CATEGORIES

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’.

A horse walks into a bar...

An elite group of equine heroes of the Cheltenham Festival are remembered in the form of thronging watering holes at the racecourse. Lest racegoers should forget where they are during celebrations (or when drowning sorrows), Jack Watkins provides a guide to the brilliant horses that have earned such immortality

Survival of the sexiest

Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin's Strangest Idea Matt Ridley (Fourth Estate, £25)

How to make land work harder

The Government’s Land Use Framework should be viewed as an opportunity to be smarter with our land, but conflicts need to be resolved along the way

Yacht do you want?

Wave goodbye to your concerns about cruising aboard a small ship in the South of France, says Imogen West-Knights, who investigates what life is like on a boat designed to rival luxury yacht charter without the price tag

A regal renewal

Restoration House, Rochester, Kent The home of Robert Tucker and Jonathan Wilmot A house that received Charles II and inspired Charles Dickens has undergone a magnificent renewal over the past three decades, as John Goodall explains

Things are hotting up

ST VALENTINE, patron saint of chilli sowing is— I hope—overseeing my work this mid February. Early as it may be, I find this time of year the perfect gamble on light and heat levels, giving me a long season for chillis to mature. Any earlier and they might well fail; any later and the summer might run out of gas before my fruit ripen.

And it was all yellow

Forsythia are often sniffed at for being too brassy, but there is a lot more going for them, says Charles Quest-Ritson, although don't plant them next to clashing pink-flowering currants

If you go down to the woods today

In the High Weald, a Lutyens-inspired farmhouse and a state-of-the-art Huf Haus come to the market, together with a former royal hunting lodge that became a gunpowder factory in the New Forest

The year the stars came out

Boisterous, thriving and confident, Britain was a global heavyweight 250 years ago. Matthew Dennison explores the cultural luminaries who were born in 1775 and continue to shape our identity

Sweet escape

Beneath the papery bark of the birch tree lies a sugary resource, but be warned–it has a shelf life shorter than milk, says John Wright

In the mix

Neptune has added a collection of freestanding furniture to its range that offers a flexible new approach to kitchens

Shiver me timbers

Ousted by fast-growing imports, the balletic black poplar could be a floodplain champion in the battle against climate change, argues Vicky Liddell

My favourite painting Simon Martin

Sir Edward Herbert, later 1st Lord Herbert of Cherbury by Isaac Oliver

There's gold in them thar schools

Some of the most significant treasures and curiosities in British history, from Henry VII's golden cope to Alan Turing's reports, lie not in museums or galleries, but, unexpectedly, within independent schools, reveals Madeleine Silver

Clear in the attic

Intriguing chairs, tables and bookstands peppered the Holkham sale at Sworders, but, for me, a lacquered-brass stick barometer in a mahogany case stole the show

Survival of the exceptional

The addition of VAT on fees will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back’, not only for stretched parents trying to do the best for their children, but for smaller schools and what they can offer. Lucy Higginson finds out how they are mitigating the damage

As good as gold

The glittering, jewel-like works by early-14th-century Sienese painters reflected the splendour of the city’s heyday and went on to influence courtly art as far afield as Britain and Bohemia, as Mary Miers discovers

Bitter together

Peppery, rocket-like and best eaten raw, this warming winter weed adds a decorative flourish to any humble salad, finds John Wright

Knock on wood

Our beloved, bark-drumming woodpeckers are guardians of ancient broad-leaved woodlands, busy ecosystem engineers and keen consumers of ant porridge, discovers Vicky Liddell

Timeless bridal jewellery

Bespoke wedding jewellery crafted by G. Collins & Sons will bring extra sparkle to the happy couple's special day and beyond