CATEGORIES

The stuff of legends

The late Maurice 'Dick' Turpin, a celebrated antiques dealer and largerthan-life character, had wide-ranging interests, from fine furniture to Blue John, revealed in one of Sworders' final sales of his London home's contents

More than a pretty face

John Singer Sargent shot to fame for his Society portraits, but he was as adept in other genres and excelled at watercolor, often capturing 'off-duty' records of his many trips and travelling companions

Interiors

Louise Bradley transformed the rear of her Chelsea home with a calming, pared-back garden room

In the hat of the moment

The hat was once as essential for leaving the house as a pair of trousers, but the sight of a dapper gent sporting one is now all too rare

Taking the rough with the smooth

With the initiative to rescue sheep and the daring to question its master, the rough collie not only lives up to its heroic reputation, but is always right

A Georgian reinvention

The ingenious integration of the polite and service rooms of a handsome 1790s villa has created a modern family home, as Jeremy Musson discovers

Let's stick together

COMMUNITY-OWNED businesses are on the up, says the Plunkett Foundation-a national charity that helps these types of initiatives. Of particular note are community pubs, which increased by 10% in 2022, against a backdrop of widespread closures; some 8,000 pubs, amounting to 15%, closed between 2012 and 2022.

Park that thought

LAST month, opposition to the proposed creation of new national parks in Scotland brought some 110 farmers, crofters and other stakeholders to the Isle of Skye for a summit chaired by Alasdair Macnab, vice-president of NFU Scotland.

Surf and turf

The jaguar is the jewel in Belize’s conservation efforts, but they’re notoriously elusive, discovers Nigel Tisdall, on a journey to find them from rainforest to reef

On the strait and narrow

Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait is one of the world's most evocative and significant waterways in a constant state of flux, says Catherine Fairweather, who journeys upriver to find out what's occurring on the European and too-often-overlooked Asian banks

Get down on your knees

The gardens at Thenford House, home of Lord and Lady Heseltine James Alexander-Sinclair joins snowdrop lovers wandering through more than 900 varieties of Galanthus, perhaps the largest collection in the country

Home truths

Cash-paying downsizers will have to compete with families hoping to upsize for these three charming homes under 2 million

My favourite painting Ashley Campbell

Charlotte Mullins comments on Iris

Seed drill

I STILL find it magical that seeds carry all the information needed to become a full-grown productive plant. Our task is to ensure that this nugget of potential falls into the right place at the right time in the right way.

The sweet spot

A house under £1.5 million usually offers good, family-sized proportions, while avoiding a jump to 12% Stamp Duty

All bark and some bite

A vital source of food, a pharmacy and a haven for wildlife, a tree’s living skin is a surprisingly sophisticated surface, says John Lewis-Stempel

Wildly out of whack

THE Government is far behind in its goal to halt Nature’s decline and ensure 30% of land and sea is protected by 2030, finds the latest damning report from the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP).

When God closes a door...

TODAY, the National Churches Trust launches its manifesto calling for urgent action to rescue the UK's church buildings. Every Church Counts offers a blueprint for how churches can be saved for the future,' explains National Churches Trust chief executive Claire Walker. 'With hundreds facing closure across the UK, a national plan is urgently needed... We are calling on Government, heritage organisations and Christian denominations to work together.'

The evidence of your eyes and ears

Podcasts are taking over. James Fisher finds out what they are, where they came from and what to listen to

Rooms with a cru

Successive lockdowns taught us to make the most of our homes, from the addition of everything from home offices to gyms. However, a wine room offers a much more sybaritic experience, finds Amelia Thorpe

Country-house Clawdo

Was it the leopard in the dining room, the jackdaw in the kitchen or the ferret in the nursery? Bronwen Riley presents a whodunnit of the worst-behaved pets

So much more than a walk in the park

After 75 years, the job required of national parks has changed. They now need to be hothouses of Nature recovery, and it’s time we got on with it

To ski or not to ski

'Falling over was easy, even on the flat; getting up was disastrous;

La dolce Dolomites

There's more to skiing than the French and Swiss Alps, says James Fisher, who goes in search of new adventures in the Italian mountains

At the turn of the century

La Mamounia in Marrakech has a storied past. As it turns 100, Mary Lussiana returns to reflect on its successes and guess what the next few years might hold

It's a mash up

'Floury-fleshed 'Kestrel' is better than any I've tried'

Lands of hope and glory

Farms and estates did not lose their appeal in 2023, with some local buyers and even a happy ending to a long-running Cornish dispute

Let's hear it for Britain

There are many good reasons to be proud of this sceptred isle, from great thinkers via Shakespeare to the electric kettle. Carla Passino selects 50 of the best

A kind of tree magic

When it comes to driving away witches or warding off evil, nothing beats the rowan tree, with its gleaming scarlet berries and pentagram markings. Aeneas Dennison walks into a forest of myths

The Generalists and the Twelfth of Never

An exclusive Christmas mystery story by bestselling crime-fiction author Sophie Hannah