CATEGORIES

Every Dog Has Its Day

From loyal labradors to a fishing-mad orange dog, a plucky teckel and a food-thieving lurcher, our favourite sporting canine accomplices are trusted and loved beyond measure, finds Adrian Dangar

Dress To Impress

In the country-house market as in life, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, finds Holly Kirkwood

I Am A Passenger

Like Iggy Pop, David Profumo and Editor Mark Hedges relax as they let motoring correspondent and fisherman extraordinaire Charles Rangeley-Wilson take the wheel on a memorable road–and angling–trip to the Peak District

A Blue-Chip Investment

Palácio Fronteira, near Lisbon, Portugal More than 60,000 tiles have gone into the creation of this extraordinary 17th-century garden, which has survived kings and earthquakes, and they still gleam as bright as on the day they were laid, says Gerald Luckhurst

Hot Summertown In The City

A rare Regency gem in the form of a Grade II*-listed Oxford villa with almost two acres of grounds has come to the market

Reviving History

A medieval castle that evolved gradually into a comfortable house was strikingly reconstituted in the 1840s with ambitious neo-Norman additions, as James Bettley explains

As Bald As A Coot

Bold in appearance and once an annual target, the coot is not wholly innocent nor without value within the waterfowl community, finds Ian Morton

Swine Fever

From Peabody to pigs, the Cotswolds Art & Antique Dealers’ Association fair will have much to enjoy

Wild About Flowers

Lady’s slippers by the hundreds if not thousands, hillsides golden with daisies, swards of salvias: Sarah Raven salutes Bob Gibbons, who has dedicated the best part of his life to finding and documenting wildflowers

My Favourite Painting Marina Warner

The Triumph of Death by an unknown artist

Hot-House Flowering

Conservatories are once again being used for cultivating and enjoying plants. Amelia Thorpe reports on a growing trend

The Final Curtain Call

The theatrical world has recently lost three great men

The Music Of Kings

The concert-hall owner on proving the sceptics wrong, female composers and farming

Pole Cats

Adam Hay-Nicholls drives Jaguars sideways at speed in the sub-zero Swedish wilderness

Guild Of Beauty

Clive Aslet reflects on the art critic’s attitude to aesthetics and the legacy of his radical views today, the subject of a new exhibition celebrating his bicentenary.

It's A Family Affair

From gentlemen farmers to purveyors of Nazi wine, Roderick Easdale traces the birth of British estate agents.

Plenty More Lobsters In The Sea

With its fearsome claws and delicate flesh, the lobster is the king of British shellfish. Mike Warner heads to Cornwall to see how this precious crustacean is receiving a boost

Tentacle Spectacular

Nothing quite sums up the Mediterranean like octopus grilled until the tips are slightly charred, served with a plate of salty Greek chips

A Family Affair

Roderick Easdale explores the Jersey farms that have been handed down from parent to child for decades

Menagerie Manor

A chance visit to Jersey changed the life of Gerald Durrell and of countless wildlife species across the world, reveals Holly Kirkwood

Living National Treasure

There’s nothing better than seeing a nicely laid hedge,’ declares Tina Bath, who’s been laying hedges in somerset for 32 years.

Favourite Painting: Marcus Agius's

John McEwen comments on Irises

What's up, buttercup?

There’s far more to fields of golden-yellow buttercups than meets the eye

As History Intended

Two West Country gems have retained the purity of their centuries-old design, one overlooking the wooded valley of the Mells River, the other once owned by Glastonbury Abbey

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme

AT this time of year, the early-morning dog walk around the garden is slower than usual. Every few steps, I stop to rub the aromatic leaves of summer.

Dionysian dreams

MY early twenties redefined ‘idle’. Of the few exertions I undertook, a couple of autumnal trips to France and Switzerland to pick grapes stand out. The long, hard days were softened somewhat by the landscape, the camaraderie and the wine and chocolate given every two hours from 7.30am.

Life In A Cold Climate

The lives of the extraordinary Mitford sisters were forged by the Cotswolds of their youth. Flora Watkins makes a literary pilgrimage.

A Century Of Vision And Resolve

Untamed woodland was brilliantly transformed into a pioneering garden at Exbury, thanks to the vision of Lionel de Rothschild. Mark Griffiths discovers how his legacy is being continued.

Small Legs, Big Personality

Kate MacDougall gets the lowdown on dachshunds and discovers why their tiny stature doesn’t impinge on a ‘sausage’ dog’s zest for life.

Interiors - The Designer's Room

Bunny Turner has transformed a former accountant’s office into a family kitchen.