CATEGORIES

Men In Tights

Whether your loyalties lay with Superman, Captain America, Dennis the Menace or Desperate Dan, comics were an integral part of childhood. As Batman turns 80, Katy Birchall salutes these iconic characters

Fit For A Royal Feast

A banqueting house built to welcome George I miraculously escaped destruction in the early 20th century and has been splendidly restored. William Aslet reports Photographs by Will Pryce

Dressing The Virgin Queen

The only known surviving fragment of Elizabeth I’s wardrobe has been hiding in plain sight for 400 years, discovers Catriona Gray

Beyond The Ha-ha

Juliet Roberts talks to five designers about how to make your garden merge with the landscape

Animal Magic - Derek Gow And Water Voles

As a small boy in Scotland, Derek Gow would fish for minnows with his brother.

A River Runs Through It

Matthew Rice is inspired by the work of a Norfolk artist who is keeping the English tradition of good landscape painting alive

A Rite Of Passage - The Garden Of Radcot House, Oxfordshire

Twenty years ago, the Stainers knew nothing about gardening, but that did not put them off trying to bring order to the wilderness they inherited. George Plumptre applauds the results

A New Lease Of Life

Longer life expectancies mean we have decades left to enjoy after the children have flown the nest. Perhaps it’s time for a change, suggests Holly Kirkwood

Where The ‘Sunlight Of Centuries' Glimmers

J. B. Priestley’s immortal words best describe this ‘most English’ of areas–the eternally beautiful Cotswolds, with its enviable houses and traditional villages

The Designer's Room

Pippa Paton has artfully transformed the interiors of a Cotswold barn

The Lighter Way To Enjoy Malta

ON Sunday, I was woken when it was still dark by my friend Charlie, who models his morning routine on that of the poor poet (I speak of his finances, not his art) Walt Whitman.

Searching For Salvias

Without people such as Robin Middleton, our gardens would look quite different. Val Bourne hails the unlikely hero of the late-summer garden

Romancing The Stone

The thoughtful work being done at this Cotswold garden is bringing in more visitors without sacrificing its idyllic atmosphere.

New Beginnings

The new director of Badminton Horse Trials on starting at the bottom

Nipper

John McEwen comments on Nipper

More Cider With Rosie

A century after the author grew up there, Emily Rhodes follows Laurie Lee’s footsteps through the Cotswolds village of Slad and discovers that his spirit remains

Grapes Are Not The Only Fruit

Picked at peak ripeness, Cotswold apples, pears, quinces and damsons are now being made into the first British eau de vie. Jane Wheatley experiences a taste sensation at the Capreolus Distillery

Heather Today, Gone Tomorrow

BACK in April, an article in The Times caught my eye. It bemoaned the declining popularity of heathers.

If Looks Could Kill

Our forebears judged some plants by their looks to be medically beneficial, but the consequences of consuming certain species could be dire.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Not so much a hot hatchback as a red-hot hatchback, Volkswagen’s Golf R two-litre TSI 4Motion is the Golf GTI’s naughtier–and much more powerful–big brother

Animal Magic

Adam Henson’s Cotswold sheep

Going Round The Bend

John Wright rediscovers the unexpected pleasure of steambending wood into all sorts of shapes and sizes

From Abbot To Artist

A house built for the Abbot of Pershore in the 14th century was restored as a studio by an American artist and later became a family home. Alan Calder describes the development of this remarkable Cotswolds building

An Icon Reborn

Raffles, Singapore

A World Of Pure Imagination

Fringed with cities of world-class culture and filled with festivals galore, it’s no surprise that artistic buyers continue to follow in the footsteps of literary giants and make their homes in the Cotswolds

80 Not Out

Three new octogenarians and their unmatched contributions to the theatrical world

What The Butler Saw

The actor on being mobbed in Washington DC and envying Highclere’s head gardener

The Tall Tale Of The Walnut Tree

From its origins in the Garden of Eden to its intricately patterned wood and our love of cracking open and consuming its hard-shelled fruit, the walnut tree has enjoyed a long and colourful history, says Charles Hulbert-Powell

The Luck Of The Irish

They’re one of our most vulnerable native breeds– but what Glen of Imaal terriers lack in numbers, they make up for in personality, discovers Emma Hughes

Stories Of Survival

Dedicated owners have kept the glories of two houses alive–a Nash masterpiece in Pembrokeshire and a Queen Anne hunting lodge in North Yorkshire