CATEGORIES

Children both seen and heard

Author Nicholas Orme reveals parallels between childhood in Tudor times and the present day

Out of the ordinary

A sale of the macabre contains eclectic items, not all of which appeal, a new auction room gets off to a good start and there is interest in the effects from a Northumberland country house

The 'firework' master

As at home on a theatre set as he was before a canvas, John Piper pioneered abstract art in many materials, from stained glass to textiles, and even choreographed the Queen’s Silver Jubilee firework display, says Peyton Skipwith

Life-changing gardens

VISITING a friend in hospital recently, I came across what passed for a garden.

A cut above

Nothing beats homegrown flowers for beauty, variety and scent. Tiffany Daneff asks three British growers for the best advice on starting your own cutting garden

Edward or Edwin

The early 20th century saw a golden age of living and architecture

Splendid isolation

Two gems in East Anglia come garnished with history, space and privacy

The designer's room

A fragment of handpainted chinoiserie set the scene for the decoration of this bathroom at Keythorpe Hall, Leicestershire

The writing's on the wall

Early on a bright and frosty February morning, John Lewis-Stempel sets about trying to repair a dry-stone wall in the hope of keeping his horse, and other livestock, away from his prized roses

Go ahead, jump!

Once a symbol of fertility and more recently a figure of fun, the frog has always loomed large in folklore, and not only as a means of finding a prince. Now, however, some species’ future is uncertain, finds Ian Morton

An encyclopaedia of architecture

Winchester College, Hampshire, part I The Warden and Fellows of Winchester College In the second of two articles, Jeremy Musson offers an overview of the wealth of boneyes created by Winchester College from the Reformation to the present

Beauty is in the eye of the brush holder

Ever since Leonardo da Vinci followed curiously featured people in the street to capture their likeness on canvas, artists have been fascinated by the grotesque and unusual, says Michael Prodger

Kilvert's Diary

THE poet and novelist William Plomer, when working in his role as principal reader for the Bloomsbury publisher Jonathan Cape in 1937, excavated from a pile of manuscripts two bound Victorian notebooks sent in by the descendants of an unknown country clergyman from the Welsh borders.

Churches join race to net-zero

CHESTER CATHEDRAL has installed 206 roof-mounted solar panels, the most ever fitted to a British cathedral, it was announced earlier this month.

The glory of the gratin

A no-nonsense feast to gird the belly and quicken the heart, the gratin–whether it be slathered over meat, fish or vegetables–is all about an indulgent excess of cream topped by crispy cheese, says Tom Parker Bowles

The glory of the gratin

A no-nonsense feast to gird the belly and quicken the heart, the gratin—whether it be slathered over meat, fish or vegetables—is all about an indulgent excess of cream topped by crispy cheese, says Tom Parker Bowles

Inspired by birds, informed by science

The British Trust for Ornithology, a charity that prides itself on its scientific approach, is celebrating its 90th birthday. Jack Watkins reports

Brighton Rock

GRAHAM GREENE divided his fiction into two categories, namely serious literary novels and what he described as ‘entertainments’.

Aberystwyth is so bracing

Walking along the cliffs in Ceredigion tempts one to tackle Wales's entire coastal path

Medici masterpieces and Chinese camels

A look ahead to Maastricht, where star attractions include panels from the Medici workshops and a pair of Tang camels

Away with the fairies

She first took up painting as solace from disease, yet Cicely Mary Barker’s whimsical illustrations—most notably her flower fairies—still hold great appeal 50 years after her death, observes Claire Jackson

Nothing to get in a flap about

Often dismissed as ‘rats with wings’ or avian fly-tippers, few birds inspire as much hatred as pigeons. But, if we knew them a little better, we’d love them more, says Vicky Liddell

Juicy fruits

GRAPEFRUIT used to be rare and exotic.

Growth factors

The kitchen garden at Gravetye Manor, near East Grinstead, West Sussex Mary Keen talks to head gardener Tom Coward about bringing life and produce back to William Robinson’s magnificent elliptical walled garden

Reject tradition, embrace the eccentric

Our nation is built on whimsy and these five properties are all a bit out of the ordinary

The search for a 'forever' house

These ancient Kent houses were built to last

The COUNTRY LIFE Top 100

There are few more rewarding experiences than successfully breathing new life into an old house—or commissioning a new one. For the seventh year, COUNTRY LIFE has compiled its ever-evolving list of architects, interior designers, garden designers and specialists with the experience and creativity required to get it right

Not to be sniffed at

Claire Jackson meets the highly intelligent sniffer dogs that can help to detect invasive Japanese knotweed, even when it lies dormant in the ground

The lord of the books

From a sentence born of an exhausting teaching job, J. R. R. Tolkien crafted a series of fantastical novels that, 50 years on from his death, still loom as large in our imagination as Sauron’s all-seeing eye, says Matthew Dennison

Style with sympathy

Chandler’s House, Alton Barnes, Wiltshire - The sympathetic restoration of a delightful house has created new, liveable and stylish interiors within potentially awkward constraints, as John Goodall discovers