Savouring fruits of the vine with SA flavour

A magic combination TWIST: QUINTESSENTIALLY ENGLISH, LEONARDSLEE EMBRACES THE CAPE.

- Brian Berkman

LARGE AS LIFE. Leonardslee House presides over young vines in the Sussex sunshine, with South African sculptor Anton Smit's monumental figure keeping watch on the farm.

The woman who gives us directions in Horsham does not realise we are South African until we speak.

Within minutes, she has abandoned her own errands entirely, walking us all the way to the market and pointing out our return bus stop before waving us on our way.

“There are a lot of South Africans in Horsham,” she says with a warm smile. It is a small act of kindness, but one that tells you something essential about this corner of West Sussex - a place where southern African stories have quietly woven themselves into the English countryside.

It may be counterintuitive to holiday in the northern hemisphere in winter rain and cold but it offers an experience of festive celebration we don’t see at home.

Halloween morphs into Christmas and anytime spent in London and the UK countryside will be rewarded with exceptional sights, scenes, sounds and warming traditional flavours. Stories too.