IT'S the film everyone's talking about― a sinister story that both disturbs and delights. Saltburn, filmed at Drayton House in Northampton shire, features a climactic scene in an elaborate garden maze. As Drayton has no maze, director and co-producer Emerald Fennell enlisted the help of Adrian Fisher, the world's leading maze architect, to design one for the film.
❝ Adrian Fisher's fastmoving mind is as twisting and turning as his creations'
Masterminding more than 700 hedge, water, mirror and mosaic mazes around the world, as well as the first 'maize maze', chopped into a Pennsylvania cornfield, requires a busy brain. The day before our planned interview, Mr Fisher telephones me to share the concept he has for COUNTRY LIFE's own maze, the ideas spilling over, unable to wait. His fast-moving mind is as twisting and turning as his creations. Without warning, the conversation takes another path, switching to the awe-inspiring aerial photographs he takes with his drone ('I can deploy it in 90 seconds-and then whoosh'). Then, we're onto follies. 'I'm nuts about towers,' he says, describing them as 'the aerial camera points of the past'.
Adrian Fisher's Blenheim Palace maze that enjoyed a starring role in Inspector Morse
There's no doubt that Mr Fisher's designs are also meant to be enjoyed from a height, where the hedging reveals hidden graphics. One vivid example is the Alice in Wonderland maze created at Dorset's Merritown Farm, which features many familiar characters, including a grinning Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and Alice herself (see 'How to commission a maze' box). At its centre is a pocket watch fixed at four o'clock, indicating a perpetual tea time.
Denne historien er fra April 03, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 03, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
