When it comes to dressing for a special occasion, few things are more princely, impressive – or mystifying — than sashes. Whether worn at a Royal (or Disney) wedding, a…
Features
The folly of follies
What is a folly? At times it seems as though there are as many definitions as there are follies themselves. The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as: ‘A costly ornamental…
The garron – the workhorse of the Highlands
The garron pony is as much a symbol of Scotland’s sporting heritage as it is a modern working animal, doughtily getting to places that the Argo can’t reach, and a…
Blackcock leks – a spectacular spectacle
My visit to the northern Pennines begins with a magical mystery tour of a grouse moor in Upper Teesdale that is home to a staggering variety of birdlife including the…
Why moorland is a matter for us all
Beneath a cloudless azure sky on the Lancashire moorland, not far from an abandoned stone barn, a diurnal short-eared or ‘bog’ owl is clapping its wings 50 feet above the…
A Highland Odyssey
Scotland, 1773. In the sparsely roaded northern ‘Highlands’ the countryside is wild and romantic but devoid of many of the luxuries of life. Extensive felling of the native Scots pine…
Field Interview: Feargal Sharkey
A punk rocker is nothing without his anger, and Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer of The Undertones, is furious. Sitting beside the sparkling River Lea at Amwell Magna Fishery, with…
Field Interview The Countess Bathurst
It is not every day that you take a bite from a police dog. But this is exactly what I am doing thanks to the persuasive skills of the Countess…
Rudyard Kipling King Of The Road
He was a prolific writer, the first Briton to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, who nonetheless declined the appointment as Poet Laureate and turned down a knighthood. Rudyard…
Field Interview The Reverend Dr Jamie Hawkey
THE Reverend Dr Jamie Hawkey, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and a Chaplain to HM The King, goes to put the kettle on. Through the windows of his sitting room…