Göring, Göring, gone
THE sound of a Spitfire is ingrained in the British psyche. The unapologetically purring rhythmic beat of the Rolls-Royce Merlin –the finest piston engine to soar skywards–and the throaty, cackling exhaust send shivers down the spine of all who witness this magnificence of mechanical engineering. The sorceress of the skies, the Spitfire is the embodiment of British spirit. The only Allied fighter to remain in full production throughout the Second World War, she is a symbol of dogged determination and national defiance against aggression. Unlike the bulldog, a symbol of stoicism that, over time, has distorted into a sorry shadow of its former self, the Spitfire remains frozen in modern memory: irresistibly elegant, lithe and dangerous. The old warbird still beckons.
Based on the Goodwood estate in West Sussex–but operating out of seven other locations across the UK–Spitfires.com, formerly known as Boultbee Flight Academy, is the only accredited Spitfire training school and the first company in the world approved to give passenger flights in Spits. I arrive on a glorious autumnal morning, a little nervous and praying that my proficiency (or lack thereof) behind the wheel of a car doesn't translate to ability in the air.
I'm kitted out in a flight suit, life jacket and a helmet that Top Gun dreams are made of. In the crew room, I greet John Nixon, my pilot for the day. A softly spoken Yorkshireman, he briefs me with the quiet confidence that only some 21,000 hours in the air brings. All of the pilots based here have a wealth of experience across the military and civilian sectors and I'm instantly put at ease. I express an interest in aerobatics. 'Women do tend to have the stomach for it,' he says with a smile.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 27, 2024-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 27, 2024-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
