Three cheers for British spuds

FOR a few years now, most of the potatoes I’ve grown have been nutty, early, French salad potatoes.

Looking forward, looking back

In the first of a new monthly series, Amy Jeffs reflects on the medieval pastime of January: feasting with family and friends

Don't try this at home

The five-day office week is a thing of the past. Emma Hughes rounds up the best places to work from, beyond the kitchen table

Given the green light

A new-found love for space, quiet and Nature is driving growth in the prime countryside market

A charming anomaly - Rosebery House, Midlothian The home of Lord Dalmeny

A late-Georgian shooting lodge became the favoured retreat of the Victorian Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery. It escaped ambitious remodelling at his hands and has recently been the object of sympathetic restoration, as John Martin Robinson reports

A blisteringly good border - Aston Pottery, Oxfordshire

Every single one of the 5,000 plants in this 200ft-long annual bed has been sown and raised from seed. Val Bourne discovers the secrets behind this astonishing achievement

If the wig fits

Rugby boys in dresses, bankers in tights, aristocrats in full Mars and Venus regalia: why do we Britons shed all inhibitions in the face of fancy dress, asks Kit Hesketh-Harvey