EXHAUSTION, grief and rebooting was how a close friend described what standing down from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) would feel like. After 10 years, I always knew leaving would be a rollercoaster of emotions. I can say now, my friends are right—it’s taking time to decompress. More than anything, I miss the people, staff and members alike.
When I was elected deputy president in 2014, it was a big news story: the first woman to become a national officeholder. I was on the front page of the Daily Telegraph and remember being infuriated that it was all the media was interested in. I said at the time: ‘Success will happen when being a woman is no longer newsworthy!’ However, I joined two brilliant women as ‘firsts’: Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, then director-general of the CBI, and Frances O’Grady, TUC chief executive. We might have seemed an unlikely alliance, but we shared a common goal in achieving a ‘good Brexit’.
Esta historia es de la edición April 10, 2024 de Country Life UK.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 10, 2024 de Country Life UK.
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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
