Innholdsfortegnelse for 25-Jan-2023 i Country Life

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk AMID the dispiriting news last week—that teachers are to go on strike, that the tragedy of Ukraine is relentless, that heating prices surge as it freezes outside and so on—came the pronouncement from the chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency that a cake lying temptingly on a shelf in an office is akin to passive smoking. Apart from the fact that this analogy doesn’t really work—one doesn’t normally inhale cake, plus you can say no to it—she was trying to make a serious point about obesity, its appalling toll on public health and its damaging connection with junk-food advertising. Cake wasn’t the best example to choose, however. Chips limp with oil, fizzy drinks, sweets, fast foods…

Letter of the week What’s in a name I WAS interested to read your piece on the amusingly named gritter lorries of Scotland (Town & Country, January 11), but hasten to assure you that puns are also found south of Gretna. Here at the northern edge of the Cheshire plain, I have seen, since Christmas, trucks revelling in the names of Gritter Thunberg and Spreddie Flintoff. Gavin R. Hall, Cheshire The writer of the letter of the week will win a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne Everything but the kitchen sink WHEN the late-December issue finally arrived on January 10, I found myself despairing again at the concept of ‘the live-in kitchen’. Key trends for 2023 include the ‘death of the sitting room’ (Interiors, December…

OUR friends the trees have an unremarkable life, or so it seems to us. They come into leaf, their fruit drops, or is gorged on by birds and the winds of autumn strip them of their dressing to leave them as the cold, bare sentinels of winter. However, if we were to stand, tree-like ourselves, in a British copse and watch a single oak tree for an entire 24 hours—say when spring hatches out of winter—what would we see? 6.17am First light. The male mistle thrush flies to the top of the oak dome and sings: Pavarotti in feathers, the valley his auditorium. On a branch just below, the thrush is joined by the great tit, who similarly likes a high post to ‘ring his bell’. The mistle thrush breeds…

DESIGNING, producing and manufacturing items of clothing with minimal environmental impact is not always easy. Even for a brand as established as Purdey—which was initially founded, as a bespoke gun and riflemaker, in 1814 and began making timeless garments and accessories in the early 1970s—endeavouring to be as wholly British and sustainable as possible can be expensive and occasionally frustrating, especially when considering that its sporting clothing not only needs to look great, but has to deliver a host of technical abilities, too. However, it is a challenge worth embracing—and one that involves a long chain of people and skills running the length of the country: from sheep farmers and wool producers, to spinners, heritage mills and specialist factories. One prime example of all this effort is the Shetland field…

TWO pieces of news emerged last week that have relevance to the art market, the one direct and the other peripheral. The first was the announcement that Masterpiece, London’s principal summer fair, is not to take place this year and its future is under consideration. Masterpiece was launched in 2010 as a stylish successor to the long-running Grosvenor House art and antiques fairs and it offered a new mix as ‘The International Fair for Luxury Antiques in London’. There would be no hierarchical divisions between the best in any category, whether art or design. The organisers included dealers and, crucially, Stabilo, the stand-building company that made its reputation with designing TEFAF Maastricht, which guaranteed a high-gloss swagger to the new event, although the inclusion of luxury cars, pleasure boats,…

THE biennial European Team Championships is the crucial qualifier for the prestigious World Championships and the chance to win the Bermuda Bowl, the pinnacle achievement of our game. For the 2022 European Team Championships, England opted to have a trial, with the top three places automatically qualifying for the England Open team. In the event, this meant that a young, relatively inexperienced sextet flew out to Funchal, Madeira. The youngest player on the England Open Team was Ben Norton, aged 25. Our first deal from England vs Spain highlights why he is probably the finest young player in the country today. Mr Norton, South, won West’s normal, but unfortunate, King of Spades lead with the Ace. His plan was to drop dummy’s singleton Club on his fourth Diamond (having drawn…

IN a nation where traditional political loyalties have become very weak, our political leaders seem increasingly out of touch when they argue about the things on which they fundamentally agree. That’s why the national mood was caught when Keir Starmer addressed the negotiations with the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol. He announced in advance that he would support a deal brokered by Rishi Sunak. This is support the Prime Minister may well need in order to face off those who want no deal at all (the look-back-in-anger Brexiteers and the Protestant-ultras). For the farming community in Ireland, a deal is vital because agriculture and food processing is a cross-border activity and its most important export. The DUP fears an agreement because it would then lose its excuse for refusing…

The Duke of Buccleuch is a trustee of the Royal Collection Trust and president of the Georgian Group. The Buccleuch art collection includes works by Thomas Gainsborough, Anthony van Dyck and Claude Lorrain I love this engagingly beautiful antidote to dark, damp winter nights, with its sunlit glare from the chalk cliffs, which frame a view as if to infinity over the Baltic. I love its mystery. Two spectators, backs turned, risk their lives on the precipice edge in unexplained, but animated search, as their companion, arms crossed, absorbs the flickering, ephemeral tones of ocean merging into sky and two tiny, distant sailboats, stands motionless, remote. Is he, to quote a contemporary Romantic poet, “feeling himself into Nature”, grappling with the sense of the unfathomable and the spiritual that lies…

BY today’s way of thinking, showing no fear of humans ought to be an endearing, if rare quality among wild species. Not so in the past. During the breeding season, if a gannet’s nest site could be reached, the young of our largest seabird was easily seized and killed. This naive trust led Carl Linnaeus to classify its genus as Morus, ancient Greek for ‘stupid’. However, the Swedish taxonomist redeemed himself somewhat with the full 1758 classification Morus bassanus, acknowledging that Bass Rock, the steep-sided volcanic lump lying a little more than a mile offshore in the Firth of Forth, was home to the world’s largest gannet colony. It still is. Gannets were first recorded there in 1493. The manner of the gannet’s hunting is one of Nature’s marvels The…

Coats of many colours My prayers for colour have been answered in the form of these joyful coats from Anor Living, whose elegant and gently eccentric designs are made by artisans in Uzbekistan. Wear to a spring wedding, with jeans or over your pyjamas—and feel happier. The Ikat dresses and cushions are tempting too. Handwoven silk ikat shawl coat, Shahlo Blue-Eyed Beauty, £540, Anor Living (www.anorliving.com) Animal magnetism Van Cleef & Arpels has added some adorable new creatures to its Lucky Animals collection. Teddy Bear, Fox, Dachshund, Bichon Frisé and Frog all use Van Cleef’s clever combination of ornamental stones and mother of pearl, bordered by the maison’s celebrated golden beads. From £6,400 (www.vancleefarpels.com) Zip it Some might recognise the chiselled jaw of Nick…

A prize of £25 in book tokens will be awarded for the first correct solution opened. Solutions must reach Crossword No 4764, Country Life, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6JR, by Tuesday, January 31. UK entrants only ACROSS 6 Deputy finally assuming command? The bank may arrange it (8,5) 8 Relaxed as head of university in California (6) 9 Most stylish market in south is French (8) 10 Porter, possibly, originally at large edifice (3) 11 Energy of force invading English stronghold (6) 12 Old seabird by a lake outside (8) 14 Part of meal originally served in wilderness (7) 16 Embarrassing outburst by railway: it’s shown on stage (7) 20 Good woman in fashionable town initially lacking knowledge (8) 22 Arrival of commander with Chinese porcelain (6) 24…

Quiz of the week 1) Which is Britain’s largest cathedral? 2) What’s a name for a male otter? 3) Victoria was known as the grandmother of Europe, but how many grandchildren did she have? 4) After Great Britain and Ireland, which is the largest island in the British Isles? 5) Which two great architects worked together in the 19th century to remodel the Houses of Parliament? Word of the week Dissight (noun) Eyesore 100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE January 27, 1923 IT is difficult to say whether the flower year begins in December or in January, so we are thankful for the long season of blossoming of the Christmas roses (Helleborus niger). The always-welcome yellow winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) is a true January flower and a most…

THE Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, opened its doors to the public just over 25 years ago, in October 1997. Since then, the museum’s signature building of limestone, titanium and glass, by Frank Gehry, has become an internationally recognised symbol of the city. It also continues to attract large numbers of people; last year, it received more than 1¼ million visitors. Athena has nothing but praise for what the Guggenheim at Bilbao has achieved, but, for present purposes, she is less interested in the museum itself than in the myth it created. Not only in Europe, but across the world, local and national governments have sought to re-create what has been dubbed the ‘Bilbao effect’. Put simply, they have been persuaded to invest in culture and striking new architecture in…

Simple and everyday store-cupboard staples these may be, but PG Tips and HP Sauce are increasingly hard to find in Mallorca now—no doubt due to Brexit. I love a good cuppa with a full English at the weekend, so, every time I’m back in England, I stock up on these two essentials and bring them back with me. I spend most of my working week designing homeware products and working on interior-design commissions—everything from hotels to cocktail bars. I love my job, but my other passions are gardening and painting. I try to paint at least once or twice a week and am slowly, but surely building up a nice collection of large canvases. Painting for me is like meditation. It takes me away from the everyday and enables…

Endives, chorizo and pasta gratin Method ➤ Preheat your oven to 180˚C Fan/200˚C/350˚F/Gas mark 4 ➤ Add a splash of olive oil to a large, ovenproof frying pan or shallow casserole dish. Turn up the heat and add the rosemary sprigs, halved endives—cut side down—and the chorizo. Cook until the chorizo is crisp and the endives are charring. Turn the endives over if they begin to char too heavily. Remove the rosemary from the pan and add the cooked pasta shells, nestling them all around the endives. Remove from the heat. ➤ Whisk together the grated garlic, chicken stock and double cream in a large jug and season well. Pour this over the endives and pasta. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and gruyère and bake for 30 minutes, by which…

THE otter population on our local river, the Beauly, seems to be getting healthier by the year. Fish heads appear regularly on the riverbank —not, perhaps, such a welcome sight to fishermen in these days of salmon famine—and, for the first time I can remember, two otters have been found dead on the road at the bottom of our fields. When we spot roadkill badgers, we call Kate, our local sporran couturier, who fashions their heads into something fine and fearsome that will allow a true Scotsman in a kilt to smuggle his dingle-dangle into polite society. We tried her with one of the otters, but her answer was not to touch it with a pig sticker. Both badgers and otters are protected animals, but, for reasons that are obscure,…