HAVING spent three decades writing about and enjoying the occasional Havana cigar, I really should be beyond being surprised. Cuba is a land of paradox and curiosity: think Alice Through the Looking-Glass, add the Land of Oz and for good measure have it re-written by Kafka. The sheer roulette wheellike sense of chance keeps me interested and on my toes. The last thing that I anticipate from the island paradise of Cuba is consistency: and, therefore, just when I am least expecting it, consistency arrives from Cuba in the seductive shape of the new British regional edition, the Por Larrañaga 47.
I used to be rather dismissive of this brand, for which I now heartily atone, as it would be the height of folly to dismiss this cabinet of 50 cigars, not least because it has arrived, mirabile dictu, in good time for the festive season. The Cuban cigar industry has a commendably relaxed attitude towards such quotidian concerns as delivery dates and deadlines and I seem to remember that the PL47 had been due in the UK during 2021. Call me a cynical old sceptic, but when I learned that the PL47 would be launched a mere two years late on November 1, I was looking forward to its arrival on these shores sometime towards the end of January.
Esta historia es de la edición November 29, 2023 de Country Life UK.
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Esta historia es de la edición November 29, 2023 de Country Life UK.
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A trip down memory lane
IN contemplating the imminent approach of a rather large and unwanted birthday, I keep reminding myself of the time when birthdays were exciting: those landmark moments of becoming a teenager or an adult, of being allowed to drive, to vote or to buy a drink in a pub.
The lord of masterly rock
Charles Dance, fresh from donning Michelangelo’s smock for the BBC, discusses the role, the value of mentoring and why the Sistine chapel is like playing King Lear
The good, the bad and the ugly
With a passion for arguing and a sharp tongue to match his extraordinary genius, Michelangelo was both the enfant prodige and the enfant 'terribile’ of the Renaissance, as Michael Hall reveals
Ha-ha, tricked you!
Giving the impression of an endless vista, with 18th-century-style grandeur and the ability to keep pesky livestock off the roses, a ha-ha is a hugely desirable feature in any landscape. Just don't fall off
Seafood, spinach and asparagus puff-pastry cloud
Cut one sheet of pastry into a 25cm–30cm (10in–12in) circle. Place it on a parchment- lined baking tray and prick all over with a fork. Cut the remaining sheets of pastry to the same size, then cut inner circles so you are left with rings of about 5cm (2½in) width and three circles.
Small, but mighty
To avoid the mass-market cruise-ship circuit means downsizing and going remote—which is exactly what these new small ships and off-the-beaten track itineraries have in common.
Sharp practice
Pruning roses in winter has become the norm, but why do we do it–and should we? Charles Quest-Ritson explains the reasoning underpinning this horticultural habit
Flour power
LONDON LIFE contributors and friends of the magazine reveal where to find the capital's best baked goods
Still rollin' along
John Niven cruises in the wake of Mark Twain up the great Mississippi river of the American South
The legacy Charles Cruft and Crufts
ACKNOWLEDGED as the ‘prince of showmen’ by the late-19th-century world of dog fanciers and, later, as ‘the Napoleon of dog shows’, Charles Cruft (1852–1938) had a phenomenal capacity for hard graft and, importantly, a mind for marketing—he understood consumer behaviour and he knew how to weaponise ‘the hype’.
