Kate Green celebrates the Revd Gilbert White, the original ecologist whose 1789 book on flora and fauna has never been out of print
Mad as a box of frogs
Our amphibious friends were once thought to possess mystical powers and they now aid the advance of medicine, as Ian Morton discovers
The ghost of golden daffodils
David Jones traces the fall and rise of the Tenby daffodil — all but extinct in the wild, but making a return as a cultivated bloom
The lure of Venice
Matthew Dennison investigates Britain’s long-standing love affair with the Italian maritime republic, fuelled by Canaletto’s enchanting, kaleidoscopic vedute
Playing the fool
Who could have foreseen the influence of tarot cards down the ages? Deborah Nicholls-Lee delves into decks and divination
Dr Ximena Fuentes Torrijo’s favourite painting
The Ambassador of Chile picks a vast, dreamlike Surrealist work that portrays a turbulent world.
A sense of delight
John Goodall marvels at the outstanding array of new and restored buildings on the grand Aldourie estate in Inverness-shire
Snakes and snails and puppy-dog tales
Matthew Dennison pays tribute to Peter and Iona Opie, who pre-served much-loved folklore and fairy tales for future generations
The good stuff
Work out in style with Hetty Lintell’s elegant exercise picks
Interiors
Amelia Thorpe shares the best of London Design Week wares, plus an elegant room with a view
Shaping the view
Tiffany Daneff admires the vista of rural Northamptonshire from the delightful Modernist garden created for a converted cart house
Foraging
Listen in as John Wright shares his thoughts on wood ears, the fungus with a gelatinous texture
Arts & antiques
Thomas Girtin’s exquisite landscapes were a match for Turner before the artist was cut down in his prime, reveals Carla Passino
History triumphs over invention
A brilliantly acted historical play conquers overproduced Greek mythology for Michael Billington
The author of ‘A Chance Meeting’ talks to Apollo about the reissue of her dazzlingly original account of more than a century of artistic endeavour in the United States
The designer’s wallpaper patterns are so familiar that they’re in danger of being taken for granted – but there’s still plenty to discover if we look more closely
The non-stop English springer is still our number one working spaniel, reveals Matthew Dennison, as he delves into this enthusiastic, energetic breed
Snake, rattle and roll
Rob Crossan investigates the deeply spiritual origins of that enduring family board-game favourite Snakes and Ladders
Heard it on the radio
The wireless broke new ground as the first form of home-based mass entertainment and is still going strong in the age of the smart speaker, finds Ben Lerwill
Friends with benefits
Nematodes are a natural way to halt the march of all manner of garden pests and Charles Quest-Ritson is a convert
Mould and behold
Josiah Wedgwood was a brilliant businessman with a remarkable social conscience. Tristram Hunt assesses his life and legacy
Catch us if you can
Owain Jones sizes up six of the best as he picks out the players to watch in this year’s Guinness Six Nations rugby extravaganza
Roger Morgan-Grenville’s favourite painting
The conservation campaigner selects a work that inspired his lifelong obsession with seabirds
A Palladian premonition
Richard Hewlings offers a fresh analysis of the architecture at Bramham Park, a highly original West Yorkshire country house
The legacy
Kate Green remembers Robert FitzRoy, the founder of the Met Office whose name lives on in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast
Dear country diary
Paul Fleckney flicks through The Guardian’s Country Diary, which has offered a snapshot of rural life for more than 120 years
Interiors
The best stoves and fireplaces picked by Amelia Thorpe, plus the alternatives to burning logs
Luxury
Hetty Lintell’s top timepieces and James Haskell’s favourite things
Magnificent mahonias
Charles Quest-Ritson makes the case for mahonias, arguing that their pleasantly scented flowers are a seasonal delight
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson pairs peppery horseradish with salmon fillets
Ring-dove beauteous!
John Lewis-Stempel coos over the much-maligned wood pigeon, that canny, keen-eyed and fast-flying stalwart of our countryside
SUNDAY MORNING (January 26, 2025): Comedian and actress Susie Essman was a kid from the Bronx, and maintains a devotion to this monumental, magical and, at times, maligned slice of the Big Apple.
She takes “Sunday Morning” viewers on a tour, joined by such Bronx luminaries as writer and humorist Ian Frazier, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, actor and playwright Chazz Palminteri, rapper and entrepreneur Fat Joe, and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.
HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE (January 23, 2025): The latest issue features the destruction of medieval England’s Jews, British soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, unreported murder in East Germany, ‘mad duchess’ Elizabeth Cavendish, and more.
For the Portuguese empire to rise, an old world had to give way. Rivals in Europe’s lucrative spice trade, how much did they know about the powerful Mamluk sultanate?
Man-Devil: The Mind and Times of Bernard Mandeville, the Wickedest Man in Europe by John J. Callanan revels in the making of the controversial satirist and philosopher.
COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (January 21, 2025): The latest issue features ‘They’ve got charm’ – The fabulous finch family; Which commuter character are you?; Ripping yarns – Jane Austen’s shocking legacy; Marmalade secrets and the wizard quizmaster…
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE (December 30, 2024): The latest issue features ‘In Search of the World’s Smallest Monkey’ – A journey into Ecuador’s remote forests to spy on adorable, and suprisingly chatty, pygmy marmosets.
Hoover Institution (December 22, 2024): The depth of Hoover’s scholarship is reflected in the numerous books published by our fellows on a broad variety of topics and issues.
Edited by Matt Pottinger (Hoover Institution Press) Publication Date: July 1, 2024
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has openly expressed his intention to annex Taiwan to mainland China, even threatening the use of force. An invasion or blockade of Taiwan by Chinese forces would be catastrophic, with severe consequences for democracies worldwide. In The Boiling Moat, Matt Pottinger and a team of scholars and distinguished military and political leaders urgently outline practical steps for deterrence.
the full proceedings from this conference—the presentations, responses, and discussions. In it, participants debate the meaning of getting monetary policy “back on track,” the significance of recent bank failures, and how to improve forecasting and oversight.
In The End of Everything, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span centuries, from the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World, to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war’s drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again.
By H.R. McMaster (HarperCollins Publishers) Publication Date: August 27, 2024
At War with Ourselves is the story of helping a disruptive president drive necessary shifts in US foreign policy at a critical moment in history. H.R. McMaster entered an administration beset by conflict and the hyperpartisanship of American politics. With the candor of a soldier and the perspective of a historian, McMaster rises above the fray to lay bare the good, the bad, and the ugly of Trump’s presidency and give readers insight into what a second Trump term might look like.
By Charles G. Palm (Hoover Institution Press) Foreword by Condoleezza Rice, Introduction by Stephen Kotkin Publication Date: June 1, 2024
In late 1991, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. Over the next 12 years, the Hoover Institution microfilmed and published the newly opened records of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet State. Charles Palm, who led this mission, details how he and his colleagues secured a historic agreement with the Russian Federation, then launched and successfully carried out the joint project with the Russian State Archives and their partner, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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