Innholdsfortegnelse for September 16, 2015 i Country Life

THERE are times when real life is stranger than fiction, and one of them happened at the weekend, when Jeremy Corbyn—not so long ago a 200–1 outsider—was elected leader of the Labour party. Those Tories who hoped he would get the top opposition job might now be feeling slightly uncomfortable, as the reception he’s received suggests that he’s one of those unlikely, from-the-heart politicians—like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg on the other side of the party divide—who appeal, sometimes inexplicably, to a cross-section of the ordinary public. His chances of becoming Prime Minister seem, at this juncture, mercifully remote and we aren’t alone in thinking that his choice of Shadow Chancellor—John McDonnell—shows what a disaster a Corbyn premiership would be for the economy. But, goodness, his election shows how far…

James Roberts (right), managing director of Mobberley Fine Ales, a rural business based near Knutsford, admits he's not surprised that Cheshire has topped the CLA table. ‘Cheshire is an incredibly vibrant and enthusiastic area in which to do business,' states Mr Roberts. ‘Passion and interest has surrounded us as a company since we started in 2011. From planning agencies to other Cheshire businesses, we have been strongly supported, just as any start-up should be, which has massively aided our growth. ‘Encouragement for small businesses is vital for the creation of jobs and prosperity, but support is key. Without the support of all local businesses and authorities, small-business growth and survival is simply not possible.' connection,’ notes CLA President Henry Robinson. ‘Unfortunately, getting the coverage that a business needs remains a…

ANEW state-of-the-art facility dedicated to treating dogs and cats with cancer has opened in Surrey. Custom-built to meet the specialist needs of animal patients, The Fitzpatrick Referrals Oncology and Soft Tissue Centre—which was officially opened by Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans, founder and chairman Noel Fitzpatrick and biotechnology entrepreneur Sir Chris Evans earlier this month—features specially equipped patient wards, surgical theatres and a chemotherapy suite. It’s the first animal hospital in Europe to bring together medical and surgical oncologists with extensive experience in advanced radiation procedures. ‘Although this building will impress and contain the latest equipment, it is the team of people inside it that makes it truly outstanding,’ enthuses Prof Fitzpatrick, who also fronts Channel 4’s The Supervet.…

Quiz of the week 1) What was Capability Brown's Christian name? 2) Which British crime drama starred Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as gardeners and amateur detectives? 3) What is the common name of Aesculus hippocastanum? 4) In which fantasy trilogy do two characters promise to sit on a bench in the Oxford Botanic Garden every Midsummer's Day? 5) In which British garden will you find the Rothschild collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias? Time to buy Cherry blossom pot, £47.50, Whichford Pottery (01608 684416; www.whichfordpottery.com) Allotment gardener stacking mugs, £20, Imperial War Museums Shop (020–7091 3119; www.iwmshop.org.uk) Gardeners luxury gift set, £50, Crabtree & Evelyn (0800 111 4406; www.crabtree-evelyn.co.uk) Unmissable events Exhibition Until September 20 ‘New Ceramics by William Plumptre’, Aldeburgh Cinema Gallery Aldeburgh, Suffolk. The first solo…

The Crown Hotel, South-wold, Suffolk The oak-panelled back bar of this substantial old hotel welcomes dogs and has a properly pubby local atmosphere, serving Adnams' fine beers from the nearby brewery and the full list of the 300 or so wines the company ships. This was one of the first places to keep its wines by the glass fresh under vacuum and their quality is still exemplary. The bigger, beamed front bar looking out on to this interesting seaside town's High Street is roomier and more elegant, with traditional settles and other seats, but still relaxed and informal. It's a pleasant place for a civilised and leisurely bar meal in a buoyant atmosphere; there's also a separate restaurant. The cheerfully decorated bedrooms are comfortable and a good breakfast is…

Letter of the week Knock, knock, who’s there? MY mother and my aunt used to hurry about West Sussex, separately, giving talks. One of them was the enrolling member of her Mothers’ Union branch, the other a stylish Women’s Institute official. Travel wasn’t easy, but, one day, when my mother had time to visit, she found her sister not at home. She left a note on the doorstep, saying: ‘You’re never in.’ A week or two later, she found a piece of paper in her letterbox, which said: ‘Nor are you!’ Mrs Iona Wake-Walker, Salisbury The writer of the letter of the week will win a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne The swallow whisperer IN 1972, I was a butcher in a village with a shop.…

INFANTICIDE is rife in the gardens of serious cooks. Head gardener Jo Campbell leans over a raised bed and effortlessly draws a small, globular root from its nurturing earth. About the size of a grape, it could be mistaken for a radish. As it turns out, it’s a Market Express turnip and one of the numerous ‘baby’ vegetables raised in Michelin-starred chef Andrew Fairlie’s ravishing high-walled Perthshire garden, a few miles from his eponymous restaurant and kitchens at the Glen-eagles Hotel (www.andrewfairlie.co.uk; www.gleneagles.com). As well as infantile turnips in variety, there are bairns of beetroot and rudimentary Rainbow Mix carrots; Florence fennel and leeks are harvested while as short and thin as a chopstick. Against a south-facing stone wall, one glasshouse is dedicated to dozens of different microgreens; they’re…

AT this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the rush of interest in the dying art of wooden trug-making provoked by Tina Vallis and Serena Fremantle’s evocative artisan garden, which re-created a traditional trug-maker’s workshop surrounded by authentic planting, could not have come at a better time. For, despite the trug’s enduring popularity among gardeners—Monty Don is never more than 5ft from his and Sarah Raven would be lost without hers—this strong basket, made from willow and sweet chestnut, has struggled to keep pace with cheaper, plywood alternatives, which are easy to knock up, but nowhere near as long-lasting. The internet hasn’t helped, either. A quick search for ‘Sussex trugmakers’ brings up a host of websites, but it’s not always clear whether these outlets are selling the genuine article or a…

More ways with figs Mini fig and rosemary pizzas Mix together 450g plain flour, a 7g sachet of dried yeast, a splash of olive oil, 300ml warm water and a teaspoon of salt in a bowl and set aside for 20 minutes. Tip the dough out and knead it for 10 minutes before placing it in an oiled bowl. Cover with clingfilm and set aside in a warm place until it’s doubled in size. Flatten small balls of dough into small rounds. Top with a generous brushing of olive oil, a scattering of mozzarella, Parma ham, rosemary sprigs, and fresh, sliced figs. Cook in a hot oven for about 8 minutes and, once out of the oven, add seasoning and fresh rocket. Fig, Parma ham and burrata salad with…

1. Amtico’s Signature Wenge Wood costs from £70 per sq m (08703 504090; www.amtico.com) 2. Natural Heritage Oak Matt is part of the Hardwood Castello collection by Quick Step. £54.99 per sq m (For stockists: 0844 811 8287; www.quick-step.co.uk) 3. Kährs’s Maison Oak is part of the Grande Collection and is a one-strip smoked-oak wood floor with a brushed, hand-scraped finish. From £102 per sq m (023–9245 3045; www.kährs.com) 4. Antique Harp, shown in Smoked Tobacco, is a range of engineered oak flooring, which is wire brushed for texture. From £62 per sq m plus VAT, Fine Oak Flooring (www.fineoakflooring.co.uk; 01727 826500) 5. Ruskin Parquet du Versailles from the Victorian Woodworks Grand Collection costs £400 per sq m (http://victorianwoodworks.co.uk; 020–7730 6957) 6. This oak floorboard comes from Solid Floor’s Shabby…

RAPIDLY becoming the go-to colour for designers, inky indigo blue is beautifully versatile and nowhere more so than in the bathroom. Used alongside natural marble—the material of the moment for walls and floors—it’ll serve to highlight the stone’s intricate veining, ripples and variations. Next to classic white baths and basins and chrome brassware, deep blue acts as a neutral backdrop that’s ideal for pairing with sophisticated pattern and texture on upholstered furniture. As a trend for adding ornate decoration and semi-precious stones to key pieces grows, rustic-timber finishes make a perfect partner for a detailed look, adding warmth and character.…

IN the Giardini at this year’s Venice Biennale, there are trees inside the pavilions as well as out. Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has brought three Scots pines, rootballs and all, into the French pavilion and Robert Smithson’s Dead Tree (1969) has been resurrected in the Central Pavilion. In London, a copse of reconstituted trees is welcoming audiences to Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at the Royal Academy, where, eight years ago, David Hockney unveiled his 40ft painting Bigger Trees Near Warter. Trees, it seems, are back in artistic fashion—not that they ever really went away. While Hockney was off painting swimming pools in California, back home in England, David Inshaw and fellow members of the Brotherhood of Ruralists were turning their backs on Pop Art and moving to the country to paint landscapes. Now,…

History The Secret War Max Hastings (William Collins, £30 *£23) IT is impossible to quantify the number of books that have been written about the Second World War. A rough guide is provided by the website Amazon, which returns a figure of some 244,000 books if you search for ‘Second World War’, but this cannot be half of the actual figure. So what are we to make of yet another hefty volume about the conflict? Is there really anything left to say? To paraphrase that cliché beloved of so many war movies, surely for us the war is over. Frankly, even to observe the potential staleness of the topic feels platitudinous. Well, for Sir Max Hastings, the war is clearly far from over, as this latest work represents, by my…

JUDGING by the other people pushing their trolleys round Ikea, I imagine every student house in the land is being equipped with a few Försiktigt wine glasses and Tekla tea towels. ‘You go to lighting and I’ll look at bathmats,’ we say and then hear this exact exchange taking place between the mother and daughter on our left. They also have a Jordrök pillow, a set of Ändlig knives, a bottle opener and a plastic bin. ‘Do I need these?’ Olive asks, beguiled by nests of plastic food containers. I very much doubt it. ‘But I’ll be making my own lunch.’ Really? Making her own lunch will last about a day and what will she be making to put into her boxes? A little rice salad, she suggests, beans, lentils.…

The Clean for The Queen campaign launched in Country Life last week (September 9) is already receiving overwhelming support. Backed by Keep Britain Tidy, Clean Up Britain and the Countryside Alliance, the campaign is calling on the public to clean up Britain in time for The Queen's 90th birthday next year by galvanising an army of volunteers to clear litter in local areas, as well as promoting a special clean-up weekend on March 4–6, 2016. ‘I am absolutely thrilled with the huge number of organisations that registered their support on the very first day and the momentum that the campaign has already built,' enthuses Country Life Editor Mark Hedges. To register your support, visit www.cleanforthequeen.co.uk and tweet @Countrylifemag with the hashtag #CleanForTheQueen Katy Birchall…

DEVON event riders Mary King (below) and Lucy Wiegersma, along with actor and British Horse Society president Martin Clunes, are supporting a new ride across Dartmoor next week. Eventually, organisers hope that the Dartmoor Derby will be a three- to five-day ride, with overnight stops at hotels and ‘safari camps’ dotted over the moor. However, the concept will be tested in a smaller scale for the pilot Derby on September 25–28, when celebrities, such as Radio 2 DJ Sara Cox, will join a small number of guests. The ride has been inspired by the Mongol Derby, although it will be ‘much more luxurious. Dartmoor offers exceptional, scenic riding and people relish the chance to crack on at their own pace,’ explains founder Elaine Prior, who runs Liberty Trails, an adventure…

I ASKED a smart-looking soldier if he could point me towards the Spitfire display, but he responded apologetically that he was in fancy dress. So was nearly everyone else. The Goodwood Revival is the most charming, eccentric and wondrous event of the British summer. Priceless Ferraris are manically raced to a beat of popping corks and whiffs of engine oil and the South Downs draws a verdant shroud around the proceedings. We began the day with a tour of the spotless Rolls-Royce factory. The craftsmanship that goes into the making of the world’s greatest car was spinetingling—it’s a marque that still makes you proud to be British. We were also allowed to see a preview of the sexy new open-top Dawn convertible, which will be launched at Frankfurt this week.…

SIR–The year is at the turn! And had we not known it, the robin’s intimation would still have been unmistakable. He seems determined to emphasise the fact, and his incessant melodious song gives a fresh character to the season. After the clear joyous notes of the summer songsters his plaintive warblings seem to reach us through an atmosphere laden with mist and hoar frost and to suggest foliage drenched with dew and rain. His little heart seems trying to comfort us as we mourn the departure of long bright days and to beg us to turn our thoughts to Christmas cheer, and its attendant social joys —V. S. D.…

Pembrokeshire Early potato THESE distinctive little spuds are bright, white and are grown exclusively in the unique coastal climate of Pembrokeshire, Wales. They have flourished in the county’s warm, Gulf Stream air jets and fertile red sandstone soil since the mid 1700s. As their name suggests, Pembrokeshire Earlies are picked earlier in the season—by late July—than other varieties. The first crop is so delicate that the potatoes are almost always picked by hand to avoid being damaged by machinery. This early harvest results in a soft, fantastically thin skin, meaning farmers tend to sell the first crops still coated in soil to keep the skin intact. In recognition of the important geographical tie and of the methods and ingredients involved in producing them —and much to the delight of the…

Harry Meade is a leading event rider and part of Britain’s silver-medal-winning team at last year’s World Championships. He will be competing in the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials this weekend ‘I studied History of Art at Bristol University and neo-Classicism particularly appealed to me. Its idealism presents a style that is reassuringly simple and the subject often provides a didactic example of how to live. I find David’s Death of Marat aesthetically beautiful and its ordered simplicity appealing. It contains no hyperbole or hot air; it is an image of death in its purity. I like the idealised realism—in the same way as Munnings painted every horse to look conformationally perfect. I loved my days at Bristol and this painting reminds me of a very happy time in…

Simon Thurley considers his architectural work and its inspiration WHEN, in 1944, the government issued its first set of criteria for listing buildings, one of the most stringent was for buildings that could be considered a work of art. The sole example given in the guidance was of the Custom House (originally the Exchange) in King’s Lynn, Norfolk (Fig 2). This little-known structure was designed by the equally little-known Norfolk architect Henry Bell. The judgement passed in 1944 stands today: the Custom House is a work of architectural genius, but how did King’s Lynn, or Lynn, as it is known to the locals, come to be the home of such a masterpiece? The answer is partly bound up with the commercial prosperity of the town. In 1600, Lynn was a…

GARDENS lurk everywhere in Agatha Christie’s mysteries. From their watchful position outside her fictitious country manors, garden teas or summer fêtes, they have certainly seen their fair share of murder. But have they ever taken part in the nasty deed? Could Miss Marple’s observation about the outwardly innocent English village be applied to the English garden itself? Does it hide the potential, as she would say, for ‘a great deal of wickedness’? At first, according to Mrs Bantry in The Body in the Library, gardens seem to be the one reliably innocent thing in Christie’s stories, consistently above suspicion. In fact, Mrs Bantry refuses to believe that a certain young man is connected to a recent murder purely on the vicarious virtue of his mother’s good and well-mannered garden with…

Carpet manufacturers: Quirky B for Alternative Flooring THE Quirky B collection for Alternative Flooring is the new kid on the patterned-carpet block. Launched last year with collections by decorator Ashley Hicks and textile designer Margo Selby, it’s a spin-off that came about by demand. ‘We were getting lots of calls from customers saying that the nudes and beiges of our Alternative Flooring collections weren’t working with children,’ explains head of creative Lorna Haigh (above). ‘Patterned carpet has long been used in the commercial sector, but we felt there was a gap in the market for contemporary patterned carpet designed specifically for the home.’ Over the past few decades, the British carpet industry has had to adapt to the appetite for wood, tile and smooth floors. ‘You can’t easily experiment as…

Rosie Paterson picks out some boot-room furniture to help keep your carpets clean and pawprint free…

LUXURY is key for sitting rooms this season and one of the best ways to channel it is with the latest take on metallics. Old gold, burnished metals and contrasting polished brass are combined with taupe, sand and rich neutrals for extra depth and glamour. Shapes are charmingly simple, with linear forms softened by spheres and curves, minimal patterns and a nod to pared-back geometrics alongside motifs drawn from nature. Above all, the feeling is warm and welcoming, with texture playing a more important role than ever, and materials, such as velvet, wool and silk, offering an irresistible blend of tactile opulence with a subtle glow.…

• Julian Perry and Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis are showing in ‘Arborealists: the Art of Trees' at Mottisfont Abbey, near Romsey, Hampshire, from September 19 to November 15 (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont). Mr Perry's solo exhibition, ‘When Yellow Leaves', is at Mascalls Gallery, Paddock Wood, Kent, from September 19 to December 12 (www.mascallsgallery.org) • David Inshaw's solo exhibition ‘New Paintings: Time Past and Time Present' is at the Fine Art Society, 148, New Bond Street, London W1, from September 16 to October 1 (www.faslondon.com) • Christopher Bramham is represented by Jonathan Clark & Co, 18, Park Walk, London SW10 (www.jcfa.co.uk) • Chloe Le Tissier can be contacted through her website at www.chloeletissier.com • Tai Shan Schierenberg is represented by Flowers Gallery, 21, Cork Street, London W1 (www.flowersgallery.com) • Mark Frith can be contacted through…

PROMPTED by the success of last year’s event, which pulled in some 20,000 visitors and made many sales, the Berkeley Square LAPADA Fair will run for an extra day this time, from September 22 to 27. Another indicator of confidence is that 85% of the 100 exhibitors have signed on again and there was no difficulty at all in filling the remaining spaces. The difficulties of the early years, in designing a workable space around the trunks of several of the square’s London plane trees, have long been overcome and, as at the Great Exhibition in 1851, when trees had to be accommodated in the Crystal Palace, they have now become a pleasing feature. LAPADA’s chief executive and fair director, Rebecca Davies and Mieka Sywak, tell me that, on evidence…

THE mysterious disappearance of the Princes in the Tower is to be investigated by Philippa Langley, the historian and screenwriter who came to prominence when helping to locate Richard III’s remains in a Leicestershire car park. The princes—12-year-old Edward V, the heir to the throne, and his nine-year-old brother, Richard of Shrewsbury—are widely thought to have been murdered by their uncle, Richard III, in 1483, despite a lack of evidence. Miss Langley, however, is sceptical; she plans a different approach to the 532-year-old mystery, trying to locate historic documents in Britain and in Europe, including Spain and Portugal, and using professional cold-case investigators. ‘We do know that [Richard III’s successor] Henry Tudor tried to destroy all copies of Richard’s legal right to the throne, the Titulus Regius. What we don’t…

VETERAN explorer and adventurer Robin Hanbury-Tenison has marked his 80th birthday on May 7 next year by—almost—completing a series of eight challenges, from running the London Marathon, pot-holing through the Devil’s Arse in Derbyshire and sky-diving to scaling the four highest mountains in the British Isles. However, Mr Hanbury-Tenisonwho undertook these feats in a bid to raise £80,000 for Survival International—was defeated by 6ft-high waves when recently attempting to water-ski across the Channel from Dover to France. ‘I was knackered,’ he admits. ‘But I [later] skied 21 miles along the Cornish coast and so proved that I could have made it to France if it had been calmer.’ To donate, visit www.robinsbooks.co.uk…

ALTHOUGH a Parisian, Olivier Widmaier Picasso thinks the City of Light is now outshone by London. However, the French capital does have one thing we don’t: Paris Match. Founded in 1949, the magazine’s seemingly unchanging photo reportage of current affairs and celebrity life says as much about France as COUNTRY LIFE does about Britain. Mr Picasso has recently been trawling its archive for ‘Revealed’, an exhibition of 30 images of artists at the Sofitel London St James Hotel in Waterloo Place, SW1, until October 30. Several of the photographs, not surprisingly, show Mr Picasso’s grandfather, Pablo; my favourite captures Picasso as he nibbles the flesh from a sole, revealing a skeleton that he’d soon turn into a sculpture. But I hope Mr Picasso will forgive me for saying that some…

Harry Eyres The great wine of the rugged Upper Douro valley in northern Portugal, surely, is sweet, fortified Port. Well, only up to a point, Lord Copper. The Upper Douro was producing magnificent unfortified red wine before the fashion evolved in the 18th century for stopping the fermentation with brandy and, now, world-class red table wines, as well as Ports, are being crafted again from the terraced vineyards above the once treacherous, now dammed river. Why you should be drinking them Until quite recently, all the best grapes from the Upper Douro went into premium Port, which commanded higher prices than the table wine of the region (‘only for peasants,' as one old-style British Port shipper is reputed to have remarked). Only in the past 10 years or so…

WHEN Nicholas Parsons made his West End stage debut, Clement Attlee was the Prime Minister and Elizabeth Windsor was still a princess. The launch of Just A Minute, Radio 4’s longest-running comedy, pulling in some 2.5 million listeners a week, was 20 years away. No wonder regular panellists such as Paul Merton gently rib their esteemed chairman for his age. Yet Mr Parsons, now in his 10th decade, remains a busy man. The night before we met, he’d completed two new recordings of Just A Minute and had just finished a stint at the Edinburgh Festival, where he has performed his Happy Hour cabaret show for the past 15 years. ‘I was sold out every night for the whole of the 10 days,’ he says, reflecting on his intense schedule.…

A book of the series will be published in October THIS exquisite angel is one of a pair from a great Baroque altarpiece in white marble commissioned in 1685 by James II from the sculptor Grinling Gibbons and his Flemish partner Arnold Quellin. It was made under great pressure of time for a sumptuous new Catholic chapel in Whitehall Palace. By the terms of the contract, 50 men were continuously to be at work on the project (and more if it fell behind). The Protestant diarist John Evelyn was appalled but dazzled by the chapel in 1687: ‘Nothing can be finer than the magnificent Marble work and Architecture at the end’ with its painting of the Annunciation and statues of Sts John, Peter Paul and the Church. Following James…

THE garden is at its richest in autumn, when unremarkable greenery is transformed into gold, scarlet and purple and flowers are spurred into one last fling. Here, among the dew-silvered cobwebs, waspy windfalls and first fallen leaves, a legion of bulbs blooms every October. Invisible for much of the year, miraculous in the speed with which it materialises and unseasonable in its limpid luminosity, this is Crocus speciosus. Its name shows the shortcomings of translating botanical Latin: speciosus is usually rendered as ‘showy’. Although its flowers are certainly spectacular, they’re far from gaudily self-assertive, let alone meretricious. Rather, they’re shapely, silken-textured flutes that stand 3in–6in tall. They range from violet to white via sapphire, cerulean and pale mauve-pink, often feathered with veins in a darker tone of the same hue.…

The top dogs New Zealand Talk to any informed rugby watcher and they’ll tell you it’s New Zealand’s tournament to lose. The reigning champions have lost just three games in 45 outings since the last World Cup, on home ground in 2011, and seem equipped to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, almost at will. With captain Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, the world’s highest points scorer, the All Blacks are streetwise, know what it takes to win and have match makers all over the park in the shape of Julian Savea, Ma’a Nonu and Aaron Smith. South Africa Sure to rattle them, however, are two-time winners South Africa, but, with only one win in 2015, they’re facing injury concerns over key players, selection quandaries and a political brouhaha…

Arabella Youens searches for this autumn’s flooring inspiration–it’s no child’s play 1. This design is part of Ben Pentreath's collection for Quirky B by Alternative Flooring. Cube in Hawksmoor costs £98.73 per sq m (01264 335111; www.alternativeflooring.com) 2. Shoreline is part of Cormar Carpet's Living Naturals range and costs £22 per sq m (01204 881234; www.cormarcarpets.co.uk) 3. This herringbone carpet, Harry, shown here in Aluminium, is also available in other colours. £81 per sq m by Crucial Trading (www.crucial-trading.com 01562 743747) 4. Blenheim Carpets designed this custom-made fine-quality Axminster carpet inspired by the surrounding decor of the owner's house. From £150 per sq m (plus VAT) (020–7823 6333; www.blenheim-carpets.com) 5. The John Lewis Mohawk Comfort Velvet carpet, shown in Almond White, costs £35 per sq m (0345 604 9049; www.johnlewis.com)…

FRESH greens took hold in the first half of the year and their appeal is set to last for seasons to come. Coordinated with deeper sage, fern and moss tones, the effect can be as lush and verdant as the patchwork fields of the countryside. For the bedroom, a green palette works especially well when combined with contrasting silver shades and mid-tone greys. Paired with natural repeating patterns, delicate starburst designs and understated geometric forms, the effect is effortlessly crisp and classic. Subtle shimmer adds an extra layer of elegance—bring it in with gleaming glass ceiling lighting and fabrics with a lustrous sheen.…

A fascinating seminar series covering all aspects of interior design in 2015 will take place throughout the five days of Focus/15 at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. Don't miss the COUNTRY LIFE -sponsored ‘Creating Classic Design in a Contemporary World', hosted by Tim Gosling, which takes place on Sunday, September 20 from 3pm to 4pm. Tickets are offered to readers for £7.50 (usually £10). Please quote COUNTRY LIFE when booking (020–7352 1900) Meanwhile, at Decorex, on Tuesday, September 22, our contributor Giles Kime (executive editor of our sister magazine Homes & Gardens) is going to be talking to the designer Abigail Ahern about her work. It starts at 2pm and follows another discussion with the acclaimed rug designer Luke Irwin (who owns Rabbit, the winner of our quest to find…

Surrey The Hawthorns School, Bletchingley East Sussex Cumnor House School, Danehill Oxfordshire Dragon and Summer Fields, Oxford; Carrdus School, Banbury; Moulsford Preparatory School, Moulsford-on-Thames; Rupert House, Henley-on-Thames; Cot-hill, Abingdon Hampshire Farleigh School, Andover; Dunhurst, Petersfield Northamptonshire Winchester House, Brackley Buckinghamshire Beacon School, Amersham Berkshire Lambrook, Winkfield; Elstree, Woolhampton; Cheam, Thatcham Somerset Paragon School and King Edward's School, Bath Wiltshire Chafyn Grove and Leaden Hall, Salisbury Dorset Port Regis, Shaftesbury Source: Savills…

Internazionale dell'Antiquariato makes a convincing claim to be housed in the most beautiful setting of all antique and art fairs, the 17th-century Palazzo Corsini on the Arno, once home to the nephew of Pope Clement XII. Perhaps the Archbishops' Palace in Salzburg could challenge it, but the August fair there is now much smaller than it was-maybe because, to generalise, people at the world's greatest classical music festival, civilised as they are, are not the most natural buyers of art and antiques. Visitors to Florence quite possibly are. The Biennale, originally launched in the Palazzo Strozzi (splendid, but lacking the river frontage) in 1959 is now the oldest continuously running European art and antiques fair. It is still principally a fair for Italian exhibitors, but the international element is growing…