CATEGORIES
Withnail & I
A pair of drunken anti-heroes they may be, but Marwood and Withnail struck a chord with students that continues to resonate
Consider plaquettes
A neglected art form takes centre stage at Olympia sales this month
White-hot snow
Carla Passino explores six of the best winter destinations across the world and picks great properties for sale to enjoy life on skis
What a difference a year makes
The country-house market has ridden the wave of this strange year in jubilant form
Talking about a resolution
We make them, we break them, yet, as Felicity Day reveals, our famous forebears –from Pepys to Woolf–were equally as bad at keeping New Year’s resolutions
Shaken, not stirred
Battles, Beatles, Bond and an ancient Egyptian curse–there’s a lot to remember in 2022
Nooks and crannies
NOBODY understands more than a gardener that Nature abhors a vacuum.
Charlotte Mullins comments on Julia, Lady Peel
Julia, Lady Peel by Thomas Lawrence
A story for our times
It is hard to say if Cold Comfort Farm is prophecy or warning
A one-woman show
She was a brilliant observer of boxers, ballet dancers, gypsies, horses, coastlines and women at war. To overlook the vitality of Dame Laura Knight’s work is nothing short of snobbery, argues Ian Collins
Do your ears hang low?
Incorrigible and exasperating, vocal yet always entertaining and seemingly almost human, the basset hound is a force of nature, says devotee Flora Watkins
Ready when you are
With renovations and materials in such high demand, high-spec historic houses, such as these three in Hampshire and West Sussex, should be snapped up
Dearly beloved
Old rectories, parsonages and vicarages we’re glad the Church didn’t hold on to
The designer's room
Interior designer Sarah Brown has created a perfect townmeets-country kitchen in her Chiswick home
A blaze of colour
A great window of heraldic stained glass by A.W.N. Pugin has been restored at Alton Towers in Staffordshire. John Goodall reports on this dazzling project.
A modest manor
Rippington Manor, Cambridgeshire The home of Peter and Gay Johnson A delightful 16th-century manor house is revealed to have an unexpectedly complex history and an unusual story to tell. John Goodall explains
The Life of the Robin
THE robin regularly tops the vote in public surveys to find Britain’s national bird. The reasons aren’t hard to imagine. A Christmas-card staple, the bird is familiar and attractive. It has a sweet song, endearingly heard at times of the year when other birds are silent and often in the evenings or late at night, seduced by the glow of streetlights. A regular garden visitor, it’s loved for its tameness. It can be trained to take food from the hand, and may even enter the home to feed or perch on an armchair.
Where a giant walked
You can see from Wales to Gloucestershire from The Wrekin
Why old is gold
The deeper designers dig into our decorative past, the more gleaming nuggets they unearth
Sealed with a kiss
Peaking at Christmas, regard for mistletoe is deeply rooted in myth and legend, finds Ian Morton-not to mention the age-old tradition of kissing underneath it
Hung up by the chimney with care
Children around the land will soon awake in the darkness of early morning, straining their eyes to make out the shape of a now-bulging Christmas stocking-but when did we start filling socks with satsumas, sixpences and tin whistles.
Peace on earth and mercy mild
We have a tendency to exhaust ourselves trying to create the perfect Christmas, but we should return to the charitable heart of the season and be mindful of those who are struggling, advocates the Revd Daniel A . French
Journey of the Magi
Britain's greatest masterpieces
All is calm, all is bright
On a two-coat, chilly December night, a John Lewis-Stempel and his labrador Plum venture out into the glass-hard air to check on the sheep and drink in the stars
A new lease of life
From a windmill to old stables, these conversions pack historical punch
Talking a lot of rot
ONCE upon a time, the three ‘r’s meant reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic. Nowadays, they stand for ‘recycle, repurpose and re-use’.
The big list
To describe a building as ‘listed’ is a way of saying it is important, but what does it mean? Roger Bowdler looks at how listing came about and how it has changed
A new lease of life
A light touch is the secret to sensitive restoration, finds Amelia Thorpe
‘We're the solution, not the problem'
The new CLA president on farming today, family tragedy and grey partridge
The restoration game
Some of our most desirable country houses were almost completely remodelled by the likes of Lutyens, Lorimer, Voysey and Blow. Yet, under current rules, such projects wouldn’t be allowed, says Hamish Scott