CATEGORIES
When In Doubt, Take A Bath
The market in Somerset’s largest city is heating up. Now is the time to dip a toe in
The magic touch
The carving of root vegetables into grotesque faces is only one of many attempts to ward off the advances of evil through the centuries, discovers Ian Morton
The art of transgression
Laura Gascoigne finds more feminism than sex or yoga in the British Museum’s interpretation of Tantra
On England's pleasant pastures seen
With frost-edged air embued by decaying leaves, bonfires and gunpowder, for John Lewis-Stempel, our landscape of field, hedge and brook is the only place to be in October
The North Pennines
THE second largest of the AONBs, at 766 square miles, this landscape of gorges, waterfalls and moorland is awash with natural importance.
Sign language
The Pope’s Head, The Naked Boy, The Leg & Star: illustrated signs have been swinging tipsily outside Britain’s pubs for centuries, wooing customers, annoying Parliament and occasionally landing on pedestrians, says Felicity Day
Light the touch paper
Tiffany Daneff visits a garden that comes alive as others begin to fade, where inspired plantings heighten autumn’s natural brilliance
My favourite painting Cressida Cowell: St George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello
John McEwen comments on St George
An ode to ancient customs
The genre of country-house poetry in the 17th century is preoccupied by the ideas of hospitality and retirement. Clive Aslet considers the significance of these themes
From the jaws of hell
Be it Greek mythology’s Cerberus, Churchill’s ‘black dog’ of depression or the Hound of the Baskervilles, hell hounds have haunted us for generations, says Jeremy Hobson
Know Your Onions And Your Leeks
Once worn atop Welsh army helmets, this most elegant and subtle of alliums is as happy served alongside smart truffles as it is in the simplest of soups, says Tom Parker Bowles
These sacred places
The humble architecture and rich antiquity of the ancient churches of Wales are as captivating as their settings, reveals Caroline Welch of the National Churches Trust
Their stars still shine brightly
Last month, the stage lost three greats, but at least there are tentative green shoots of revival for their profession at some theatres
The Straw Ride by Lucy Kemp-Welch
John McEwen comments on The Straw Ride
Seizing the moment
Auctions and galleries open as long as they can, with international curiosities and thought-provoking artworks on display
Midlife crisis
Spencer’s love life was complicated and ultimately doomed, but it produced some remarkable paintings, reveals Tim Richardson
In search of the bony horseman
Herring-like in appearance, the shad was once one of our favourite fish, feasted on by the royal household. Now, it is one of our rarest, discovers Catriona Gray
Hot stuff
DO you think Roald Dahl was the only person in the land to pronounce the flower’s name correctly? Dahlias were not named after him, but after Anders Dahl, one of Linnaeus’s Swedish pupils in the late 18th century. Not a bad accolade, I reckon. Young Dahl must have been pretty hot stuff to deserve such an honour.
Design in a virtual world
The rise of the design webinar is spreading interiors knowledge far and wide
Antrim Coast and Glens
NORTHERN IRELAND still enjoys a largely undeveloped coastline, and the combined counties of Antrim and Derry include no fewer than three almost contiguous coastal AONBs. The most celebrated, perhaps, is that associated with the Giant’s Causeway, but there is also the spectacular cliff-lined headland of Binevenagh and, the largest of the three, Antrim Coast and Glens, between Larne and Ballycastle.
Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy
A suspected spy, Harold Godwinson, William Gladstone and a British Army colonel all have ties to these two Wiltshire homes
Survivors from another age
Two National Trust properties bask in a glorious Indian summer’s day
‘Access to green space should be a right'
The Nature writer on a lost civilisation, HS2 and the stress of having an opinion
Walk on Wye
Eulogised by Gilpin, Wordsworth and Coleridge and immortalised on canvas by Turner, the sylvan charm of the River Wye Valley is one of Herefordshire’s best kept secrets, says John Lewis-Stempel
My favourite painting Simon Gillespie - David with the Head of Goliath by Artemisia Gentileschi
John McEwen comments on David with the Head of Goliath
The last royal hall
Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, part I In the care of Historic Royal Palaces In the first of two articles illustrated with specially commissioned photographs of the interior taken at the end of lockdown, John Goodall looks at the remarkable history of Henry VIII’s celebrated great hall at Hampton Court
A road to remember
London’s premier design district is home to some of the world’s leading interior-design and furnishing shops, but its refined façades belie a bohemian past, finds Carla Passino
An empire of concrete
The National Trust is getting hung up about the presentation of houses and the British Empire. The real challenge of the moment, argues Simon Jenkins, is the future of our countryside and the assault on the planning system
Beautiful Britain Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Llyn Peninsula
A RIGHT ROYAL TRAGEDY
Charles I met a sticky end, but his taste for the finer things in life left a lasting impression on London, finds Jack Watkins