Innholdsfortegnelse for 15-Nov-2017 i Country Life

GENERATIONS of teachers who used William Of Wykeham’s observation that ‘Manners Makyth Man’ to reprimand schoolboys for failing to open doors or to stand up when appropriate missed the point. However worldly the multi-tasking Bishop of Winchester, chancellor and educationalist was, it’s unlikely that his use of the word ‘manners’ referred to tucking in a female companion’s chair at dinner or proffering a coat on a crisp winter evening. Rather than making a comment on male etiquette, it seems more likely that he was highlighting the fact that the way we behave determines what we are . Nor, in the 14th century, was the thought startlingly new, having been a key theme of Aristotelian philosophy that was conceived more than a millennium beforehand. However, the fact that William of Wykeham…

A SIGNIFICANT collection of 186 ancient coins spanning 25 centuries has been discovered in a drawer at Scotney Castle, Kent. The hoard, which research suggests was amassed by Edward Hussey III and his son Edwy in the 19th century, mostly includes Roman money, as well as coins from as far afield as Syria and China. One coin—among the earliest silver tokens struck in Europe, with a depiction of a sea turtle, a creature sacred to Aphrodite—dates back to 7th-century bc Greece and a Welsh penny forged in 1787 features a druid and is inscribed with the words ‘We promise to pay the bearer one penny’. Eighteen of the coins have been classed as ‘rare’ by the Museum of London Archaeology, which calls the find ‘significant and diverse’. The high quantity…

AT our local farmers’ markets in Peters-field and Winchester, you can buy four oven-ready partridge or pheasant for just £10. They may become cheaper, I’m told, as the season progresses. How times have changed. Once, pheasant was treated as a supreme gift—my great friend at school used to turn up after half term with a brace for our housemaster, but now they are almost given away. Indeed, many shoots do just that to the game dealers. Game is a truly prized dish on the Continent, but, although it’s cheap, it has become unfashionable to the wider population, despite its low fat content and free-range credentials. Where there has been some success is thanks to chefs developing recipes for the modern taste, such as curried pheasant or Kentucky fried partridge breast.…

Facing the chop Q I’m a woman ‘of a certain age’ and my hairdresser has started encouraging me to go for a shorter, ‘more mature’ style. I’ve always treasured my long tresses, but my children suggested they might be easier to maintain if I cut it off. Should I give in? A Oh, please stand your ground. Of course your hairdresser wants to cut it—it’s a lucrative monthly contract for life. Your children are bedazzled by celeb-mags depicting Rihanna and Little Mix, whose hairstyles are again dictated by scissor-happy salonistas. And yet, in my unhumble opinion, the most beautiful older women of today have kept it long. It must be conditioned like an athlete, of course, and pinned up into a loose chignon, but Phyllida Law, Daphne Selfe and…

Boom bang a bang ONCE again we have been in the grip of firework madness, which seems to last longer each year. Apart from the big organised weekend displays held over a couple of weeks around November 5, private events happen on any night of the week. Indeed, it seems fireworks are used all year round these days. It’s the loud bangs that disturb our pets, but it’s not just domestic animals that can be traumatised—farm animals, horses and wildlife all suffer, too. Perhaps a sensible solution would be to ban noisy ones in favour of silent ones, which are becoming increasingly available. Collecchio, a town in Italy, has done just that for the sake of their animals. If people must have noise with their fireworks, why not…

‘The charity aims to keep the memory of those who died in our consciousness’ THAT no one in England lives more than 3½ miles from graves maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is a staggering comment on their number and ubiquity. This organisation was established a century ago to create and look after the memorials for British and Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives in the industrialised slaughter of the First World War. The CWGC went on to memorialise the dead of the Second World War and, today, its responsibilities are global. It cares for the records, graves and memorials of 1.7 million men and women in about 23,000 locations in 150 countries and territories. In its centenary year, the Commission has embarked on an important initiative: the…

COOKING for a crowd—as anyone who has driven to Waitrose in a pre-dinner-party panic and grabbed every focaccia in the bakery section knows—is stressful. Spare a thought then, for the chefs whose job it is to create the menus for events of national importance. Part magician, part town planner, the person tasked with feeding the guests at a royal wedding or anniversary bash has to ensure that each dish stands out, but that the whole is far greater thanthe sum of its parts—a statement of intent and a triumphant exercise in flag-waving. Menus, you see, can be a very effective way of delivering messages. When, for instance, the one from the dinner given by Edward VIII for the Prime Minister and his advisers the night before he abdicated came to…

One of the enduring joys of spring is the drifting scent of wallflowers from under an open window. Now is the time to plant them. Cultivate the bed well, incorporating well-rotted organic matter, and bring it to a planting tilth, level but not too fine. An edging of forget-me-nots always looks well and goes in first, so that you have a neat frame over which you step to plant the wallflowers. Grade these latter for size and fairly jam them in to keep them upright during the winter months. In April, you will be the toast of your envious neighbours. SCD…

‘Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage,’ declared Theodore Roosevelt. It’s a maxim with which we at COUNTRY LIFE wholeheartedly concur; mannerly male behaviour never goes out of fashion. We do acknowledge, however, that modern manners are a minefield, which is why we have demystified the handshake, cracked the black-tie dress code and revealed the only three hats you’ll ever need. If this sounds too earnest, there’s Kit Hesketh-Harvey’s irreverent life advice, Adrian Dangar’s thrilling boys’ tours, Tom Parker Bowles and Harry Eyres’s food and wine to die for, Charles Rangeley-Wilson’s ultimate car boots, plus Ranulph Fiennes on what it’s like to saw your own fingers off. All in all, plenty of inspiration for 2018’…

Quiet comfort 35 wireless noise-cancelling headphones, £329.95, Bose (www.bose.co.uk) Axington washbag, £65, Otis Batterbee (020–7431 8563; www.otisbatterbee.com) Luggage tag, £40, set of two, Aspinal of London ( as before ) Passport cover, £55, Aspinal of London ( as before ) Percy sunglasses, £160, Finlay & Co (020–7493 8385; www.williamandson.com) Pocket square, £35, Thomas Pink (020– 3949 8678; www.thomaspink.com) Spitfire cufflinks, £95, Aspinal of London ( as before ) Napoli hat, £250, Lock & Co (020–7930 8874; www.lockhatters.co.uk) Leather journal, £95, Aspinal of London (01428 648180; www.aspinaloflondon.com) Powershot G9 X Mark II camera, £410.99, Canon (020–7660 0186; www.canon.co.uk) Transocean Chronograph Unitime watch, £9,130, Breitling (020–7518 7010; www.breitling.com) Coniston tan scotch country-grain boots, £440, Crockett & Jones (020–7839 5239; www.crockettandjones.com)…

Dress shirt, £370, Emma Willis (020–7930 9980; www.emmawillis.com) Velvet bow tie, £50, Favourbrook (020–7493 5060; www.favourbrook.com) Williams Elegant 48 gin, £42.50, William Chase (01432 820455; www.chasedistillery.co.uk) Classique cufflinks, £6,600, Breguet (0845 273 2400; www.breguet.com) Classique white-gold watch, £16,200, Breguet ( as before ) S. T. Dupont Orient Express lighter, £2,200, William & Son ( as before ) Money-clip wallet, £160, Ettinger (020–8877 1616; www.ettinger.co.uk) Waistcoat, £195, Oliver Brown (020–7259 9494; www.oliver brown.org.uk) Colonia Mirra Eau de Cologne, from £170 for 100ml, Acqua di Parma (01932 233861; www.acquadiparma.com) Tumbler, £55, William & Son (020–7493 8385; www.williamandson.com) Silk paisley scarf, £85, Aspinal (01428 648180; www.aspinaloflondon.com) Loake patent shoes, £125, Oliver Brown ( as before )…

Brooklands goggles, £995, E. B. Meyrowitz (020–7493 5778; www.ebmeyrowitz.co.uk) Leather gloves, from £63, Bentley ( as before ) Classic Fusion Blue Titanium Watch, £6,400, Hublot (020–3214 9970; www.hublot.com) B keyring, £25, Bentley (0333 247 0241; www.bentleymotors.com) Greenwich tech case, £495, Smythson (0808 164 1801; www.smythson.com) Corduroy cap, £80, AMI at Mr Porter (0800 044 5705; www.mrporter.com) Cashmere scarf, £125, Bentley ( as before ) Sports performance neoprene belt with rubber-coated buckle, £129.50, Elliot Rhodes (020–7730 4000; www.elliotrhodes.com) The Monte Carlo driver shoes, £140, Fairfax & Favor (01760 338199; www.fairfaxandfavor.com)…

‘ Fine wine is where our senses touch the sublime’ FINE wine is where our humble, earthy, animalistic senses of taste and smell touch the sublime. Wine itself is earthy, inescapably so, but it can also be, as Robert Louis Stevenson put it so beautifully in his northern California travel book The Silverado Squatters, ‘bottled poetry’. What Stevenson meant was that the finest wine distills the essence of place as nothing else can, but the phrase implies something beyond the idea of wine as a quintessence of place—it suggests that wine can approach the realm of art. Like art or music, it demands not just to be enjoyed for sheer sensual pleasure, but to be appreciated in depth—which means to be discussed and debated. Wine is…

‘I hate being called an adventurer–it makes me sound like a libertine’ HOW do you do, Sir Ranulph?’ I say, shaking the proffered hand (which, incidentally, is XXL, rather like everything else to do with the great explorer). ‘Please, call me Ran. Everyone does,’ he booms back, springing out of one of the Royal Geographical Society’s (RGS) deepest armchairs with the energy of a man half his age (he’s 73). ‘I must apologise, but I am afraid you’ll have to shout. I was learning to dive yesterday and I seem to have perforated my eardrum.’ After we’re seated and refreshments ordered, Sir Ranulph smiles encouragingly. ‘I thought I would begin by asking you about your life as an explorer and then, perhaps, move on to other, more personal subjects,’ I…

A HIGHLY valuable Mediterranean black truffle has been successfully cultivated in Monmouthshire— a first for the UK and the farthest north the species has ever thrived. Scientists claim that the 16g (0.5oz) Périgord black (above, Tuber melanosporum), which is growing within the root system of a Mediterranean oak tree planted in 2008 and harvested in March this year, was able to grow in Wales because of climate change. Part of a University of Stirling project with Mycorrhizal Systems, a commercial truffle business, the oak was treated with truffle spores and the surrounding soil with lime to make it less acidic, but no one expected either tree or truffle to flourish, claims researcher Paul Thomas. ‘We planted the trees just to monitor their survival, but we never thought this Mediterranean species…

THERE now exist eight Welsh mountain ewes that associate the faces of Emma Watson, Barack Obama (right), Fiona Bruce and Jake Gyllenhaal with food treats. Cambridge University scientists have been experimenting with these ewes, which were rescued from the slaughterhouse, and have discovered that sheep recognise human faces. They quickly learnt to discriminate faces from blank screens or other objects 90% of the time and were able to tell their four new celebrity friends apart from other faces eight times out of 10, even with different hairstyles. The results, which are published in Royal Society Open Science, could be of assistance in developing new drugs for dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions, as sheep’s brains are far more similar to humans’ than those of mice or rats. However, we are advised…

LONDON’S cathedral-like avenues of plane trees are now weeping their leaves, the evenings have drawn in and the first frost is in the air. Autumn closes in at last. The family, however, finds itself struggling to cope with the changing season. Searching out winter clothes for the children has revealed that nearly everything in the wardrobe is either too small or threadbare to use. Their evident gratification at the prospect of so many new clothes is in exact proportion to the despair of their parents. Meanwhile, a school letter has announced an infestation of head lice. Sure enough, a short search revealed quite impressive numbers of the nasty little things. By way of a response, we set to work washing all the linen in the house and submitted the children…

I liked introducing readers and others to Jura wines when they were still relatively undiscovered and eccentric. The cognoscenti had heard of the sherry-like vin jaune and perhaps even of obscure grape varieties such as Trousseau and Poulsard, but part of the attraction was that these wines were made by artisan wine-growers in a remote area, untouched by the winds of fashion. All that has changed. Jura is now in vogue in serious wine circles. Some of the producers now wear not blue overalls, but the finest suits from Charvet. Why you should be drinking them One of those producers is Guillaume d'Angerville, owner of the celebrated and very fine Marquis d'Angerville estate in Volnay and now of the 37-acre Domaine du Pélican between Arbois and Montigny. The story…

The Written Image is at Benjamin Spademan Rare Books, 14 Mason's Yard, London SW1 until November 30 (020–7930 8499; www.benjaminspademan.com) The American artist/film-maker Robert Perkins (b. 1949) says that words have always had a strong visual connection for him; an almost physical power. He is fascinated by the entanglement of words and images and, since the 1950s, has created a series of works in collaboration with poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Basil Bunting, J. D. McClatchy ( left : Zion ) and Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney and Octavio Paz, incorporating fragments of their poetry that they have chosen specially and written out by hand into paintings, prints and collages. These intimate works are like portraits of the poets; in the accompanying catalogue, the artist recalls his…

First place Colin Firth Charming, self-effacing and unfailingly polite, our 2017 Gentleman of the Year continues to navigate fame and success with modesty, good humour and courtesy. Often hailed as the quintessential on-screen gentleman-his name is synonymous with Mr Darcy's and there is no one better suited for the role of a stylish, authoritative Kingsman spy-it is his off-screen reputation that has caught our attention. The recipient of glowing reviews from fellow cast members, make-up artists and set runners, he's never been a fan of talking about himself and, thanks to a certain wet-shirt-in-the-lake scene, he's spent the past 22 years sheepishly brushing aside his global heartthrob status. He's devoted to his family (earlier this year, he applied for and was granted dual citizenship, so that he could have the…

‘We’ll have to help people run farms as businesses, not ways of life’ CLA presidents come in many estate sizes and guises—art collector, motorbiker, falconer and climber, to name more recent incumbents—but it’s been a few years since this rural business body was headed by a major arable farmer from East Anglia. Tim Breitmeyer, a racquets and real-tennis player and a passionate Africa traveller who was officially endorsed last week and is very much his own man, is visibly going to present a different stamp again. ‘The defining element of my presidency will be helping Government put elements in place to make British farming more profitable after Brexit,’ he says. ‘We’re going to have to help people run their farms as businesses and not ways of life.’ His words are…

‘We all deserve a little comfort food in these cooler months and the addition of leeks gives this thoroughly British dish an elegant twist’ Leek-and-pancetta meatloaf Cut a leek into thin ribbons and fry with a little olive oil. Add seasoning, a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard, a squeeze of ketchup, 500g of minced beef, a handful of fresh breadcrumbs and a beaten egg. Mix well. Prepare a loaf tin with layers of pancetta across the base and up the sides, then press the mince into the tin. Fold the pancetta over the top to seal and cook in a hot oven for 35–40 minutes. Serve slices of the loaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. Leek, spinach and pesto frittata Cut a leek into thin ribbons and fry with a…

‘Botany was a force for progress, a nation builder AT the same time as her Industrial Revolution, Britain underwent a botanical revolution. By the late 18th century, exploration, trade and colonialism were introducing us to plants in unimaginable variety. Keenly aware of their beauty, scientific interest and economic potential, George III and Queen Charlotte encouraged Sir Joseph Banks, the nation’s foremost plant prospector and promoter, to amass these newfound riches at their estate on the capital’s south-western outskirts. Thus began what, in the following century, would become the greatest repository of the globe’s flora, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The Crown was far from alone. The profusion of plant introductions was soon enriching many of our gardens and making botanists of the most curious and ambitious gardeners. To find out…

History The Age of Decadence Simon Heffer (Random House, £30) SIMON HEFFER is well-known to readers of certain newspapers as a trenchant polemicist. Less familiar, perhaps, is the extent of his erudition, manifest in a number of seriously weighty volumes—he is surely one of the few living Englishmen actually to have read Carlyle, let alone write a biography of him. This latest work, which runs to more than 800 pages, follows a study of the Victorian era, High Minds. This is scholarship of a high order: an impressive ability to synthesise wide-ranging sources and provide a cogent, readable narrative is spiced by the confident opinions, not to say barbs, of the newspaper columnist. This scourge of the errant mighty doesn’t let his pen rest simply because the subjects of his…

GENERALLY speaking, a collector who buys purely for investment is likely to lose by it. However, one instance of investment buying at the end of September seems justifiable. According to the New York Times, Tiffany & Co bought Audrey Hepburn’s copy of the script of Breakfast at Tiffany’s for £632,750 at Christie’s in London, ‘a record for a film script’ (Fig 1). The screenplay, with the actress’s annotations, was expected to sell for up to £90,000. ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s is such a significant work in cinematic history and we’re proud to have secured this important script for our extensive archives as a way to celebrate Tiffany’s popular-culture legacy,’ said chief brand officer Caroline Naggiar. Instinet analysts estimate that the purchase will add up to about 10 basis points of…

Engineered for success THE Aerodrome Range by Hordern-Richmond features a collection of aviation-inspired gifts made in the company’s Cotswolds workshops, including a very special pen machined from a Spitfire’s propeller blade (£170). Established in 1937 by Frederick Gordon-Lennox, the 9th Duke of Richmond, and Edmund Hordern, the Hordern-Richmond Aircraft Company began with the construction of the Autoplane twin-engined aircraft. The firm later became synonymous with the design and manufacture of aircraft propellers for fighters and bombers during the Second World War. Today, Hordern-Richmond is still closely associated with the manufacture of aircraft propellers for both historic and modern aircraft under the auspices of the Hercules brand (01453 885853; www.hercprops.com) Wimbledon Brewery, established in 2014, has become the official beer partner of the prestigious Mayfair-based gunmaker James Purdey & Sons.…

Breguet Type XXI 3817 Made for the French naval air army in the 1950s, today's reinvention includes this 42mm steel model on a brown calfskin leather strap. Its signature feature is a flyback chronograph that can be reset and restarted at the push of a button. £10,400 (0845 273 2400; www.breguet.com) Bremont ALT1-P2 Bremont's aviation watches have been attractive to the world's elite military units for most of the company's 15-year history. Civilian versions include the new ALT1-P2, a chronometer-certified chronograph with a hardened-steel case. £3,895 (0845 094 0690; www.bremont.com) Tudor Heritage Black Bay Chronograph At one time or another, Tudor's Submariners were the watch of choice for the US Navy and the Marine nationale française. The 1954 Oyster Prince Submariner was the inspiration behind today's Heritage Black Bay collection,…

Winston black-calf shoes, £550, Crockett & Jones (020–7839 5239; www.crockettandjones.com) Notepad, £190, Ettinger (020–8877 1616; www.ettinger.co.uk) Pocket square, £35, Favourbrook (020–7493 5060; http://favourbrook.com) Black flapover briefcase, £2,075, William & Son (020–7493 8385; www.williamand son.com) Lobster-print silk tie, £69, Beaufort & Blake (020–3793 2867; www.beaufort andblake.com) Essenza cologne, from £69, Acqua di Parma (01932 233861; www.acquadiparma.com) Cellini watch, £11,200, Rolex (020–7024 7300; www.rolex.com) Card holder, £55, Aspinal of London (01428 648180; www.aspinaloflondon.com) Telescopic umbrella, £155, William & Son ( as before )…

FOR dandies, bankers, porters and clerks, there was a time when the ubiquitous waistcoat was as crucial to a man’s day as his hat. It’s not quite as commonplace today, but this little garment remains highly fashionable, whether on the high street, the commuter train or the first covert shoot of the season. ‘In the past 10 years, the popularity of the waistcoat has soared,’ confirms James Sleater, co-founder and marketing director of Cad & The Dandy of London’s Savile Row. ‘There was a time we made about one in 20 suits with a waistcoat. Now, it’s more like one in three. On the back of recessions, it seems there is always a swing back to more formal dressing. However, the recent rise of the waistcoat is also down to…

Self-winding chronograph watch with annual calendar, £50,350, Patek Philippe (020–7235 0111; www.boodles.com) Monsieur Beauregard Eau de Parfum, £178, Penhaligon's (0800 716108; www.penhaligons.com) Velvet slippers, £160, Oliver Brown (020–7259 9494; www.oliverbrown.org.uk) Silk dressing gown, £1,750, Turnbull & Asser (020–7808 3138; www.turnbullandasser.co.uk) Handcrafted acetate glasses, £795, E. B. Meyrowitz (020–7493 5778; www.ebmeyrowitz.co.uk) Writers Edition Antoine Saint-Exupéry fountain pen, £770, Mont Blanc (0345 504 0111; www.montblanc.com) S. T. Dupont lighter, £950, William & Son ( as before ) Pocket square, £35, Thomas Pink (020–7498 3882; www.thomaspink.com) Eye mask, £50, Otis Batterbee (020–7431 8563; www.otisbatterbee.com) Travel domino set, £450, Smythson (0808 164 1801; www.smythson.com) Square decanter, £375, William & Son (020–7493 8385; www.williamandson.com)…

Cotswolds Dry Gin This award-winning spirit includes locally grown lavender and hand-peeled-lime and pink-grapefruit zest in its nine botanicals, which are used exceedingly generously; more than 10 times the average weight of botanicals goes into each run of the copper pot still, producing a richly flavoured London Dry. There’s no chill-filtering, so when ice and tonic finally make contact, the botanicals’ essential oils form a beautiful pearlescent haze. Robust, fresh and perfectly balanced—this traditional gin has a memorable twist and was voted Best London Dry at the World Gin Awards last year. (01608 238533; www.cotswoldsdistillery.com) Fifty Pounds Gin Fifty Pounds is a quintessentially English and irresistibly smooth London Dry Gin. Its name goes back to the gin craze of the 18th century, when one in three houses distilled gin of…

The knives are out My new father-in-law insists on muscling in on the carving of the Sunday roast, even when he’s a guest in our home. How can I reclaim my rightful role? Oh, let him. He's spent hours in the car with your mother-in-law-he deserves a break. Sit, man, sit and have a drink. Navigating knickers I want to buy my girlfriend some underwear, but there’s something disturbing about lingerie departments. Is this the sort of thing I can do online? I promise you, you stand to be a great deal more disturbed if you go online. Embrace that lingerie department! It will be stuffed with charming retail assistants who pronounce it ‘lounge-array' and who will giggle and flirt with any man unusually entering their parlour as excitedly as…

PURDEY, Boisdale restaurants and BASC’s Taste of Game have teamed up to celebrate British wild game. The Eat Game Awards will recognise the champions of British game and there are 10 categories, covering chefs, pubs, retailers, butchers and more. The public has until February 28, 2018, to nominate a game-meat business or person and, after the nominations are in, the public can vote. Winners will be announced in October 2018. Visit www.eatgameawards.co.uk for information. Meanwhile, Game Changer, the initiative from BASC’s Taste of Game and the Food Teachers Centre that aims to teach 60,000 students to cook game by 2020, has been inundated with requests for sessions with schools since the launch in the summer. So far, more than 150 teachers have requested training on how to prepare pheasant, 140…

LAST month, a panel of esteemed judges (comprising Country Life Editor Mark Hedges, The Ritz’s Deputy Chairman Andrew Love, Savile Row shirt designer Emma Willis and food writer Tom Parker Bowles) gathered for lunch in the Michelin-starred Ritz restaurant on London’s Piccadilly to ponder who should be crowned Country Life’s 2017 Gentleman of the Year. After much deliberation, aided by fine wines and delectable dishes—langoustine followed by roast grouse—specially prepared by the hotel’s Executive Chef, John Williams MBE, it was unanimously decided that this year’s accolade should go to the actor Colin Firth.…

I THINK the thing I like most about November is the feel of the trigger against finger, metal against flesh, which is a sort of metaphor for the first month of winter—cold meeting heat. I was out this morning with the Baikal .410. It’s my children’s shotgun, but it’s light to carry and has the allure of the illicit. The .410 is the poacher’s gun, particularly in the folding version, hidden beneath a long coat, or, in the case of Tom, the village milkman when I was a child in the 1970s, under the vinyl seat of the van for a passing pot at a pheasant. In Herefordshire, we call this a proper drive-by shooting. The rain was thick this morning; it began as the sort of dollopy rain…

‘I’ve seen it steal the hearts of even the most hardened bamboo-hater’ SOME 22 years have passed since the bamboo Borinda papyrifera (syn. Fargesia papyrifera) was introduced to British cultivation from its native Yunnan. Over that time, it has proved hardy in all but the coldest and most exposed sites and comfortable in sun or dappled shade on most moist, fertile and well-drained soils. Once the object of interminable-seeming waiting lists, it has at last become more readily obtainable. All of which is just as well as none other of its tribe inspires such awe and longing among plant connoisseurs. I’ve seen it steal the hearts of even the most hardened bamboo-haters. Forming a dense clump, it stands up to 25ft tall, a vision of verticality save for its…

‘I can think of other reasons why the classics are being slowly abandoned THIS has been an unusually rich year for new plays. The Ferryman, Albion (Theatre, November 8), Ink, Labour of Love and Beginning, transferring from the National to the Ambassadors in the New Year, have all impressed. The smaller London theatres also do an excellent job in reviving neglected works of the 20th century—I’m looking forward to seeing J. M. Barrie’s Dear Brutus at Southwark Playhouse, Bernard Shaw’s Misalliance at Richmond’s Orange Tree and Jerome K. Jerome’s The Passing Of The Third Floor Back (a real rarity) at the ever-reliable Finborough in Earl’s Court. However, it strikes me there is a real gap: what you might term the standard British, and foreign, classic repertory. Of course, Shakespeare…

‘I would rather an image of a furious chef throwing hot tomato sauce over an underling’ I WAS re-reading The Pedant in the Kitchen, Julian Barnes’s witty collection of essays, when I came across his rules for keeping cookery books—or getting rid of them. By chance, my great-niece, Daisy, has a charity stall that’s pining for them, so I started a cull. My collection runs into the hundreds. I haven’t time to count them all, but the cupboard in the kitchen that houses the ones I use most holds 205. There are other bookcases with less useful books and this is where I started my rampage. I followed Julian’s advice—I used to work with him and know it’s usually sound—so first to go was Around the World in 80…