Home from Home: The Head Gardener’s Cottage, Audley End
Aimlessly lolling on what has to be the most grandiose stretch of the River Cam, a flute of Bolly in hand, I’m feeling decidedly smug… and perhaps, a little bit naughty. Up until now, Audley End’s...
View ArticleHayfever: A Hay Festival Retrospective, Part I
“Where’s the bowl??? I’m going to be sick!!! “He needs the bowl!” I called over my shoulder. “Here’s the bowl!” Barked a disembodied voice as my wife stuck it through, between the seats. I grabbed it...
View ArticleHayfever: A Hay Festival Retrospective, Part II
On Thursday, four days in, another sharp gear change – a panel discussion titled Compassion in Politics (which one of the panellists pointed out was an oxymoron.) I was attracted to it by the presence...
View ArticleIt’s a Bird’s Life at Sleepy Owl Treehouse
The fact I leave Sleepy Owl Treehouse with bags under my eyes is in no way a reflection of the tranquility that one finds during a stay at this boutique escape. No, this is simply the result of...
View ArticleA Murder Mystery on British Pullman
If King’s Cross’s 9 3/4 is London’s most famous platform, then Victoria’s no. 2 must surely be its second. It achieves something similar, if not identical; transportation, almost as if by magic, into...
View ArticleA First Class Fayre on GWR
There is no more exciting or romantic way to enjoy lunch or dinner than on a train. Planes, yachts, cruise ships – whatever. There’s something timelessly stylish about getting on board a locomotive,...
View ArticleWild at Heart at Gravetye Manor
I swear my breaths are longer here. As I inhale another theatrically large gulp of fine Sussex air, heavy in pollen and scented by log fires, it dawns on me that I’m trying to breathe it all in,...
View ArticleThe Sassenach Spirit: In Conversation with Sam Heughan
From Outlander to intrepid hiker to whisky distiller, Sarah Tucker meets a warrior spirit in actor and entrepreneur Sam Heughan… There is something of the poet adventurer in Sam Heughan, the actor best...
View ArticleSeason’s Greetings
To all our readers, we wish you the very best of the festive season, wherever, however and whomever you may be enjoying it with. And in the spirit of the holiday, we shall leave you with the wisdom of...
View ArticleNew Year Wishes
As we close out 2024, in anticipation of tonight – and the morning after – a few sage words from one W Somerset Maugham, “At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not...
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