COUNTRY LIVING

How the Argentine food writer Juana Pepa made her family home near Windsor, drawn by polo, gardening and the chance to restore a 600-year-old house

- ESTEFANÍA ASENJO

The family home of food writer Juana Pepa is one of those places that seem to exist outside time.

Set in gentle countryside near Windsor in Berkshire and surrounded by corn fields, the ancient black-and-white timbered house is built on land once owned by Queen Edith, the consort of Edward the Confessor.

You can imagine horses grazing peacefully there then, just as they do now, the only sound that of ducks splashing in the willow-fringed pond.

Argentine-born Juana fell under the house's spell the moment she saw it. "I hope we stay here for the rest of our lives," she says. That's praise indeed, coming from someone who has always embraced change with passion.

In 2015, Juana was living in Buenos Aires and working as an actress when she met the man who was to become her husband, entrepreneur Juan Pepa. Just days later, she left her homeland to join him in Spain.

During the couple's stay in the country, they not only welcomed their two children, Alma and Juanito, but also became a fixture on the capital's social scene, staging a glamorous wedding attended by the likes of the Zara heiress Marta Ortega and Atlético Madrid’s charismatic manager, Diego Simeone.