Countryside
Hare coursing gangs are terrorising the countryside
If you’re driving at dawn or at dusk in the countryside at this time of year, you might well see…
Can giving voice to the horrors of the past re-traumatise?
It is 50 years since Ronald Blythe published Akenfield, his melancholy portrait of a Suffolk village on the cusp of…
The commercialisation of shooting may kill the whole sport
A few years ago I was sitting on the sofa at Sandringham enjoying a ham sandwich with the Queen’s then-head…
A gang of sheep rustlers is stalking the county – who will be the next target?
Though autumn is happily still some way off, we’ve already reached that stage in the shepherd’s calendar when full-grown lambs…
In defence of British landowners (and the truth about grouse moors)
I was surprised to read the article by Ben Macdonald in last week’s Spectator urging Britain’s grouse moor owners to…
Grouse moors have destroyed Britain’s natural heritage – so we must rewild them
Britain’s hunting estates were once beautiful. Walking through the New Forest, we can all appreciate how the purchase of land…
The savagery and death lurking within our beautiful countryside
This is the time of year when the English countryside reaches peak incredible: when we rural folk mentally pinch ourselves…
Natural England is overwhelmed – and farmers are paying the price
Last week, on the first day of the government’s ban on farmers shooting pest birds, I walked across St James’s…
The greatest Beatle? Pete Best
Which of the Beatles would you most like to have been? Not either of the dead ones, presumably. Nor the…
Professional villagers won’t rest until they have eliminated mud from the countryside
‘Don’t touch anything sharp. Don’t saw anything or drill anything or sand anything,’ said the builder boyfriend as he left…
Surrey’s Gore-tex-collar crime wave
The frustrating thing about rights is that when you give them to people they don’t cherish and appreciate them. They…
The horrors of Soho House’s country outpost
It is summer and the listless metropolitan thinks of grass. It cannot afford to stay at Durslade Farmhouse, Somerset, a…
Snakes, kookaburras and bandicoots: a garden in Australia’s rainforest
When I suggested that I might build a little tin house in the subtropical rainforest of south-east Queensland, I was…
West Heslerton and other villages with one careful owner
Squire power The village of West Heslerton in Yorkshire was put up for sale at £20 million after its owner,…
Hate tax havens? Try imagining a world without them
However wicked tax evasion is and however distasteful some tax avoidance may be, people should imagine a world without tax…
Too grand for the Queen Mother: my strange life at Country Life
I’ve heard it said that the ‘countryside’ is an urban idea, a place invented by the late Victorians in order…
The noisy, filthy, scary glory of geese
Grumpy Gertie was killed in a drive-by shooting. This resident of the village of Sandon, near Letchworth, was shot at…
How Brexit would affect British farmers
If the Church of England was once the Tory party at prayer, then the nation’s shotgun-owning farmers were the party’s…
The joy of winter birdwatching (and how it’s changing)
Crisis relocation. A term from the Cold War. It means being somewhere else when it happens. When the threat of…
Wrestling with the romantic glory of the Lake District
Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling is the best thing in the Lake District. I lived near Wigton, just north of the…
The pitfalls of picnics (and how to avoid them)
Strange, isn’t it, that despite having such famously terrible weather, we Brits are so fond of a picnic. It’s something…
Country house picnics (with some ace opera attached)
I stole a blanket last night. Rather a nice one, in fact. I feel bad about it, of course, but…
Dear Mary: Should I follow Cilla Black’s lead on disabled loos?
Q. I was at the theatre recently and bumped into a well-known Liverpudlian crooner coming out of the disabled lavatory.…
A piece of primeval England reborn in Sussex
It was the nightingale I liked best. Or maybe the auroch. The nightingale sang strong and marvellously sweet when all…
Welcome to Miliband country: how Labour would wreck rural life
Imagine rural England five years into a Labour government led by Ed Miliband, and propped up by the SNP and…
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