Don't rain on Venus's parade

TENNIS has never been sexier—at least, that is what multiple critics of the new film Challengers are saying.

A rural reason to cheer

THERE was something particularly special for country people when one of the prestigious King’s Awards for Voluntary Service was presented last week.

My heart is in the Highlands

A LISTAIR MOFFAT’S many books on Scottish history are distinctive for the way he weaves poetry and literature, language and personal experience into broad-sweeping studies of particular regions or themes. In his latest— and among his most ambitious in scope—he juxtaposes a passage from MacMhaighstir Alasdair’s great sea poem Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill with his own account of filming a replica birlinn (Hebridean galley) as it glides into the Sound of Mull, ‘larch strakes swept up to a high prow’, saffron sail billowing, water sparkling as its oars dip and splash. Familiar from medieval tomb carvings, the birlinn is a potent symbol of the power of the Lords of the Isles.

Put it in print

Three sales furnished with the ever-rarer paper catalogues featured intriguing lots, including a North Carolina map by John Ogilby and a wine glass gibbeting Admiral Byng, the unfortunate scapegoat for the British loss of Minorca

The rake's progress

Good looks, a flair for the theatrical and an excellent marriage made John Astley’s fortune, but also swayed ‘le Titien Anglois’ away from painting into a dissolute life of wine and women, with some collecting on the side

Charter me this

There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored and one of the most exciting ways to see it is from the water, says Emma Love, who rounds up the best boat charters

Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to sow we go

JUNE can be a tricky month for the gardener.

Floreat Etona

The link with the school and horticulture goes back to its royal founder, finds George Plumptre on a visit to the recently restored gardens

All in good time

Two decades in the planning, The Emory, designed by Sir Richard Rogers, is open. Think of it as a sieve that retains the best of contemporary hotel-keeping and lets the empty banality flow away

Come on down, the water's fine

Ratty might have preferred a picnic, but canalside fine dining is proving the key to success for new restaurant openings in east London today, finds Gilly Hopper

Perfect manors

For the first time in a generation, two of England’s most pristine and private residential and sporting estates, Corby Castle in Cumbria and Wilsford Manor in Wiltshire, have come to the open market

Little gem

A humble lambing shed has been transformed into a tranquil home office using both antiques and pieces repurposed from past projects

Fresh as a summer breeze

Once associated largely with gin, there is a host of easy-to-grow botanicals that will enliven both cocktail hour and mealtimes

Standing on ceremony

As the sound of music, majesty and military precision marks The King’s Birthday Parade, Simon Doughty considers the evolution of the ceremonial uniform

Her green and pleasant land

Peggy Guggenheim, doyenne of avant-garde art, once lived at a Hampshire cottage in the woods. Mary Miers traces a rare domestic time in the American heiress’s life

Stuff and nonsense

Five collectors of unusual things, from taxidermy to tanks, tulips to teddies, explain their passions to COUNTRY LIFE

The longest day and the shortest night

June brings with it the magic of Midsummer’s Day, as well as a prediction for the coming harvest, says

My favourite painting Beccy Speight

Charlotte Mullins comments on Rain

A Georgian vision

Gatewick, Steyning, West Sussex The former home of Charles, James and Primrose Yorke A combination of discerning architectural improvement and collecting in the 1950s created a modern country house in the 18th-century spirit.

A walk on the wild side

The word ‘safari’ may evoke lions and Land Cruisers, but you’ll never run out of wildlife-based thrills on these shores. From seabird skyscrapers to ostentatious otters and rutting red deer, Ben Lerwill discovers the best British Nature trips on offer

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