CATEGORIES

Ariddle wrapped in a mystery

The late Robert Kime chose his pieces as much for their history as for their quality, but the stories of some of the works sold in the phenomenally successful dispersal of his collections may never be fully revealed

Off the beaten cycle path

I RECENTLY returned from the Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey after a magical week with The Slow Cyclist, a specialist tour operator I know well from previous travels in both Transylvania (Romania) and the Mani Peninsula (Greece).

Home from home

There's nothing better than settling in on holiday. Here are our favourite out-of-theordinary private homes and villas available to book in Europe and beyond in 2024

Down with the Durrells

On Corfu, a silent war is raging between developers and the allies of a way of island life immortalised by Gerald Durrell. Away from the big resorts, Jo Rodgers discovers that it is still possible to travel off the beaten track with children in tow

A nightingale sang...

Formal elements have provided firm foundations for a garden that is planted for wildlife and surrounded by newly established woodland, reports

America's 51st state

Glamorous American bars were once a familiar sight in London, catering to US and British citizens alike, but only two of the historic ones remain. On the eve of Thanksgiving, Robert Crossan goes in search of both

Defying gravity

Norman Foster gave London dizzying skyscrapers, head-turning apartment blocks and a bridge of light, as well as championing compact city living and piloting aeroplanes. Carla Passino meets the man with his head in the clouds

Anything but flat

The appetite for apartment living is on the up. Here are some of the capital's best new-builds

Whatever the weather

Sometimes, it's best to forget all about the warm embrace of a winter-sun holiday, argues Emma Love, and cuddle up in the cold, at home and abroad

10 ways to insulate a period property

Modern technology might offer sustainable, cost-effective heat sources, but the best-value unit of energy is the one you don't lose through your roof, floors, walls and windows. Tim Moulding, a eighth-generation builder, suggests ways to keep an old building warm

The comforts of the kitchen

The onset of winter has its compensations, not least the chance to indulge in the flavoursome indulgence that is slow cooking, says Tom Parker Bowles

An ode to winter

The silence, subtle beauty and certainties of a British winter combine to make it a breathtaking season of cold and cosiness, says

You're a dark horse

The desired steed of great conquerors, as well as a symbol of strength and courage, the black horse-whether mythological, literary or real-has long galloped across our minds, says

Stranger things

Burning barrels, hare-pie scrambles, bottle kicking and horn dances: no one does eccentric quite like the English. Harry Pearson explores our weird, wonderful and sometimes distinctly dangerous folk festivals

A local revival

A local initiative has returned a major country house from a building in danger to a well-loved and intensively used property. John Martin Robinson reports

Far from black and white

BOVINE TB (bTB) should not be a political issue', the NFU has warned, in response to Labour proposals to ban culling licences from 2024.

Welcome back, old friends

All the favourites are back, from Sondheim's songs to a newly inventive Gilbert and Sullivan, Pygmalion and Private Lives with two mature actors

Pot shots

I HAVEN’T nosed around behind other people’s garden sheds, but I suspect that, if I did, I would find, as I do behind mine, a jumble of precariously stacked old plastic pots. I try to create some kind of order by stacking similar sizes together, but such is the range of shapes and sizes that disorder soon returns. Most can’t be recycled; nurseries and garden centres don’t want to reuse them for fear of spreading disease and one never needs them in the garden, however enthusiastic one is about propagating plants. I think we’ll be stuck with them until plastic recycling improves.

Plant theatre

Charles Quest-Ritson joins the legion of garden enthusiasts who make the pilgrimage to the dramatic plant nurseries at Larch Cottage in Cumbria

Beethoven's homage to Nature

Although Beethoven was German by birth, it was the Austrian countryside that influenced many of his greatest works and provided respite from the torment caused by his deafness. Russell Higham visits the Viennese woodlands that inspired his music

Rooms with a view

Amsterdam's historic canal houses offer vertical living at its very finest

Georgian grandeur

The enduring appeal of Georgian architecture in all its guises is highlighted by the recent launch onto the market of three important historic houses

Give fleece a chance

Wool month is the time to consider sleeping in bedding sourced from a local flock

Following in the footsteps of John Macnab

The Editor and The Judge set forth to Speyside in a bid to bag a Macnab-a salmon, a stag and a brace of grouse in one day-from the purple heather-clad hills that rise above the fabled river in the Scottish highlands

Come hell or high water

A miracle of Nature, the salmon braves body changes, hungry seals and forbidding waterfalls on its extraordinary journey to and from its spawning grounds. But now, warns Simon Lester, it may be facing one challenge too many

'Stubborn little bearers of total joy'

Norfolk terriers may be small and feisty, but their immense courage, intelligence and sheer joy of life have won over everyone from members of the Royal Family to Formula 1 champions

Having a field day

From following hounds beneath snow-flecked skies to fishing for trout by shimmering water meadows and landing a Macnab, Adrian Dangar has enjoyed a lifetime of adventures as a respected huntsman and sporting correspondent

The Englishness of English architecture

A major new survey of architecture in Britain and Ireland from 1530 to 1880 will be published this autumn. Its author, Steven Brindle, teases out the qualities of one of its most elusive central themes

Totally foxed

The new Scottish law on hunting is a cunning catch-22 situation, but not one designed to help the fox

Farmers need better friends

THERE are very few agricultural constituencies in England today— the growth of towns and suburbs has meant that they dominate the truly rural areas. Once, there were seats all over the country where the farming vote really mattered. In Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire, the West Country and the Welsh Borders especially, candidates would have to make an effort to woo the country electorate. The House of Commons would always have members seriously interested in farming and able to speak up with authority, but that has changed radically as constituencies are reordered to reflect population changes.