“Around here, we’ve got various trusts looking after nature. Well this is the Vinnie Trust,” grins Vinnie Jones, arms stretched out towards the 150 acres of Sussex he calls home. He may be smiling broadly, but Jones is deadly serious. “All this is for my grandchildren. It is so important…
There are three certain things in life: death, taxes and the presence of at least one apple tree in the garden you get when you move house. Of all ‘top fruits’ (that is tree fruits, as opposed to ‘soft fruits’ such as blackcurrants, gooseberries and strawberries), apples are the most…
‘Tis the season to spend money and ’tis no good pushing back against the fact. Nor, I imagine, do we really want to, since we don’t want to be thought a pinchpenny at Christmas. Blame Charles Dickens for that. The trouble is that as our friends and relations get older…
For many of those who have grown up in or near Rutland, Barnsdale Lodge will long have been a fixture. In my memory it played host to a hunt bash where I was taken with someone particularly unsuitable, but thankfully those murky days (well, they were also quite fun) are…
Farmer Will Young is making the world a better place, one million or so social media followers at a time, with the help of his Tasmanian girlfriend, Jessie Wynter, plus two donkeys, two emus, many sheep, some pigs, goats, alpacas, more sheep and his family. Oh, and sheep – did…
This month spotlights the new Beretta 687 Silver Pigeon V Field imported by GMK, the well-known firm that also brings in Benelli, Franchi, Chapuis, Sako and Tikka firearms. The latest in a long line of Beretta 600 series models, this is an extrafinish 12-bore (the 20-bore version is expected soon)…
WHILE many of us make the late summer caravanserai to Scotland, there is another destination for discerning sportsmen and naturalists which is the wide open moorland of Exmoor. Here, stags roam the open ground and villages nestle in deep combe valleys, the empty roads and lanes ribboning this majestic landscape.…
The Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind needs little introduction as the former Defence then Foreign Secretary who went on to chair the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament that oversees the UK’s security services. Yet any fear I had of feeling intimidated is soon dispelled by that familiar, affable soft…
I like to think that I am a proper gardener, by which I mean that cataracts and hurricanoes have to spout until they drench our steeple (we live next door to the church) before I am coaxed inside for tea. However, although I can be stalwart if a task needs…
This month we are looking at a Caesar Guerini Maxum Limited over-and-under. It is a 30in-barrelled special edition based on the existing and well-established Maxum, which was introduced to the UK in 2008. It comes with flush-fitting, steel-friendly multichokes, a solid tapered (9mm-7mm) sighting rib, single-selective trigger and a profusely…
