Innholdsfortegnelse for 5-Apr-2023 i Country Life

WHEN Doddington and Rollo Community Roof Garden, a half-acre plot on top of a former car park amid a Battersea council estate, SW11, decided to open for Open Gardens Weekend last year, little did the volunteers know what effect it would have. Intrigued to hear about this pocket of green hiding between tower blocks, residential developer London Square, sponsor of last year’s Open Gardens event, funded a barbecue there and were so overwhelmed by the community spirit they witnessed that they are now using it as the inspiration for the London Square Community Garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show ( pictured)—with the components being donated to Doddington afterwards. ‘It’s really exciting,’ says Malissa Ritchie, chair of the Doddington Garden committee. ‘We hope it will encourage more people to…

Seasonal suggestions ON April 13, it will be 70 years since the publication of Casino Royale, the first novel in Ian Fleming’s seminal ‘James Bond’ series. There are plenty of ways to celebrate the milestone in the capital—a regular backdrop to the books and ensuing films. Start your day by marvelling at J. M. W. Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire inside the National Gallery (www.national gallery.org.uk), where Daniel Craig’s Bond is introduced to his new Quartermaster (Q), played by Ben Wishaw, in Skyfall (2012). The script is loosely based on the books You Only Live Twice (1964) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965). Come lunch, head to Rules (www.rules.co.uk), one of London’s oldest restaurants, where M, Q and Moneypenny meet in Spectre (2015). Immerse yourself in the drama…

KINDLY offering advice, a friend once expressed to me his view that the role of a priest or any minister in Holy Orders is to ensure the sacraments are celebrated with due solemnity, that sound doctrine is maintained and the scriptures expounded and interpreted correctly. It’s a bit like Noël Coward explaining how to act on stage: simply say your lines and don’t bump into the furniture. In short, my friend’s advice amounts to: get it right. There are lines to say and don’t fall down the pulpit steps. However, at this time of year, my friend’s words always come back to me because the Easter narrative, as told in the Gospels, is actually a patchwork of mistakes, a story about getting it wrong over and over again. Mary Magdalene…

Letter of the week The art of asking nicely IN the early 1970s, my husband managed a field that was sown to turf to sell for lawns. As it was almost ready to be cut, mole hills started to appear (‘Holey moley!’, March 22). I recalled an old wives’ tale I had heard as a child from my Irish grandmother—sit on the edge of the field at dusk and talk to the moles nicely and quietly, asking them to move to another field. My husband laughed at this idea and was very sceptical, but, before he got the traps out, he said I could have a go. Thus, I spent one evening talking to the moles. I am pleased to say that no more mole hills appeared and…

All about Easter 1 From which opera does the Easter Hymn come? 2 Of which country is Easter Island a territory? 3 In which year was the Good Friday Agreement signed? 4 How many marzipan balls should there be on a Simnel cake? 5 In which Shakespeare play was Benvolio taunted for wearing his new doublet before Easter? 6 In which country did the Easter Rising of 1916 take place? 7 Who wrote the music for the 1948 film Easter Parade? 8 In which US state is the town of Easter? 9 In which English county is the village of Good Easter? 10 The aria I know that my Redeemer liveth is from which oratorio? Spring is sprung 1 Who wrote the seminal book Silent Spring in 1962? 2 Where…

Asparagus and prawn pasta with saffron cream and pistachio pangrattato Method ▸ Pour a few tablespoons of boiled water over the saffron and leave to infuse in a small bowl. ▸ Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling water until al dente, then drain and set aside. Pour the white wine into the same pan and heat until reduced by two-thirds. Once reduced, add the butter a tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously, until it’s all melted and the sauce is smooth. Pour in the saffron water, mix again, then pour in the cream and whisk together. Return the pasta to the pan and place a lid on it to keep it warm. ▸ Cut the asparagus into bite-size pieces and toss with olive oil. Heat for…

Rus in urbe NATURAL ENGLAND is seeking to expand the Surrey Hills AONB into London. If Farthing Downs (above) in Coulsdon, south London, is included inside the protected perimeter, it will be the first time that any AONB has sought to conserve any part of the capital. The change will not alter who owns the land, but it might mean tougher planning laws and more protection for the landscape. The extension is one of more than 10 boundary proposals across the whole Surrey Hills AONB and could mark the first time that the boundaries have changed since they were first put in place in 1958. A statutory and public consultation is open for a further 10 weeks (www.gov.uk/government/news/natural-england-seeks-views-on-extending-surrey-conservation-area). Plastic fantastic THIS week, on April 7, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will…

AGROMENES has a great deal of time for Natural England’s chairman, Tony Juniper. Mr Juniper has a long history of measured support for the environment, his books show real scholarship and he has shown courage and resolve in handling the Government’s pretty feeble approach to biodiversity. However, in a recent spat with Tim Bonner, the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, he is wrong and Mr Bonner is right. The issue revolves around the antagonistic reference by Mr Juniper about landowners and farmers who breed non-native pheasants for their shoots. Speaking to a Commons Select Committee recently, he was not questioning shooting or the methods of rearing game. Instead, he was suggesting simply that non-native species were intrinsically unacceptable —a view that would cause ructions if applied to humans. In…

WHY not ask me?’ enquired Sir Edwin Lutyens, when Father Martin D’Arcy needed an architect for Campion Hall in Oxford. It was 1934 and Lutyens was then in his mid sixties, knighted and the most famous architect in the country, whose oeuvre ran to some 550 buildings. ‘But, Ned,’ D’Arcy replied, ‘you have the reputation of being most appallingly expensive.’ Lutyens assured him that his fees would be minimal and that he would keep an eye on the cost. He thus entered the esoteric, socially glamorous world of Jesuit Oxford, where architectural austerity would be combined with high art to form a haunt for, among others, Evelyn Waugh. Lutyens told Sir John Rothenstein that he considered Campion Hall his best building. Although Oxford’s doors had been open to men of…

ROCK hard, riddled with woodworm and munched by mice, it can’t have looked like the most appetising of hot cross buns. Yet, 23 years ago, Bill Foster—a baker from Tavistock, Devon—bought the stale pastry for a Guinness World Record-setting £155. It might sound rather barmy, except that the bun was an antique. It had been baked in Stepney, London, in 1829 and superstition had ensured it would survive to go under the hammer at Birmingham’s NEC nearly two centuries later: it was found tucked under a house’s rafters, where it had been stashed to bring good luck. Perhaps it’s because of their association with Easter or because they don’t go mouldy as quickly as bread does, but hot cross buns have long been seen as miraculous. Their very origin is…

BRITAIN ends in Harrington Gardens. Although white stucco behemoths and choleric Londonbrick buildings make a perfunctory appearance, there’s an air of Northern Europe to this South Kensington Street—a triumph of straight, scroll and stepped gables that could have come straight from Bruges or Lübeck. Borrowing designs from the early-Renaissance buildings of Flanders, Holland and Germany was the inspired idea of architects Ernest George and Harold Peto, who collaborated to create this slice of Kensington & Chelsea. Of the two, Peto would later become more celebrated, but, when Harrington Gardens was built, George was the more experienced. The son and grandson of ironmongers, he had discovered an interest in architecture at an early age—‘I… plotted to scale the school house and grounds, and persuaded my parents I should like to become…

Quiz of the week 1) Which Warwickshire town has Royal status? 2) What’s the proper name for a squirrel’s ‘nest’? 3) How many wings do honeybees have? 4) Who composed the 40-part motet Spem in Alium in the 16th century? 5) Which 12th-century heiress was wife to two kings, mother of two more and ended her days in France as a nun? Word of the week Docibility (noun) Aptness for being taught 100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE April 7, 1923 TO say that that Mr. Augustus John painted his portrait of Mme. Suggia ‘by ear’ is only an extravagant way of stating a truth, because the picture is really a collaboration between two great artists. Everybody who has heard Mme. Suggia play must have observed two things,…

ATHENA recently had the opportunity of visiting the most talked-about Arts event of the moment: the Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. With two more months to run, the museum website describes tickets as ‘definitively sold out’. Small surprise, therefore, that she encountered long queues to get into this relatively small show and a palpable sense of excitement among waiting visitors. All the enthusiasm made her wonder afresh what makes Vermeer—a Dutch artist who produced a mere 37 known works before his death at the age of 43 in 1675—so compelling to a contemporary audience? The exhibition comprises 28 of his paintings, the largest number we may ever see together in one place. Bringing together so much of Vermeer’s known oeuvre highlights the striking fact that only two exterior…

MILESTONES are like hailstones: their arrival comes as a surprise, but they melt away quickly. I’ve now lived in England twice as long as I lived in the land of my birth. I’m the wife of a man born in Wales, the mother of a son born in the Hammersmith Hospital and a British passport is nestled in my sock drawer. I think I sound as English as Dame Judi Dench, but I rarely meet a stranger who doesn’t ask ‘where are you from?’ First-time visitors to the garden look surprised when they see a row of wooden rocking chairs spread across the fictional veranda. They think it’s exotic to sit and rock and gaze at the sheep in the meadow. The tornado feels personal, close to home, but…

MY culinary abilities are limited to the poaching of an egg, but nothing can test the worthiness of a shop-bought egg’s claim of freshness better than poaching and most fail miserably under such an exam. By contrast, a home-laid egg’s yolk disappears into the white as if it were chiffon silk with Michelinstar superiority. As the days lengthen, my dear hens start to lay more willingly, after a few months of well-earned time off. Only the youngest debutante pullets, having been bought last autumn at the age of point of lay, have been laying over the winter, because, in hens, it is both length of daylight and age that affects egg numbers. The older chickens get, the fewer eggs they lay, but, on the plus side, the eggs do become…

IN a jar to the side of my desk sit a number of upturned items: a 6H pencil from the table at which my father wrote that I use for sketching garden plans, a pen for writing plant labels and a fork that’s more practical than pretty. This is the fork—with its coarse tines—to which I turn for a month or two each summer to strip the blackcurrants from each plant when its fruit have swelled and pulled the limbs into weeping contortions that threaten but never quite snap the branches. That the plants bend so much tells you how productive blackcurrants are: now they are established, we get about 9lb of juicy fruit per bush, repaying the cost of the plant many times over every year. Not only…

ON June 5, 1883, the first Express d’Orient chugged out of Paris in a ceremonial billow of steam, destined for Vienna, via Munich, and forever altering trans-European train travel. By October of the same year, the route was extended to Giurgiu in Romania, with guests whisked across the Danube to Ruse, Bulgaria, and onto another train bound for Varna on Bulgaria’s east coast. The final journey to Istanbul, then still commonly referred to in the West as Constantinople, was completed by ferry. By June 1889, it was possible to traverse Continental Europe, from Paris in the north-west to Constantinople in the south-east, in one fell swoop. Sirkeci railway station served as the locomotive’s terminus in the latter—a pink-tinged Orientalist confection designed by Prussian architect August Jasmund in the late 19th…

I HAD a wonderful week of high-stake bridge at Carol and Charlie Skinner’s delightful villa in Paxos late last summer. Here was one memorable Chicago. Deal One. I pick up xxxx K10 53 xxxxx. Complaining about bad cards is never acceptable, so I won’t go there. On my right, Lord Oaksey opens a Weak 2 . On my left, Jonathan Davis responds 2NT (strong ask); on my right, Oaksey bids 3 (minimum) and, after a trance (Mr Davis is a thoughtful player), pass. You don’t fancy your chances of defeating 3 and try the desperation lead of the King of Hearts. I kid you not, this contract went six down, including you scoring two Heart ruffs with your three and five of Diamonds. +300. Deal Two. The opponents are passed…

A prize of £25 in book tokens will be awarded for the first correct solution opened. Solutions must reach Crossword No 4774, Country Life, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6JR, by Tuesday, April 11. UK entrants only ACROSS 1 Heavy tool hoaxer used to secure shelf (12)9 Unbiased mischief-maker, one extremely analytical about paintings (9)10 It’s mostly the boss’s mistake (5)11 Dreadful setting for good lament (5)12 Licensed churchgoer, top person around Scottish port (3,6)14 Practical awareness regarding girl’s marks (7)16 Seethe endlessly about old SW port (7)17 Blot made by king in popular place (7)18 Important meetings of males in formal wear (7)19 Cynical woman’s returning, in charge of boy (9)21 Hygienic group of families without energy (5)22 Source of inspiration provided by lecturer at Oxford (5)24 Honours…

EASTER in Florence. I have found another ancient, cobbled road, hidden by equally ancient stone walls, overgrown, covered in moss and barely negotiable on foot, that snakes from behind Santa Margherita a Montìci out into open countryside—a countryside that, over the past few days, has finally, for we have endured a long, wet, grey winter, burst into colour. A profusion of greens—emerald, olive, juniper, pear and pine—provides a lush background to wildflowers. Here a patch of early red poppies, there a carpet of yellow daisies, everywhere pink cherry blossom. The air is sweet and invigorating, the earth warm and comforting. We have been breakfasting, lunching and even dining on our terrace. What could be more perfect? Well, I’ll tell you: a complete and utter absence of mosquitoes. I have spent,…