CATEGORIES
Sink Or Swim
The humble dumpling is a stomach-filling staple, but what exactly constitues a Norfolk ‘swimmer’, asks Eve Stebbing.
Too Cool For School
A revelatory new exhibition prompts Charles Darwent to reflect on the nature of American inter-war art
My Favourite Painting Pam Ayres
The Boundary Rider by John Pickup
New Balls, Please
It has witnessed boom times and bust and, now, Price of Bath is the UK’s last remaining tennis-ball maker. Julie Harding meets the family putting the bounce into our balls
Respect Your Elders
TO be in the countryside in May, when spring allows summer to float across its mind, is a pleasure that never wears off.
Picturesque Wonderland
Tim Richardson is impressed by an intimate exhibition that explores the relationship between Humphry Repton and one of his greatest clients
Rich Tapestries Of Life
The contents sale of North Mymms Park brings back happy memories
Roll Out The Red Carpet
Liz Rowlinson explores the real-estate bubble that is Cannes and what the glamour of the film festival has done for the area
Southern Sun
Glittering sea and soaring mountains make for a dramatic backdrop to Cyprus’s increasingly upmarket coastal resorts
The Race Is On
Speed, skill and mega-watt glamour: Holly Kirkwood tracks where to buy in Monaco to benefit from Grand Prix fever
Delighting inDevizes
In the first of an occasional series celebrating Britain’s outstanding market places and high streets, Ptolemy Dean considers–and illustrates–what makes the centre of Devizes so satisfying
Turtle ortoffee?
Next week is the start of Glorious Goodwood. Clive As let examines the social whirl that surrounded this event before the First World War and the remarkable collection of photographs that documents it
Designs For Happiness
Clive Aslet discovers how this unsung hero of the Arts-and-Crafts Movement realised his vision for changing lives with thoughtful architecture and planning
No Doctor, No Village
What am I doing in this eternal winter?’ bemoans the title character in Franz Kafka’s Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor) when called out of bed one stormy night to attend to a sick patient.
Three cheers for Daffy's new bloom
David Austin’s newest roses are eagerly awaited at the Chelsea Flower Show and, this year, COUNTRY LIFE has reason to celebrate
Wildflower Meadows? Give Me Strength
I DON’T see the point of wildflower meadows. I know they’re fashionable and lots of our friends have made them, but I have never seen a really convincing one. Why not? Well, for starters, there’s something ridiculously artificial about cultivating wild flowers.
I'm All Right, Jack
The jackdaw, perhaps the most dignified of the corvid family, has a strange affinity with Man
Author Of His Own Undoing
David Gelber is gripped by this sympathetic, thought-provoking account of Charles I’s life
A Modern Romantic
Michael Murray-Fennell observes how John Piper discovered a very British type of Modernism
The designer's room
Antique dealer Christopher Howe evokes a classic English drawing room
The Missing Lynx
Moves are afoot to reintroduce the enigmatic lynx to Britain, but there are strong arguments for and against
My Favourite Painting Andrew Graham-Dixon
John McEwen comments on Cupid and Psyche
The Pressure's Off
The actor and playwright on balancing ‘the quietness of writing with the showing-off of acting’
Fifty Shades Of The Grey Seal
Known as ‘people of the sea’ and often described as sad-looking, due to their huge, doleful eyes, the gigantic–yet surprisingly agile–grey seal can hold its breath and slow its heartbeat to dive to depths of 200ft, reports David Profumo.
A Georgian Renaissance
In the second of two articles, John Martin Robinson looks at the recent restoration of this magnificent Georgian house and its dazzling series of re-created 1770s interiors by James Wyatt.
Embracing The Hopes And Fears Of All The Years
The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester.
Living National Treasure
Cake maker
The Return Of The Prodigal Son
‘ I commissioned this batik from Solomon Raj while I was working in an inner-city parish, near a large prison. In the traditional Indian caste system, Solomon comes from among the Dalits or “untouchables”. His work, like much of Luke’s Gospel, reflects Jesus’s particular love and compassion for the marginalised and the rejected. I asked him to create a simple, uncomplicated image depicting God’s unconditional love and mercy offered to all, not least the most marginalised. Inspired by the parable of the Prodigal Son, Solomon focuses deliberately only on the forgiving father and the returning prodigal, who, in his depiction, could be male or female ’
He's Behind You!
Perennial pantomime villain Kit Hesketh-Harvey explains why this corny, hammed-up, ritualistic theatrical format is loved so dearly. Oh yes, it is!
Pa Rum Pa Pom Pom
Why bobble fringes are the new tinsel this Christmas