SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL dubbed the British ‘an island race’. He was right, with our nation itself an island, but his words are truer for some than others. There are hundreds of islands around the coast, ranging from large ones, such as Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, covering more than 770 square miles, to myriad tiny, uninhabited ones barely big enough to moor a dinghy.
Island life can be a dream, promising sea, seclusion and satisfaction—but does the reality match the fantasy? Is it feasible or impractical? Idyllic or too isolated? Most island dwellers say they wouldn’t swap it for the world, but to live the life requires practicality, pragmatism and adopting a routine shaped by sea and tide.
Rev Canon Dr Sarah Hills, vicar, Holy Island
Sarah Hills swims in the sea off St Cuthbert’s Beach in Northumberland every few days. ‘It can be freezing, but it’s so refreshing, both physically and spiritually,’ she reflects.
She moved to Holy Island, often referred to as Lindisfarne, in 2019, after five years as canon for reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral. ‘I had a very deep sense of calling to come here,’ Sarah says of the island that, covering 1,000 acres at high tide, is often referred to as a ‘thin’ place, with Earth and Heaven deemed to be particularly close together. It is known for its castle, once the holiday home of COUNTRY LIFE founder Edward Hudson and improved by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 22, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 22, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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A tapestry of pinks
THE garden is now entering its season of vigour and exuberance.
Bringing the past to life
An event hosted by COUNTRY LIFE at WOW!house is one of the highlights of a programme that features some of the biggest names in interior design
This isle is full of wonder
GEOLOGY? A bit like economics, the famously boring science? I confess I suffered the prejudice—agriculture and history being my thing, both of them vital in every sense— but Robert Muir-Wood’s voyage through the past 66 million years of the making of the British landscape has biblical-level drama on almost every other page. Flood, fire, ice… or, perhaps, the formation in rock, sand, mud and lava of these isles is best conceived of as fierce poetry.
Empire protest
Without meaning to issue a clarion call for independence, E. M. Forster perfectly captured the rising tensions of the British Raj. One hundred years later, Matthew Dennison revisits the masterpiece A Passage to India
Hops and dreams
A relative of marijuana, hops were a Teutonic introduction to British brewing culture and gave rise to the original working holiday
Life and sol
The sanctuary of the Balearic Islands has enchanted a multitude of creative minds, from Robert Graves to David Bowie
'Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest creatures'
Giving himself neck ache from constantly looking upwards, John Lewis-Stempel makes the most of a sunny May day harvesting ‘tree hay’ and marvelling at the myriad wildlife including flies and earwigs–that reside on bark
'Plans are worthless, but planning is everything'
Country houses great and small were indispensable to D-Day preparations, with electricity and sanitation, well-stocked wine cellars, countesses to run the canteens and antique furniture to feed the stoves
The darling buds of May
May Morris shared her father’s passion for flowers, embroidery and Iceland, but was much more than William’s daughter. Influential both as a designer and as a teacher, she championed the rights of workers, particularly women, as Huon Mallalieu reveals
Achilles healed
Once used to comfort the lovelorn or soothe the wounds of Greek heroes, yarrow may now have a new starring role in sustainable agriculture
