CATEGORIES
The secret life of the page-turner
Pippa Cuckson turns a spotlight onto the discreet world of this rarely noticed musician, whose quick thinking can save a concert
The joker in the pack
Played with friends, family or in solitude, there are few things as familiar as a pack of cards. Yasha Beresiner explores this form of entertainment, propaganda tool and, sometimes, work of art
On Galloway shores
A childhood spent in the company of curlews and cattle is one of magic. In an extract from his new book, Native, Patrick Laurie recounts his return to a vanishing way of life
Meadows make livestock
It’s more a case of April flowers, rather than showers, as John Lewis-Stempel gets down on his knees in an attempt to add floral richness to a rough-grazed field
Long live the May Queen
A mainstay of the hedgerow, a wildlife haven, the queen of the woods: this is the hawthorn’s moment, eulogises Matthew Rice
Building on history: The gardens at Benington Lordship, Stevenage, Hertfordshire
Kathryn Bradley-Hole describes how to take on a renowned garden and make it work for a new generation
Character, history and style
Columbine Hall, Suffolk The home of Hew Stevenson and Leslie Geddes-Brown A medieval moated manor house has been lovingly re-imagined as the beau idéal of an English country home. Jeremy Musson reports on this remarkable achievement
Back to Black Beauty
A hymn to the horse, a comment on slavery, an ode to rural Norfolk: Anna Sewell’s enduringly popular novel is all this and more 200 years after its author’s birth, explains James Clarke
How Do You Like Your Eggs In The Morning?
How do you achieve the perfect scramble or poach? How can you tell if an egg is addled? And is that double-yolker lucky or a harbinger of death? Claire Jackson divulges all
London In lockdown
In all of its 2,000-year history, it seems unlikely that the City of London has ever stood so silent as it does presently. Can we learn from the quiet, asks Architectural Editor John Goodall
Waving the virtual paddle
Online auctions prove successful across the country, from a French nobleman to English watercolours and a stuffed Adélie penguin from Capt Scott’s fatal expedition.
Prints charming
Why textiles block printed by hand are all the rage
Imagining antiquity
In the 300th anniversary year of Piranesi’s birth, Huon Mallalieu considers the architectural fantasies of one of the most widely recognised names in 18th-century Italian art
He's a blooming talent
A rising star of the gardening world on chicken-friendly gardening and admirable women
For peat's sake
A bog can store 10 times more carbon than a forest; calling a halt to the use of peat-based products in horticulture is long overdue
Coming home to roost
The chickens are reprieved and it’s keep calm and carry on with the calving
A sonnet to spring
Once believed to be summoned from slumber by birdsong, spring–from gambolling lambs to pale wood anemones and the rabbity-nosed velvet of ash buds– is a season of timeless joy for John Lewis-Stempel
A play on contrasts
The Old Rectory, Litton Cheney, Dorset With the help of Arne Maynard, the many and varying elements of this four-acre garden, once the home of engraver Reynolds Stone, have been beautifully drawn together.
Isolation – How To Do It
With humour, impressive variety and a pertinent portrait of a doctor in plague-ridden 17th-century Italy, galleries are coming up trumps online
Seeing the woods for the trees
The Government has promised to plant 60 million trees by 2024. It’s a laudable aim, but there are taxing questions to answer about practicalities, such as funding, work force, which species, where to get them from and where to plant them, observes John Grimshaw
Lustrous lives
Caroline Bugler is mesmerised by the work of a husband and wife who were among the most inventive artists of their generation
Somewhere, over the rainbow
Things were going so well–but the health of the housing market before the coronavirus crisis hit indicates that it can and will recover
For love or money
They have evolved from knapsacks to coin purses and to today’s card holders, but does the wallet have a future in our increasingly cashless society, asks Roderick Easdale
It's a brave new world
Some plays seem to be standing up remarkably well to screening and even cast new perspectives on old favourites
In with the new(builds)
They’re energy efficient, with modern features and contemporary design, and you can move in straight away. Is now the time to buy new?
Family politics
Family politics Descendants of famous MPs tell Eleanor Doughty what it’s like to grow up in a house where politics dominate the day to day
Commanding silence
In the second of two articles, John Goodall looks at the post-Second World War restoration of Llandaff Cathedral and its outstanding collection of 20th-century furnishings
A gentleman and a player
The actor on making an Archers villain loveable and being cast as a ‘slightly dodgy toff’
The art of going online
Galleries and dealers are using the difficulty of the lockdown to showcase their wares in virtual forms, from wartime oils to a cleaning lady and a Turk
Swimming with otters
Amy Jeffs dips into the life and legacy of St Cuthbert, patron saint of Durham Cathedral