Notes on…

The competitive world of metal detecting

10 September 2022 9:00 am

Some detectorists will tell you that the holy grail of metal detecting is a hoard of Roman coins or Anglo-Saxon…

I’m being terrorised by a Bengal cat

3 September 2022 9:00 am

Over the past year and a half, I have been victimised by my neighbour’s cat. Bollinger the Bengal weighs just…

The politics of butter

27 August 2022 9:00 am

Butter was not a major part of my childhood. In fact, I don’t remember it ever being in our fridge.…

The brutal truth about holiday packing

20 August 2022 9:00 am

The general flying advice this year, with airports resembling cattle markets and when you can’t be sure if you’re ever…

Who needs a hosepipe? The watering cans worth investing in

13 August 2022 9:00 am

In the hot, dry summer of 1976, I was working as a gardening student at Arboretum Kalmthout in Belgium. The…

How to blend your own beard oil

6 August 2022 9:00 am

Every few months I take out a box of essential oils and carefully lay them out on my kitchen table,…

The parallel universe you can explore on two wheels

30 July 2022 9:00 am

Many of us daydream about escaping into an imaginary parallel universe. The good news is that Britain has its own…

Hornets

23 July 2022 9:00 am

There’s surely not a more despised creature in Britain than the hornet. They have long been viewed as yellow jacketed…

The lost art of letterheads

16 July 2022 9:00 am

One of the pleasures of the letters from unhappy ministers to the Prime Minister last week (though not, presumably, for…

The twists and turns of ‘desire paths’

9 July 2022 9:00 am

Pause in a park or field in summer and look out across the grass and you’ll see a multitude of…

We’ve reached standing ovation saturation

2 July 2022 9:00 am

‘And now the end is here / And so I face the final curtain…’ You said it, Frank. The lights…

The triumph of the National Army Museum

25 June 2022 9:00 am

Five years ago this month I wrote an article in The Spectator denouncing the National Army Museum after its £24…

The mystery behind elderflower

18 June 2022 9:00 am

There’s an old saying that English summertime begins when the frothy heads of elderflowers appear in hedgerows – and ends…

Beach huts have never been so fashionable – or expensive

11 June 2022 9:00 am

Despite claims the property market is on the brink of a crash, one niche seems recession-proof: beach huts, barely bigger…

How to make a royally good Dubonnet cocktail

4 June 2022 9:00 am

The Platinum Jubilee celebrations look like boom time for the drinks industry, with various whisky, gin and port brands all…

How to mend (almost) anything

28 May 2022 9:00 am

‘Sides to middle’, that’s the cry. When your foot goes through the flat sheet in the night, there’s only one…

The politics of bowls clubs

21 May 2022 9:00 am

Bowls has a reputation as a sedate pastime, but it can be as fiercely competitive as any other sport. It…

Why Kent is being bulldozed by buffalo

14 May 2022 9:00 am

Buffalo are now living in the fens of Kent. Why – have we slipped into the metaverse of Lewis Carroll?…

The romance and rebellion of an Iranian picnic

7 May 2022 9:00 am

Iranians adore a picnic. During the country’s most ancient festival, Nowruz, the Persian new year, they brandish baskets of food…

Getting a fringe is always a cry for help

30 April 2022 9:00 am

Fringes have in recent years been considered attractive – Bettie Page, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Birkin, Kate Moss – so it…

Thumbs up: why hitchhiking is the best way to travel

23 April 2022 9:00 am

When I first saw Vitaly I thought he was drunk. I was standing outside a petrol station near Fulda, in…

Why violets come into their own at Easter

16 April 2022 9:00 am

The English Rock Garden, the magnum opus of the great gardening writer, horticulturist and plant collector Reginald Farrer, is an…

My love affair with the Wolseley

9 April 2022 9:00 am

I was sitting alone at a small table in the Wolseley, Piccadilly, waiting for my supper and feeling a sense…

Crunch time: how to make the perfect crisp sandwich

2 April 2022 9:00 am

A crisp sandwich is a private and personal endeavour. In my experience (and I have considerable experience in this particular…

How Mother’s Day became big business

26 March 2022 9:00 am

As ever, the Romans got there first. Their version of Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day was the feast of Juno…