Star spangled meadows

Camassias are tall, elegant and simple to grow– it’s easy to see why people fall in love with these American beauties, says Val Bourne

Playing at chequers

In the first of two articles on the country seat of Britain’s Prime Ministers, John Goodall uses a diary to explain the circumstances of its magnificent Edwardian transformation

Interiors The designer's room

Having rescued this Tuscan villa from near ruin, its British owners commissioned Artichoke to design a hard-working kitchen

Born to be wild

Bird’s-foot trefoil, yellow rattle, rock-rose, scabious and selfheal: the limestone grassland of the Cotswolds could soon be flooded with wildflowers once again, thanks to a new planting scheme. Nicola Chapman finds out more

A BRIDGE WORTH CROSSING

Jack Watkins takes a trip down the River Thames and a look back at London’s illustrious bridge-building heritage

With Their Own Fair Hands

Interior designers can dream up the best furniture, says Arabella Youens

The Power Of Patience

The architect George Saumarez Smith describes how he created a home by slow evolution, rather than revolution

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

There are 8.3 million trees in London, almost one for every member of the capital’s population, but they need our protection now more than ever, finds Jack Watkins

The feathered home-wrecker

It took one man years of observation to convince the world about the sinister behaviour of cuckoos. More than a century later, as the bird’s population plummets, his work is still revered, says Jack Watkins

Splendid isolation

The resilience of these three superb Sussex houses, one owned by the Shelley family, reminds one that there will be good times ahead

A mile of shopping

To coincide with the publication of a definitive new study of Britain’s most famous retail destination, Andrew Saint looks at the history of London’s Oxford Street

When the curtain comes down

Theatre has been forced offstage before now, whether for disease or war, but it has always managed to survive and reinvent itself

A life in design

Sixty years after Jacqueline Duncan founded the Inchbald School of Interior Design, she continues to champion the profession she helped to create

I wake up every morning thinking of gin

With a 200-year family history of distilling, Natalie Wallis can concoct a gin to suit any list of demands–even one that reflects the seaside, Japanese tourists and The Rolling Stones in one, says Rupert Ponsonby

Bewitching, bucolic and brilliant Upton Wold, Gloucestershire

This magical Cotswolds garden has been thoughtfully created over almost half a century–with one eye always on the mesmerising view, says Tilly Ware

How To Choose The Right Greenhouse

With so many of us at home with more time to garden than usual, this is the perfect time to invest in a glasshouse, but which is right for you? John Hoyland offers some pointers

The tide waits for no man

Ancient waterways, massive skies, and a new company charting old maps. Nick Hammond sails Norfolk’s fabled coastline using the timeless power of wind and tide

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