My heart goes flip, flip, flip

DO you know that feeling when your heart does a little flip at the sight of something beautiful? Mine did that last week. In fact, over the course of a couple of days, it did a series of little flips—possibly even a whole somersault.

Changing faces

Mallorca was one of Spain’s first holiday hotspots, but came close to ruin in the second half of the 20th century. Now, it’s back to its glorious best, says Hetty Lintell

I go to the hills

When the snow and the skiers retreat, the Alps emerge as a realm of meadows, lakes and crystalclear air, with plenty of Michelin-starred food to fuel your adventures, discovers Richard MacKichan

A garden from scratch - The garden at Charlton Farm, Wiltshire The home of Mrs Simon Rivett-Carnac

Within only 14 years, seven acres of featureless grass have been transformed into a garden full of incident and charm, writes Caroline Donald

Classically different

Two friends are changing the way Londoners listen to classical music, as well as introducing it to a younger audience, says Richard MacKichan

Back to business

Brits still do it best when it comes to a proper read: boozy) business lunch, says William Sitwell, who lifts the white tablecloth on where to dine and deal in London

London Life

Your indispensable guide to the capital

Sun in the sky

With Easter behind us, thoughts turn to the summer months and a clutch of attractive waterside houses come to the market this week

Footloose and fancy free

Historic houses that are unfettered by a listing

A natural choice

Green is the perfect colour for a kitchen, says Amelia Thorpe

The designer's room

Plain English worked with antique dealer Robert Young to create a serene, yet hardworking kitchen with views over beautiful gardens

Prepare to be a-maze-d

Named for the old English meaning delirium or delusion, mazes were conceived to boggle the mind. Deborah Nicholls-Lee meets the man behind Saltburn's chilling climax

Spring fever

Nature's ebullient reawakening, whether celebrated through allegory or minutiously painted in all its blossom-laden glory, has captured the imagination of painters from Botticelli to Hockney. Michael Prodger revels in the season's artistic beauty.

Little April showers

Thunder and lightning may be very frightening, but they also point to a good growing season, assures Lia Leendertz

Leading by example

Lancing College, West Sussex, part II In the second of two articles, John Goodall examines the outstanding school buildings of Lancing College, an institution celebrating its 175th anniversary

Time for a soil resurrection

SHORTLY before Easter, we saw the countryside in all its complexities.

Where birds and a wild Englishman roamed

THE world’s first nature reserve, Waterton Park in West Yorkshire, has been granted protection by Historic England with a Grade II listing.

Buzzing off

FIVE swarms of 50,000 rare Welsh black honeybees—previously thought to have died out in all but the most remote parts of northern Britain—have had temporarily to move house, while repair work at their home in Gwynedd, North Wales, is underway.

Love and logic

Two lovers who endured adversity and separation in life would become united in Paris after death, discovers Eileen Reid

Don't mock them

Plant a philadelphus, or mock orange, now for improbably lovely scent and cascades of sparkling blossom this summer, says John Hoyland

Home is where the art is

No trouble is too much for the Marquess of Cholmondeley to display to best effect Sir Antony Gormley's sculptures against the magnificent backdrop of Houghton Hall, even if it means cutting a hole in the floor, as Charlotte Mullins discovers

Bold and beautiful

The gardens at Broughton Grange, Oxfordshire The home of Sir Stephen and Lady Hester An arboretum, woodland garden, stumpery and heather garden all planted for artistic effect are among the many features that mark out this exciting garden, says Charles Quest-Ritson

Land of liquid gold

Greek cuisine-from delicious mezes to shellfish-might be 'tightly bound to the sparse soil and the blue sea', but it is sorely underrated, laments Tom Parker Bowles

An old way of life in rural France

Arcadian tranquillity, a wealth of cultural richness and a slow pace of life enchant John Lewis-Stempel as he reflects on his existence in France profonde

Deep in Hardy country

Hardy's beguilingly pretty Wessex is the setting for three houses with links to people and places that fuelled the writer's imagination

The benefit of foresight

The ability to anticipate the future is the secret of a successful building project

Nature's rarest gems

G. Collins & Sons specialises in the sourcing and setting of the finest natural fancy coloured diamonds the world has to offer

A prickly subject

Resembling a jumbo jacket potato on surprisingly long, scurrying legs, the hedgehog is Britain’s favourite mammal. Marianne Taylor takes a closer look beneath its spines

Once more into the abyss

Having volunteered to look after his neighbour's herd of Limousin cattle, John Lewis-Stempel is dismayed to find himself having to haul an elm-flowerloving heifer out of a ditch on a dramatic March afternoon Illustration by Michael Frith

Room with a pew

Bought, sold and inherited, parish seating not only confirmed social status, but came with its own temptations, discovers Andrew Green