A seed of an idea

There is a lot more to successful wildflower propagation than scattering a packet and hoping for the best, discovers Tilly Ware, as she visits the UK’s biggest wild-seed producer

A tower of thorns

Made with wind, sea and thorns on the wild west coast of Scotland, Blackthorn Salt brings surprising health benefits, as well as being a unique example of sustainable craftsmanship, says Ben Lerwill

Love and marriage

Marital relations are the central theme in these three plays. A real-life couple put on bravura performances, but an Austen adaptation misses

When West met East

The Arts flourished in the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century and their influence reached across space and time to Tudor and Victorian England

Where be dragons?

Lucien de Guise finds the answer in the original source of Hic sunt dracones ('Here be dragons'): a small copper globe of about 1510. The location is East Asia, where the dragon is still most active... as it is, of course, in Wales

On a wig and a prayer

Like marmalade on toast, saying sorry and the Shipping Forecast, there are few things more typically British than the courtroom wig, says Agnes Stamp

Man of the world

Sir John Lavery is best known as a Society portraitist, but he was also a plein-air painter of modern life who moved easily between continents, painting as he went. Mary Miers follows his peregrinations

Brothers in art

IN October 2022, the museum and former home of the celebrated Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton reopened after an award-winning redevelopment.

All in a day's work

Duck dating, snowdrop splitting, welcoming avian visitors and manning the barricades against an unwanted national park

Lighting the way

LAST week’s announcement by Arts and Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson that four historic gas lamps on Russell Street, WC2, have been granted listed status is seen as a good omen by lobby group The London Gasketeers.

Love in the time of Austen

FOLLOWING on the dainty heels of Hilary Davidson’s Jane Austen’s Wardrobe (Books, September 6, 2023) and with a canny Valentine’s Day publication date, comes another stance on the Austen age. As the writer acknowledges in the preface, all authors of such social histories owe a debt to Lawrence Stone’s The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500–1800, published in 1977.

The stuff of legends

The late Maurice 'Dick' Turpin, a celebrated antiques dealer and largerthan-life character, had wide-ranging interests, from fine furniture to Blue John, revealed in one of Sworders' final sales of his London home's contents

More than a pretty face

John Singer Sargent shot to fame for his Society portraits, but he was as adept in other genres and excelled at watercolor, often capturing 'off-duty' records of his many trips and travelling companions

Interiors

Louise Bradley transformed the rear of her Chelsea home with a calming, pared-back garden room

In the hat of the moment

The hat was once as essential for leaving the house as a pair of trousers, but the sight of a dapper gent sporting one is now all too rare

Taking the rough with the smooth

With the initiative to rescue sheep and the daring to question its master, the rough collie not only lives up to its heroic reputation, but is always right

A Georgian reinvention

The ingenious integration of the polite and service rooms of a handsome 1790s villa has created a modern family home, as Jeremy Musson discovers

Let's stick together

COMMUNITY-OWNED businesses are on the up, says the Plunkett Foundation-a national charity that helps these types of initiatives. Of particular note are community pubs, which increased by 10% in 2022, against a backdrop of widespread closures; some 8,000 pubs, amounting to 15%, closed between 2012 and 2022.

Park that thought

LAST month, opposition to the proposed creation of new national parks in Scotland brought some 110 farmers, crofters and other stakeholders to the Isle of Skye for a summit chaired by Alasdair Macnab, vice-president of NFU Scotland.

Surf and turf

The jaguar is the jewel in Belize’s conservation efforts, but they’re notoriously elusive, discovers Nigel Tisdall, on a journey to find them from rainforest to reef

On the strait and narrow

Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait is one of the world's most evocative and significant waterways in a constant state of flux, says Catherine Fairweather, who journeys upriver to find out what's occurring on the European and too-often-overlooked Asian banks

Get down on your knees

The gardens at Thenford House, home of Lord and Lady Heseltine James Alexander-Sinclair joins snowdrop lovers wandering through more than 900 varieties of Galanthus, perhaps the largest collection in the country

Home truths

Cash-paying downsizers will have to compete with families hoping to upsize for these three charming homes under 2 million

My favourite painting Ashley Campbell

Charlotte Mullins comments on Iris

Seed drill

I STILL find it magical that seeds carry all the information needed to become a full-grown productive plant. Our task is to ensure that this nugget of potential falls into the right place at the right time in the right way.

The sweet spot

A house under £1.5 million usually offers good, family-sized proportions, while avoiding a jump to 12% Stamp Duty

All bark and some bite

A vital source of food, a pharmacy and a haven for wildlife, a tree’s living skin is a surprisingly sophisticated surface, says John Lewis-Stempel

Wildly out of whack

THE Government is far behind in its goal to halt Nature’s decline and ensure 30% of land and sea is protected by 2030, finds the latest damning report from the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP).

When God closes a door...

TODAY, the National Churches Trust launches its manifesto calling for urgent action to rescue the UK's church buildings. Every Church Counts offers a blueprint for how churches can be saved for the future,' explains National Churches Trust chief executive Claire Walker. 'With hundreds facing closure across the UK, a national plan is urgently needed... We are calling on Government, heritage organisations and Christian denominations to work together.'

The evidence of your eyes and ears

Podcasts are taking over. James Fisher finds out what they are, where they came from and what to listen to