Innholdsfortegnelse for December 10/17, 2025 i Country Life

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk MY first thought when someone says ‘Christmas’ is almost bizarrely specific. It is of the smell, then sight, then taste of the mincemeat that would bubble out of the sides of my mother’s mince pies and become a sort of caramelised goo. We used to put the lids on as children and, little hands being what they are, the pastry was almost always mashed on with gaps, through which the filling would escape. I suspect that if I say ‘Christmas’ to you, a similarly strange or specific mental evocation of that time will enter your mind. Perhaps your first memory will be of a particular tree decoration from childhood or the taste of your grandmother’s bread…

The imagination muscle WOULD you move to Dubai?’ It’s a question I’ve been asked countless times since the Budget last month. Returning the question has prompted many yeses, with people citing warmer climes, lower taxes and the city’s entrepreneurial mindset. That same mindset can be fostered here. Britain is a cradle of imagination and lateral thinking: it is here that Mary Shelley invented science fiction, Charles Darwin came up with evolution and Thomas Saint created the world’s first patented sewing machine. Why, then, does it seem as if we’re falling behind? It could be that we’re looking for answers in the wrong places. I, for one, would urge us to look to the country. Take Hardy or Wordsworth, whose minds were altered by the beauty of Dorset and the Lake…

The Cathedral Church of St Peter, Exeter, Devon, part I NEARLY 1,000 years ago, in 1050, a priest of the Chapel Royal called Leofric was installed as the first Bishop of Exeter. Little is securely known about his background beyond the fact that he was Brytonicus—British—and probably born in Cornwall. Leofric was educated in Lotharingia and in uncertain circumstances became a chaplain to the future English king, Edward the Confessor, then living in exile in Normandy. When Edward returned to England and ascended to the throne in 1043, he used the institutions of the church as a means of imposing control on the kingdom. Leofric was a beneficiary of this policy and Exeter Cathedral one of its products. Leofric’s new cathedral replaced two predecessors—in Crediton, Devon, and St Germans, Cornwall—and…

The nurseryman GIVE someone a hellebore for Christmas and you are offering both hope and consolation through the dark days of winter. ‘Hellebores are one of the first intimations of spring,’ says renowned plantsman John Massey. ‘They will carry on all the way through to March.’ Mr Massey’s hellebore garden hybrids have been bred over 35 years at his Ashwood Nurseries near Kinver in the West Midlands and are known as simply the best in the world. ‘They come in every colour apart from true blue,’ he explains. Shouldn’t one give the white, so-called Christmas rose? ‘That’s Helleborus niger and is possibly the most difficult to grow outside,’ he warns. ‘Modern varieties have been forced to flower early and tend to be grown as a throw-away plant just for Christmas.’…

1. Long-haired dachshund x Brunello Cucinelli Short of leg, but long of silken coat and fiery attitude, the dachshund is the tenacious tiranno of the canine world. Nothing says ‘pick me’ quite like Italian cashmere and a spirited little yap. 2. Airedale x Ralph Lauren A terrier of high courage with a splendid nose, the wholesome and athletic Airedale makes for a straightforward sporting companion and a classic addition to the Ivy League aesthetic. 3. Beagle x Louis Vuitton Displaying dogged determination when in pursuit of a scented quarry, the beagle is prone to roaming—the perfect companion for intrepid travellers with or without a monogrammed trunk. 4. Afghan hound x Chloé Elegant lines, a refined nose and a tremendous flowing coat (hello, Chemena Kamali), the Afghan hound is pure bohemian…

IN the comparative austerity of a 1960s childhood, the electric thrill of Christmas was switched on with the lights in London’s Regent Street and the Norwegian tree in Trafalgar Square. As the day came nearer, our house—a then-typical, battered London Georgian terrace house of stairs, lino and gas fires—thrummed to preparations, new sensations, out-of-the-ordinary smells, presences and people. Sorcery conjured up forests of boughs, parcels and aunts bearing packets of mystery. The tree arrived and was dressed only with glass baubles. Picture rails and pictures were obscured with spruce, holly, ivy; dark green branches, breathing pine, turpentine, lemon rind. Novel smells permeated: mint, chocolate, tangerines, syrup of ginger and marrons glacés. So much exciting unfamiliarity. Music came from the record player—The Beatles and Bach—and with candlelit carol singing. Sellotape was…

FOR every Ukrainian, borscht triggers deep memories and feelings of kinship. A delectable meal in itself, a bowl of borscht represents family and sustenance, and connects us to home, wherever we find ourselves.’ So writes Olia Hercules (who is Ukrainian) in Summer Kitchens and it is proof, if proof be needed, that this Eastern European soup is so much more than a mere dish. Devoured in myriad forms from Warsaw to Sakhalin, St Petersburg to Odessa—as well being an integral part of the Ashkenazi Jewish culinary diaspora—borscht can be served hot or cold, in colours ranging from light green to deep purple, with a consistency that can be consommé thin or thick enough to eat with a fork. ‘The variations are endless,’ says Ms Hercules. ‘Multi-layered, complex flavours; sweet and…

A FAUN carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion.’ Thus C. S. Lewis inventoried the starting point of what would become the best loved of his novels for children, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, published 75 years ago. The novel’s inspiration, Lewis claimed, also included an image—clear in his imagination since his teenage years—of ‘parcels in a snowy wood’. From these vivid shards emerged the first of what Roger Lancelyn Green (like Lewis, a member of the Oxford literary group known as the Inklings) collectively labelled ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’: stories of good versus evil, rich in symbolism, set in an imaginary world of magic and talking animals. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe even featured Father Christmas, ‘a huge man in a…

Michael Hall The art book of the year for me has only just been published: Elizabeth Goldring’s Holbein: Renaissance Master, a superbly written and magnificently produced tribute to an artist who was far more than a Court painter for Henry VIII. In architectural history, I’m looking forward to reading the last book by that great historian Andrew Saint, Waterloo Bridge and London River. My most self-indulgent read was the wonderfully entertaining diary of the Edwardian man of letters A. C. Benson, The Benson Diary, published in two volumes (1885–1906 and 1907–25). Timothy Mowl My year began with Luke Sherlock’s engaging Forgotten Churches, beautifully illustrated by Ioana Pioaru. I enjoyed an appropriately rowdy launch of Steven Parissien’s Another Round?, his brilliant social history of Britain told through 12 strong drinks, savoured…

Post haste I THOROUGHLY enjoyed your insight into the history of Christmas stamps (‘Sticking with it’, November 26). Bells rang and I was prompted to dig out my childhood stamp book from the 1960s, where I found I have two of the stamps mentioned: six-year-old Tasveer Shemza’s Good King Wenceslas from 1966 and the 17th-century School of Seville’s Adoration Of The Shepherds from the following year. All the stamps in the book have been out of circulation for many years, but their unique designs have stood the test of time, as you can see. James Readman, Lincolnshire Send for Bunbury REGARDING the discussion about whether commitments, once made, should stand (Letters, November 26), I think it’s all very well to ‘not feel like it’ occasionally, unless one has a pivotal…

THERE is not a single holly berry to be found this winter,’ Beatrix Potter lamented to her publisher’s sister, Millie Warne, on December 23, 1913. From Hill Top, her Lakeland farm near Hawkshead, Potter invariably sent berry-covered branches to London to brighten Warne’s Christmas. Unusually, in 1913, Potter was spending Christmas separately from her exacting parents. They were in her thoughts, although she did not regret the separation; she reassured herself that they would not miss her at Christmas any more than at any other time of year because, as Unitarians, the Potters had ‘never kept up anything different for Christmas to a usual Sunday’. This year, however, was different, at least for Beatrix. In August, at the age of 47, she had married her solicitor, William Heelis. Celebration of…

So that was 2025 1) Which BBC historical television drama saw James Norton play the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England? 2) Which royal stable celebrated its 200th anniversary this year? 3) Which West Yorkshire location was nominated as this year’s City of Culture? 4) This year marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of which Regency novelist? 5) Name the Mancunian rock band that went on tour again after a 16-year hiatus Stage and screen 1) To date, how many films in the ‘Bridget Jones’ franchise have been released? 2) Name the raven-haired broadcaster who presents The Traitors and its celebrity counterpart 3) How many times has Michael Keaton played Batman? 4) This autumn, Sir Stephen Fry appeared on stage as which character in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of…

PLAY,’ Albert Einstein once said, ‘is the highest form of research.’ The frazzle-haired physicist had a point—our childhood psyches are profoundly shaped by the toys with which we grew up. Not simply objects to idle away a day, they offered imaginative windows into faraway worlds, a means to learn the ethics of competition, were conduits for education and, in the form of plush animals, heartfelt companions (some, as with Evelyn Waugh’s doomed Sebastian Flyte and his bear Aloysius, became firm friends for life). Many of our most popular toys also possess fascinating creation stories and reflect the historical and cultural milieus into which they were born. Here, we present 14 of the most influential, intriguing and inexplicable playthings from the past century or so. Small, but mighty Toy soldiers (1893)…

MANKIND has been making jewellery for at least 100,000 years. In all that time, very few fields of fine, gem-quality emerald have been discovered. In fact, emeralds are so rare that, in some respects, it seems a miracle that any have ever been found at all, the more so when one considers that emerald seams are only ever a couple of inches wide and may barely touch the Earth’s surface. Until the 16th century, when Spain expanded its empire into South America and found the deposits located in present-day Colombia, every mined emerald mentioned in literature or listed in historical records—even referred to in the Bible—originated in Egypt’s Eastern Desert. Take Pliny the Elder reporting that Caligula’s wife, Lollia Paulina, attended a party dressed in ‘alternating emeralds and pearls which…

House tales If someone in your family purchased one of these properties when they were ‘affordable’, we would love to hear from you. Email your story and a picture to countrylife.letters@futurenet.com…

‘We still use Keswick School of Industrial Arts trays and dishes almost every day’ Living with the Arts and Crafts LORD AND LADY INGLEWOOD hold a copper dish locally produced at the Keswick School of Industrial Arts (KSIA), Cumberland. KSIA was established in 1884 by Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley—later one of the three founders of the National Trust—and his wife, Edith. Operating initially from a parish hall, it offered employment and craft training and soon developed a particular reputation for hammered metalwork in copper, brass and silver. The KSIA moved to a purpose-built home in 1894 and finally closed 90 years later in 1984. In 1871, the then owner of Hutton-in-the-Forest, Sir Henry Vane, married Margaret Gladstone, a cousin of the Prime Minister. A supporter of the KSIA, she redecorated the…

THE music-publishing phenomenon that is the ‘Carols for Choirs’ series has shaped the sound of modern Christmases around the English-speaking world. Yet this much-loved classic itself joins a British tradition of carol collections that stretches back to the first part of the 19th century, when figures such as the Cornish-born engineer and polymath Davies Gilbert and writers Washington Irving and Charles Dickens helped revitalise the Christmas holiday that had been quashed by repression in centuries past. Composer Sir John Rutter, who, at 80, continues to create new Christmas music, was co-editor of three editions of ‘Carols for Choirs’. As he says: ‘When researching material, I was very aware I was standing on the shoulders of those who put together previous anthologies.’ British ‘traditional’/folk-based carols have long been seasonal favourites for…

A bottle of Champagne will be awarded for the first correct solution opened. Solutions must reach Christmas Crossword, COUNTRY LIFE, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6JR, by Tuesday, December 30. UK entrants only. The answers will appear in the December 31 number’s Town & Country pages and the winner will be announced in the January 7 number ACROSS 10 Least absurd way to make railings (11) 11 Look back at purchase to maintain control (4,5) 13 Merchant is card distributor (6) 14 Holly is one dedicated environmentalist (9) 15 Crowd in doorway (4) 16 Used part of watch (6,4) 20 Eccentric’s letters (10) 21 Destroyed? We do it up again (5,3) 22 Collection of senior lawyers to prosecute rum importer (7,5) 25 Perks of a low hairline? (6,8) 28…

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Quiz of the week 1) Name the BBC’s first female television newsreader 2) Which species of owl is Hedwig in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling? 3) Which monarch does Colin Firth portray in the 2011 film The King’s Speech? 4) What nationality was the creator of Babar the Elephant? 5) Collectively, how are Brilliant, Bubbles, Bonny, Boofuls, Big Heart and Bumper better known? 1) Nan Winton 2) Snowy owl (‘Bubo scandiacus’) 3) George VI 4) French 5) Bassetts Jelly Babies. Riddle me this What bites, but doesn’t have any teeth? Riddle me this: Frost Time to buy On this day… December 10, 1845 Scottish civil engineer Robert Thomson patents pneumatic carriage tyres. His ‘aerial wheels’ were later demonstrated in Regents Park, London, proving to all…

DEAR Rachel Reeves, I am writing to you because I think someone ought to explain how your Budgets affect the ordinary people trying to run the businesses upon which the nation depends. No one around you seems capable of telling you, in simple terms, what your two Budgets have done to the countryside, where nine million of your voters live. There is, firstly, the serious damage to the farmers who produce more than half of our food. As we don’t pay the real price for food, few of them make the sort of profit that would attract anyone outside agriculture. Their returns certainly don’t reflect the value of the land they need if they are to do their job. A farm may be worth more than £1 million, but, for…

And is it true? And is it true,This most tremendous tale of all,Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,A Baby in an ox’s stall? FEW poems blend the mundanity (‘hideous tie so kindly meant’) with the wonder and mystique of Christmas in all its myriad interpretations and customs, as seamlessly as does Sir John Betjeman in his 1954 poem of the same name. In a country village, holly and yew from the Manor House adorn the font so the church ‘looks nice’, as ‘lighted tenements’ are hung with cheap paper chains. Yet in Betjeman’s world, the bells on Christmas morn peal for all, including ‘shining ones who dwell/Safe in the Dorchester Hotel’. As his daughter Candida Lycett Green observed, he ‘revealed the divine in the ordinary’. Although much of Betjeman’s poetry…

THE cultural stories attached to the turtle dove are so complicated, so varied, that you could well imagine them framing one of those riddles you find inside a Christmas cracker. ‘Which bird, named after a marine reptile, has a song considered the very essence of summer, but has somehow become a symbol for our Yuletide celebrations?’ We’ll come to those stories shortly, but one turtle dove fact on which most agree is its status as the most beautiful of our five native pigeons. The bird’s breast is a soft vinous pink and the belly linen white, but the most arresting features are the finely barred black-and-white neck patch, the bright rufous-orange mantle and wings liberally spotted with black. Vivid colours are only part of the aesthetic appeal, because turtle doves…

THE roots of Christmas art lie deep in the underbelly of Rome, Italy. The Catacombs of Priscilla, home to the remains of seven popes and more than 350 martyrs, conceal what is perhaps the first-ever ‘festive’ painting: an Adoration of the Magi dating from the reign of Emperor Gallienus (AD253–268). On that bedrock, an entire iconography was built: the ensuing 17 centuries saw a cascade of Adorations (of shepherds, as well as Wise Men), Nativities and, increasingly, secular illustrations of rosy-cheeked children, snowy landscapes and decorated trees. Thus, although almost everyone has a picture that ‘means Christmas’ to them, no two are the same—as this survey of artists, composers, authors and other notable friends of COUNTRY LIFE reveals. By the book Lauren Child chooses Seasons, 1969, by John Burningham (1936–2019)…

IT is the morning of the Nativity service in the village of Stockington-on-the-Moor and the Angel Gabriel has tonsillitis. The vicar’s wife, Mrs Cranberry, a retired drama teacher whose annual lot it is to direct proceedings, receives the disappointed parental call with weary resignation and wonders if she dares promote nine-year-old Carolla from her role as First Shepherd. The child is reserved, but possesses a sweet, true singing voice that would make angels weep. Mrs Cranberry’s thoughts are also occupied by the mildly troubling issue of Herod, a country boy who has taken to inhabiting his part as the baddie of the story a little too keenly (‘Why can’t I bring a gun? Herod would definitely have had one, probably a Purdey’). ‘No, Joey, it’s all right. Get down from…

TREES split ‘as if lightning-struck’ and the seas were ‘so locked up with ice, that no vessels could stir out or come in’, recorded 17th-century diarist and courtier John Evelyn during the Great Frost of 1684. The biting cold caused misery and hardship, but, on the frozen River Thames, a ‘bacchanalian triumph’ was lifting spirits, he wrote, as ‘a carnival on the water’ drew intrepid pleasure seekers to its glassy surface. Between 1607 and 1814, the Thames froze over some two dozen times, prompting seven major ‘frost fairs’, as these gatherings became known, and numerous minor ones. A procession of stalls fashioned from blankets and the ferrymen’s now redundant oars were thrown up on the Thames, which acquired the moniker ‘Freezeland Street’. The festivities drew everyone to the ice, from…

Pack up your gems GEMMOLOGIST and broadcaster Joanna Hardy and Jessica Diamond, Sunday Times jewellery and watch director, have joined forces to launch Hardy & Diamond Gemstone Journeys, a holiday business with a focus on gemstones. The inaugural experience will take place in Sri Lanka in April 2026 and will offer guests the rare opportunity to visit artisanal mines, as well as to purchase loose gemstones, including blue, pink and yellow sapphires, tourmalines, citrines and topaz. Sri Lanka is world famous for its high-quality stones, particularly sapphires—of which the country is the oldest source. The blue variety is perennially popular (The Princess of Wales’s 12-carat, oval-cut stone, pictured, was mined in Sri Lanka), but the rarest of all is the orange-pink Padparadscha. Anyone on the five-night trip will have Miss…

The garden of Helmingham Hall, Helmingham, Suffolk The home of Ed and Sophie Tollemache MIDWINTER is a time for ancient things: bone, iron, stone, wood; the steadfastness of slow-growing hollies, the solidity of an oak silhouette and a desire to fight the darkness with traditions that endure. Few gardens fulfil that desire more perfectly than those at Helmingham Hall. Arriving through tall gates into a 400-acre park, echoing with the throaty bellows of bucks, you feel the old folklore of the winter solstice. Herds of fallow and roe deer have nibbled away for centuries at rolling grassland dotted with copses and magnificent solo trees. Approaching the hall, barley-sugar brick chimneys gradually loom through the mist rising off the moat, where drawbridges are raised every night as they have been for…

SECRET SMOKEHOUSE began like many fine artisan endeavours: in a garden shed. A decade on from these humble beginnings, its founder Max Bergius has fully revived the art of cold and hot smoking salmon (and trout, haddock, mackerel, mussels and kippers). The convivial Scotsman grew up near Oban, Argyll and Bute: a region famed for its abundance of wonderful seafood (‘langoustine, lobsters, brown crabs, mackerel… all beautifully sweet’). Traipsing up and down the coast, he would see ‘all these little smokehouses, run by old fishermen, one-man bands. They were clamped onto the sides of the houses. There was nothing pretty about it; just fish hanging, wrapped in newspapers’. At the age of 19, he moved to London, working in marketing and PR for 15 years before a moment of self-realisation…

Quiz answers How did you do? Check your answers to the Editor’s Christmas quiz (page 132) So that was 2025 1) King & Conqueror 2) The Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace 3) Bradford 4) Jane Austen 5) Oasis Stage and screen 1) Four 2) Claudia Winkleman 3) Three: Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), and The Flash (2023) 4) Lady Bracknell 5) Thailand Nature 1) Princeling 2) Southern Small White (Pieris mannii) 3) Dire wolf 4) Storrington 5) Mast year Sport 1) Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo (Walter) 2) Line judge 3) Grand Challenge Cup 4) Willie Mullins 5) Lando Norris Double take 1) Left: stoat; right, weasel 2) Harvest mouse; hazel dormouse 3) Wood mouse; house mouse 4) Meadow brown; gatekeeper 5) Grass snake; adder Who said it 1) It’s A Wonderful Life 2) Home…