CATEGORIES

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.

Lid pro quo

A product of post-war ingenuity, Tupperware lessened domestic drudgery and empowered thousands of women, but the party's finally over for this ubiquitous kitchen aid, discovers Rob Crossan

Now we're just some gadgets that you used to know

Be it a spit wheel, a pudding prick or a tongue press, many kitchen utensils once considered essential have long been consigned to obscurity, laments Neil Buttery

Stone mad

A ready supply of high-quality building stone in Devon and Somerset is reflected in three landmark properties-a manor house near Tavistock, a county council venue in Exeter and a historic former rectory near Taunton

Thank you for the memories

What do you buy for the person who has everything? A special day out flying a Spitfire, sharpening their gardening knowledge or quaffing wine among the vines, says the COUNTRY LIFE team, as they try out some of the best gift experiences around Co-ordinated by Victoria Marston

Pie say!

Today's baked goods pale in comparison to a Georgian festive speciality, says food historian Neil Buttery, as he lifts the lid on the Yorkshire Christmas Pye.

Now that packs a punch

Today's punch might be an insipid fruit cocktail best left to students, but Charles Dickens and George IV knew how to conjure heady pleasures from their five key ingredients, says Lucien de Guise

First out of the lychgate

There are few things more romantic than a gabled lychgate leading to a charming church, says Jack Watkins, despite their funereal and functional purpose

Worth its weight in gold

Myrrh isn't only an expensive motif of mortality, a potent analgesic and an Ancient Egyptian mouthwash, it's also associated with untamed lust and sensuality, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Beauty by numbers

What do spiders' webs, snowflakes and snail shells have in common? They all contain fractals: Nature's exquisite, endlessly repeating mathematical pattern. Deborah Nicholls-Lee unpicks their complex geometry

Hardy and the country house

With the help of specially commissioned drawings by Matthew Rice, Jeremy Musson considers the abiding presence of the stone-built manor house in the stories of Thomas Hardy

A little mite with a mighty heart

Shy yet bold, furtive yet fearless and fond of nesting in your trousers, the tiny Jenny wren' has a lusty voice that matches its sense of adventure, observes Mark Cocker

The master builder

Harald Altmaier's photographs of floral tableaux, as colossal in effort as in scale, recall 17th-century Dutch still lifes, but the inspiration behind them is far wider, as Carla Passino finds.

The legacy

THE 'Carols for Choirs' series 'changed the whole sound of Christmas for everybody who sings,' according to the composer and choral conductor Sir John Rutter.

Tales as old as time

By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth

Do the active farmer test

Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair

Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin

Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts

SOS: save our wild salmon

Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish

Into the deep

Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel

It's alive!

Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters

There's orange gold in them thar fields

A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd