Countryside
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…
Soho in Somerset
It is summer and the listless metropolitan thinks of grass. It cannot afford to stay at Durslade Farmhouse, Somerset, a…
My wild place
What you can see from a tin house in the Australian rainforest
Barometer
Squire power The village of West Heslerton in Yorkshire was put up for sale at £20 million after its owner,…
The Spectator’s notes
However wicked tax evasion is and however distasteful some tax avoidance may be, people should imagine a world without tax…
From Hitler to girls in pearls
The remarkable life and times of Country Life
Of geese and men
They’re noisy, filthy, scary – and glorious. No wonder we have such complicated feelings about them
Out on the farm
How would British farming change without EU subsidies?
The wings of winter
Our harsh December days are a temperate escape for some gorgeous birds
The Lake District
Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling is the best thing in the Lake District. I lived near Wigton, just north of the…
Picnics
Strange, isn’t it, that despite having such famously terrible weather, we Brits are so fond of a picnic. It’s something…
Country house opera
I stole a blanket last night. Rather a nice one, in fact. I feel bad about it, of course, but…
Your problems solved
Q. I was at the theatre recently and bumped into a well-known Liverpudlian crooner coming out of the disabled lavatory.…
The farm that went wild
A piece of ancient England is being reborn around a castle in Sussex
Miliband country
A ‘progressive alliance’ would be a profound threat to rural life
I went looking for a used car – and found my inner boy racer
A bit late, I know, to put in a bid for Jeremy Clarkson’s old job. But I think I might…
How to pick a vicar
I know just the man my parish church needs. Unfortunately he’s Catholic – and fictional
Your problems solved
Q. I’m a single bloke now and for various reasons don’t foresee any change to that status. I have moved…
The war on rural England
The coalition is letting developers concrete over the countryside, but that won’t help young people buy houses
It takes a village (or six)
Can England’s 10,000 rural churches survive?
Between the floods
As the climate changes, will we? The story of the little ice age suggests that adaptation will take years of suffering
