Notes on…
Gatton Park
Gatton Park is probably Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s least famous landscape. It is tucked away near Reigate Hill, just beyond the…
Royal Ascot
It’s time to scuttle under a rock if you are a Folkestone or Cornish crab: 7,000 of them will be…
The saddest, most romantic view in Britain
Is there a more forlornly romantic spot in Britain than the moors east of Inverness where the Jacobite dream died?…
Brodie Castle
Is there a more forlornly romantic spot in Britain than the moors east of Inverness where the Jacobite dream died?…
A beautiful place to die: Italy and the Romantic poets
People can be mightily protective of their Romantic poets. When I worked at the Keats Shelley House, overlooking the Spanish…
The Romantic poets
People can be mightily protective of their Romantic poets. When I worked at the Keats Shelley House, overlooking the Spanish…
Verdi’s works are more entertainment than art
Verdi has a peculiar if not unique place in the pantheon of great composers. If you love classical music at…
Verdi
Verdi has a peculiar if not unique place in the pantheon of great composers. If you love classical music at…
Is bullfighting on its last gasp?
Looking at the programme for the feria of San Isidro in Madrid this month (bullfights are being held on 31…
Bullfighting
Looking at the programme for the feria of San Isidro in Madrid this month (bullfights are being held on 31…
Beautiful, wilful, never dull: in praise of Clumber spaniels
For the first time in more than 30 years we have no Clumber spaniel. We have had five: Henry, Judith,…
It started with a cardboard box: discovering the joys of indoor gardening
A year or so ago, I inherited a cardboard box filled with plants. It was an offshoot from an enormous…
Indoor gardening
A year or so ago, I inherited a cardboard box filled with plants. It was an offshoot from an enormous…
Want your children to love art? Start with Hieronymus Bosch
If you hope to inspire an appreciation of Renaissance art in your children, look to Hieronymus Bosch. Ideally, your children…
The delights of Hieronymus Bosch
If you hope to inspire an appreciation of Renaissance art in your children, look to Hieronymus Bosch. Ideally, your children…
My day as a radio tarot reader
It’s 8.57 on a Friday evening and I’m at home, waiting for an obscure American radio talk show to come…
Tarot reading
It’s 8.57 on a Friday evening and I’m at home, waiting for an obscure American radio talk show to come…
The heart of Los Angeles feels like somewhere else entirely
There’s a certain kind of Englishman who falls hard for Los Angeles. Men such as Graham Nash, who swapped the…
Downtown Los Angeles
There’s a certain kind of Englishman who falls hard for Los Angeles. Men such as Graham Nash, who swapped the…
Botticelli’s jokes and the quarrelsome, creative spirit of Florence
Once, it seems, Sandro Botticelli played a trick on a neighbour. Next door was a weaver who possessed eight looms.…
Florence
Once, it seems, Sandro Botticelli played a trick on a neighbour. Next door was a weaver who possessed eight looms.…
St Petersburg: now's the right time to visit Russia's rebel city
Looking across the wide Neva from Vasilyevsky Island, the Palace Embankment shimmers in the river, suspended between water and sky.…
St Petersburg
Looking across the wide Neva from Vasilyevsky Island, the Palace Embankment shimmers in the river, suspended between water and sky.…
The discreet charm of the London Library
Some rogue has been writing in my bedside book. A fastidious hand has crossed out misspelled words and written neat…
The London Library
Some rogue has been writing in my bedside book. A fastidious hand has crossed out misspelled words and written neat…
