Innholdsfortegnelse for October 8, 2025 i Country Life

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk SO often in the past, craft has been defined not by what it is, but what it isn’t. To William Morris, it wasn’t the product of the Industrial Revolution. Half a century later, Bernard Leach’s studio pottery wasn’t what his followers referred to, sniffily, as ‘fine art pots’ that were guilty of being driven by aesthetics rather than function. When the Contemporary Applied Arts Gallery opened in 1948 in London, its handmade exhibits weren’t the cheap and cheerful design that flourished in the post-war period. Today, craft is defined by the fact that it is not destined for landfill within a few years (Athena, October 1). What is craft, in the age of the production line,…

Time to plant an olive grove? BRITISH wine is a fickle business. One day, you’re winning industry awards and leaving Champagne in the dust (Stuff & nonsense, September 24). The next, you’re backing out of a £32 million winery because you’ve overestimated demand (Barometer, October 1). Any business at the mercy of British weather will relate to the highs and lows that follow a good or bad year, but this volatility belies an overarching trend. If 2024 was a poor outing for the English grape, the 2025 harvest has been a triumph. Climate modelling suggests this is more than swings and roundabouts. With reliably warmer summers projected for the coming decades, we are witnessing a slow but stubborn arc of progress. Those of us who didn’t plant a vineyard 20…

West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, part II The seat of Sir Edward Dashwood, Bt A property of the National Trust SIR FRANCIS DASHWOOD was not quite 16 when he entered into his inheritance in 1724. His father and namesake, a London merchant, had built up a considerable fortune with four marriages. Dashwood was born to the second union, which took place in 1705, to Mary Fane, a daughter of the 4th Earl of Westmoreland (later Westmorland). Having already been knighted for his interests in the City of London, the elder Sir Francis further secured a baronetcy in 1707—which, following the Act of Union, made him the premier baronet of Great Britain—and a parliamentary seat in 1708. It was probably these advances that encouraged him to set up as a country gentleman.…

IN the V&A Museum archives is a pen, ink and watercolour, which the institution acquired in 1986. The description reads: ‘Design for a library, a cluttered interior, filled with assorted sofas, chairs, occasional tables and lamps. Books and pictures hung closely together on the far right wall.’ The artist was Nicky Haslam, who has long been one of Britain’s most sought-after and quotable interior designers. The image depicts his signature look of elegant, slightly theatrical interiors, filled with furniture from various eras tied together with discreet pattern and the occasional whimsical flourish. At Eton, Mr Haslam was taught art by Wilfrid Blunt, brother of the Soviet spy Anthony, and won prizes for painting and drawing, but he notes that he is no expert. Instead, it seems that he has developed…

Sims Hilditch: Beautifully British Interiors Giles Kime and Emma Sims-Hilditch (Rizzoli, £45) SINCE she began her business making curtains at her kitchen table, Emma Sims-Hilditch has established a reputation for reinventing country houses for life in the 21st century. To achieve this, she has built a 40-person, multi-disciplinary team based in a Grade II-listed former pub, five minutes from Bath, near some of her most memorable projects in the Cotswolds. As this book eloquently demonstrates, the projects remain true to the practice’s DNA, whether reinventing a historic London townhouse or a new country home in Scotland built on a site adjacent to a historic garden. This second book on Mrs Sims-Hilditch by COUNTRY LIFE’s Giles Kime focuses on how her team cleverly and sensitively transforms properties—regardless of their age—to meet…

The private Worcestershire garden of John Massey ANYONE can create a pretty garden, full of flowers and colour, in spring and summer. It’s much more difficult to make a really satisfying display in autumn and winter, but the best of all gardens are those that are wonderful all through the year. You have to be a truly knowledgeable plantsman to create a thing of beauty that never ceases to bring delight—not only to yourself, but to critical visitors at every season. That is precisely what John Massey, VMH, nurseryman, plant breeder and multiple Chelsea Gold medallist has achieved in his own garden, next to his famous Ashwood Nurseries near Kidderminster in Worcestershire. ‘John’s Garden’ is one of the finest private gardens in the UK and, many would say, the best…

PASTA alla carbonara is from Rome,’ growls Andreas Viestad in his delightful 2023 book, Dinner in Rome: A History of the World in One Meal, ‘and it should contain guanciale, eggs, pasta and pecorino. If you’re lacking any of this,’ he goes on, ‘it is not pasta alla carbonara. If you’ve added something, it is not pasta alla carbonara either.’ Viestad may be a Norwegian by birth, but when it comes to this particular plate of pasta, he’s Roman to his very core. Because this is one regional Italian classic that manages to both soothe and inflame. Made properly, it’s comfort food clad in Brioni blouson, a magical emulsion of egg yolk, pasta water and pecorino clinging concupiscently to each glossy strand of pasta. Any excess of Lucullan lavishness is…

Buzz off I AM writing in response to Mr Waddington’s correspondence concerning hornets in his mint (Letters, September 17). I have also seen hornets patrolling the mint patch. Unfortunately, they hunt bees, sting their heads and carry them away. Alarmed at the rate at which bees were being killed, I have on occasion stood guard over the mint patch armed with an electrified insect bat to zap the incoming hornets. Tim Well, Warwickshire The wisdom of ages PERRY pear trees (Town & Country Notebook, September 17) are true marvels; there are examples here in Herefordshire that are said to have been planted to mark the coronation of Queen Anne at the beginning of the 18th century. Due to their great age and size, these venerable specimens make exceptional ‘carbon sinks’,…

A PERSON almost no one has ever heard of, but that was the way he wanted it,’ is how the Hon Vincent Weir was described this year on the 50th anniversary of the Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT), an often unsung, but extremely effective conservation charity. Weir (1935–2014), grandson of shipping magnate 1st Baron Inverforth, was both wealthy and philanthropic, choosing to spend his fortune quietly underwriting wildlife conservation projects. When a schoolboy at Malvern College in Worcestershire, he was struck by a painting by Sir Peter Scott of mallards; as Scott’s did, Weir’s interest in wildlife began with shooting and watching wildfowl. He next became passionate about otters, initiating an expensive survey of 11,000 sites, establishing a rehabilitation centre for them, funding a mass distribution of free net guards to…

THE interior designer Chester Jones is known for conjuring rooms that feel both classic and modern by deftly integrating furniture, art and textiles of different eras and genres. Two tenets underpin his approach; one is that spaces shouldn’t reflect a strong imprint of the designer. ‘A sense of the individual identity is highest on my list of priorities,’ he says, ‘good interior design is simply the background.’ The other is that interiors should evolve; he believes that static interiors date too quickly. ‘Everything changes—the values held firm at one point in our lives are later questioned and new ideas take hold. Likewise, the things we collect should create a narrative about us and change as new interests develop.’ ‘A sense of the individual is highest on my priorities list’ As…

CRAFTED’, ‘sustainable’, and ‘authentic’ are words in the copywriter’s lexicon that can mean pretty much anything they want them to. It seems that many things can be crafted now, not only treasured objects, but also coffee, beer and bread. They can also be ‘locally sourced’ and made somewhere ‘authentic’ and possibly even ‘storied’. The problem with the new ubiquity of the word ‘craft’ is that it makes it sound effortless. The reality is that it’s exceptionally hard, as anything is that requires time, dedication, aptitude and thousands of hours of training. John Ruskin observed that fine art is a process that involves ‘hand, the head, and the heart’. David Hockney added the eye to the mix. There’s no doubt that the slow creep of technology has loosened the ties between…

SOMETIMES, it is difficult to remember how we functioned before the internet took over the way we garden. Google the name of a plant today and, 10 seconds later, you know how to grow it and where to buy it. If you do not know its name? Google a picture and up comes its name in both Latin and English. Life for gardeners today is much easier than it used to be. I was interested in gardening from a very early age. My pocket money was spent on seeds from Woolworths and the cash that decent uncles sent me for my birthday was splurged on tulip and daffodil bulbs. My parents and grandparents were shrub-gardeners—we had herbaceous borders, an orchard and a kitchen garden from which the gardeners seldom emerged—but…

Waterloo Bridge and London River: Investigations and Reflections Andrew Saint (Lund Humphries, £29.99) THIS will be my last book’ is the bald opening sentence of the introduction to this remarkable history of Waterloo Bridge. Sadly, the prophecy has proved to be true; Andrew Saint, one of the outstanding architectural historians of his generation and former general editor of the Survey of London, died three months ago on July 16. The volume itself is a reminder of why he will be missed so much in the world of architectural history. Not only is it beautifully written and illustrated, but wide ranging and full of unexpected connections, insights and anecdotes. It is also remarkably concise. Told within its well-illustrated pages is the outline story of how the River Thames and the bridges…

THE older I get, the more I find myself misremembering novels I’ve read. Even the intricacies of my own books fade into the ether. At literary festivals, people press me on details: ‘What did you mean by that?’ ‘How could you possibly think this?’ Frequently, I have to confess I have no idea what they’re talking about. Some weeks ago, I found myself standing outside the gates of a large house owned by one of the richest men in Britain. It’s in Wiltshire, set among a few thousand acres, and the billionaire, who bought it a couple of years back, is beautifying it hard. He paid a little over £80 million and has reportedly spent at least twice that on doing everything from creating a lake to building a new…

Quiz of the week 1) Which English city has more miles of canal than Venice? 2) What vegetable is believed to ward off vampires if worn, hung in windows or rubbed on keyholes? 3) Which successful racehorse mysteriously disappeared from Ballymany Stud, Co Kildare, in 1983? 4) Name the composer responsible for the 1938 Alexander Nevsky film score 5) Two stone dogs support the bust of John Christie at Glyndebourne, East Sussex. Name the breed 1) Birmingham 2) Garlic (‘Allium sativum’) 3) Shergar 4) Sergei Prokofiev 5) Pug. Riddle me this: An egg Riddle me this What do you break before you use it? Time to buy On this day… October 8, 1908 Kenneth Grahame’s children’s classic, The Wind in the Willows, was first published by Methuen in London. The…

DEEP in the nature of being British is our commitment to volunteering. There really is no other nation in which this plays so important a part in national life. From the RSPB to CAFOD and Marie Curie to The Wildlife Trusts, we rely on the many hours of work and the huge sums of money raised by charities. Without them, our society would be very much the poorer. Yet, the very success of volunteering poses real challenges. As they grow, charities, as does any organisation, have to learn how to go national and yet stay local. They are very often not helped by professional advisers, who prefer bureaucratic neatness to the vibrancy of what are often untidy organisations. These experts promise that ‘modernising’ the system will bring financial and operational…

Past participants ROGER TEMPEST holds open a densely written genealogy that traces the history of his family, owners of Broughton since the Middle Ages, back through 32 generations to 1097. ‘The continuity is astonishing and improbable,’ he muses. ‘How have we survived?’ This remarkable volume was compiled in 1889 by his great-grandmother Eleanor Blanche Tempest, whose silver-framed photograph stands on the desk. The text is written in a small, but immaculate hand on vellum with names picked out and is variously illustrated with hand-drawn illustrations, including coats of arms, seals and facsimiles of signatures. Another copy of the manuscript was presented to the British Library, where it remains. ‘This document is a window into the past,’ he continues. ‘It reveals what my ancestors lived through and how adaptable and forward…

Pick of the crop Ice buckets Pick of the crop Woven armchairs Bold and beautiful Join talented artist Adam Ellis in conversation with COUNTRY LIFE’s Giles Kime as they discuss his distinctive designs and fearless approach to colour, scale and subject matter. Discover how Mr Ellis and his studio create bespoke wall coverings, limited-edition prints and interior installations and enjoy insights into his projects—from Annabel’s to Brown’s Hotel, the Ivy Brasseries, private homes and more. Hear about his belief in the power of bold and enchanting art to transform a space, the creative process, current trends and behind the scenes magic. The event takes place on October 14, 4pm–5pm, at KYN Hurlingham, No 28, Daisy Lane, London SW6. Entrance is free, but email kynhurlingham@kyn.co.uk to secure a place, as space…

I WOULDN’T call it glamorous work, but it is strangely satisfying,’ confesses zoologist Chris Weston, as he picks up a giant pipette—adapted from a modified turkey baster—and leans over a bubbling glass tank. Inside, hundreds of tiny, translucent specks are drifting around in the water. At first glance, they look like plankton, roughly the size of fennel seeds; but, on closer inspection, I realise each one is actually a tiny lobster, complete with claws, legs and miniature twitching tail. ‘These are our Stage Fours,’ Mr Weston points out, before sucking one up into his over-sized pipette and decanting it from the tank into a celled release tray. ‘They’re about three to four weeks old by now, which is when they start to look like lobsters. Unfortunately, this is also when…

UNLIKE the Greeks and Phoenicians, those great seafaring nations of the ancient eastern Mediterranean, the Egyptians were landlubbers. There is no evidence that they knew what lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules, still less that they had heard of the large islands off the north coast of France. That ignorance was almost certainly mutual until Britain and Egypt both fell under the sway of Rome. In the empire, cultural links were made across vast distances and, because the Romans readily absorbed foreign cults into their own religious repertoire, there were temples to Egyptian gods, notably Isis, in Britain. Her cult explains the discovery in the Thames in the early 19th century of a remarkable 1st or 2nd century AD silver sculpture of Horus, her son by Osiris. Known to the…

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