Category Archives: History

Culture, Gardens, History, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – April 2, 2025 Preview

April 1, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (April 1, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Smaller Country Houses’; The Maldives unpacked; How to grow a magnificent magnolia and The Portmeirion phenomenon and secret pillboxes…

Interiors

The art of conversation can be aided by a carefully configured drawing room, says Emma Burns of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler

All ‘Clough-ed up’

Ben Lerwill marks 100 years of Portmeirion in North Wales, the outlandish architectural creation of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis

Property market

Arabella Youens casts her eye over compact country estates in Dorset, Devon and Hertfordshire

A prince among plantsmen

Charles Quest-Ritson is wowed by the memorable magnolias among the 6,000 plants in the Kent garden of Maurice Foster

Travel

Libby Brodie and Rosie Paterson explore the magnificent Maldives and Pamela Goodman shares not so fond memories of cheese fondue

Zoë Wanamaker’s favourite painting

The actress chooses a vibrant work bursting with the light, colour and energy of spring

A house of many inspirations

Jeremy Musson marvels at the amazing transformation of 300-year-old farm buildings at High Wardington House, Oxfordshire

The legacy

Kate Green pays tribute to Joe Henson, a ‘true gentleman’ who led the way in safeguarding some of our favourite native breeds

From this slumber you shall wake

Numbers have plummeted in the past 20 years, but plans are afoot to revive the fortunes of the hazel dormouse, reveals Jack Watkins

The good stuff

Immortalise your beloved pet in a beautiful piece of bespoke jewellery, suggests Hetty Lintell

London Life

Amie Elizabeth White embarks on the capital’s Big Egg Hunt, Country Life writers present all the titbits you need to know this month and Huon Mallalieu takes a trip down memory lane as he recalls the colourful characters of Booksellers’ Row

Foraging

John Wright lauds elderflower for its ‘scent beyond compare’

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino delves into the beauty, birds and beasts in the kingdom of J. M. W. Turner

Close to your chest

Huon Mallalieu investigates how the chest of drawers has gradually made itself at home in every room of the house

A song of the four seasons

Henrietta Bredin applauds the fusing of poetry and music in the exquisite song cycle ‘Seasons’

History, Magazines, Reviews

History Today Magazine – April 2025 Preview

March 26, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE (March 25, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Lost World of Ancient Assyria’ – The Library of Ashurbanipal, the African king at Edward VII’s coronation, the origins of India’s Brahmins, British witnesses to Buchenwald, spinning James I’s succession, and more.

The Library of Ashurbanipal

When it was discovered in the 19th century, the Library of Ashurbanipal revealed an ancient Assyrian empire previously known only through myth.

Bloody Mary and the Missing Heir

A male heir might have saved Queen Mary’s reign, and changed the shape of global Catholicism for good.

Vietdamned’ by Clive Webb review

Can Vietdamned: How the World’s Greatest Minds Put America on Trial by Clive Webb rescue Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre’s activism from irrelevance?

Culture, Gardens, History, Homes, Magazines, Reviews, Uncategorized

Country Life Magazine – March 19, 2025 Preview

March 19, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (March 19, 2025): The cover of Country Life’s 19 March 2025 issue, featuring Wollerton Old Hall Garden in Shropshire,

Building on a dream

Nicola Taylor tells Tiffany Daneff how she ‘picked up a spade and carried on’ where her father left off in a Northamptonshire wood

It starts with a seed

Is there anything more satisfying than growing a plant from seed? Find out how with John Hoyland

The ground crew

Christopher Stocks meets the unsung heroes and heroines of horticulture who keep Britain’s best gardens in mint condition

Shocking pinks

Tilly Ware recommends a trip to Cornwall’s Calamazag nursery to pick up the perfect pinks

United colours of Rolls-Royce

Toby Keel finds the British marque making a bold, banana-yellow statement as he gets behind the wheel of the new Series II Ghost

A uniform approach

Never try to appear fashionable or attempt to look young — Dylan Jones shares his golden rules on how to dress in your sixties

Hare’s to you

Murderous, mad and magnificent: the hare is a fascinating figure in art, discovers Michael Prodger

Sir James MacMillan’s favourite painting

The composer chooses a bold and moving religious painting

The architect for me

In the first of two articles, Clive Aslet examines the double act of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and client Reginald McKenna

Take it with a pinch of salt

Deborah Nicholls-Lee examines the salt-loving plants coming into their own in a changing climate

A night on the tiles

Harry Pearson finds drunken may-hem in the history of dominoes

The good stuff

A vase is a Mother’s Day gift that keeps on giving, says Hetty Lintell

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe applauds the updating of a Wiltshire sitting room, as Arabella Youens asks: are you sitting comfortably?

Sour to the people

Fish and chips wouldn’t be fish and chips without a glug of malt vinegar, argues Rob Crossan

Pho sure

Asian noodle soup tempts Tom Parker Bowles with its thrilling symphony of fragrant flavours

Foraging

Handle with care when picking hogweed and cow parsley for the kitchen, warns John Wright

Arts & antiques

Carlo Passino throws the spotlight on the engaging drawings of literary legend Victor Hugo

Directors take centre stage

Shakespeare and Chekhov are given an imaginative new spin — and Michael Billington approves

And much more

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Magazines, Philosophy, Reviews

The New Criterion ——- April 2025 Preview

March 15, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW CRITERION (March 15, 2025): The April issue features

The hard Frost by Brenda Wineapple

Vicar’s vision by Micah Mattix

Ambassador of dreams by Gary Saul Morson

The lush fields of allusion by Rachel Hadas

Ezra Pound & the mystery of the calling cards by William Logan

Essays, History, Journals, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Modern Age Journal – Winter/Spring 2025

March 12, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

MODERN AGE – A CONSERVATIVE REVIEW (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Art of Civilization’; No Canon, No West; Kitsch- An Essay in Definition; Flannery O’Connor’s Century…

Canons Win Culture Wars

Daniel McCarthy

Civilization is a product of canons. The Bible is a canon, and while the Iliad and Odyssey were not quite sacred scripture to the ancient Greeks, the Homeric epics went a long way toward establishing what it meant for a man or a city to be part of the Greek world. That world was almost a synonym for civilization itself. What was not Greek was barbarian.

Noam Chomsky’s War on War

David Gordon

Noam Chomsky has attained fame in two different areas. He is a world-renowned authority in linguistics and also a major public intellectual. But while in the former area his achievements are universally recognized, even by those who disagree with him, this is not so for his work as a public intellectual, where he is idolized by some, respected by others, tolerated by yet others, and execrated by more than a few.

Flannery at 100—and Forever

O’Connor’s work, fiction and not, is Catholic, gothic, Southern, and timeless.

Chilton Williamson, Jr.

∙

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – March 12, 2025 Preview

March 11, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (March 11, 2025): The cover of Country Life’s 12 March 2025 issue, featuring The Garden Hall at Pitshill House, West Sussex, as photographed by Paul Whitbread.

Water you wading for?

The village pond, once the hub around which community life revolved, is being reinvented as a ‘superpower’ habitat for rare species, finds Vicky Liddell

Sorry seems to be the easiest word

Deborah Nicholls-Lee makes no apology for asking why there is nothing more British than saying sorry (up to eight times a day, we regret to say)

Two’s company, three’s a crowd farmer

Jane Wheatley is impressed by a new European project linking farmers direct to consumers in an effort to ensure fair pricing

Peak sugar

Harry Pearson is sweet on Kendal Mint Cake, the original energy snack that is still going strong after conquering Everest and crossing the Antarctic

Arts & antiques

Nature’s beauty and vulnerability are laid bare in a new exhibition at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, as Carla Passino discovers

Josh Eggleton’s favourite painting

The chef and restaurant owner chooses a contemporary collage that keeps the viewer guessing

Like cats on a hot tin roof

A feline stand-off in a Wiltshire farmyard has echoes of tax and trade talks for Minette Batters

Gothic splendours

John Goodall hails the rebirth of Victorian gem Allerton Castle in North Yorkshire, some two decades after a devastating fire

The legacy

Kate Green lauds the brilliant, but tragically brief blooming of cello prodigy Jacqueline du Pré

The red army

Ian Morton reveals why we don’t want wood ants in our pants

The good stuff

Pretty pastels are back for spring, so think pink, says Hetty Lintell

Bring me everlasting flowers

Catriona Gray meets a man crafting blooms from coppiced hazel

If you want colour…

Picture-perfect primulas offer an easy way to festoon the garden with a kaleidoscope of colour, suggests Charles Quest-Ritson

Foraging

John Wright savours the peppery crunch and kick of black mustard, but he’ll never pick it in Yeovil

It’s a Scream

The wild work of Edvard Munch betrayed a troubled soul, but the Norwegian artist found salvation in Nature, declares Jessica Lack

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Magazines, Reviews, Science

The American Scholar – Spring 2025 Issue Preview

March 8, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (March 8, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Tiger, Tiger’ – Searching for the elusive big cat means learning to see the world anew…

Tiger Mom

At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind By Elizabeth Kadetsky

Asteroid Hunters

The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space rocks By Jessie Wilde

American Carthage

Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present By Charles G. Salas

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – February 19, 2025 Preview

February 18, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 18, 2025):

The legacy

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

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – February 5, 2025 Preview

February 5, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 5, 2025): The ‘Travel Issue’ features The Romance and Risk of a Big Adventure….

The inimitable Wodehouse

Roderick Easdale marvels at the ‘pure word music’ of P. G. Wodehouse, whose aristocratic comedies are still treasured as English-language classics

All I have to do is dream

Nod off with Tree Carr as she investigates what it means when our sleeping hours are filled with enchanting visions of wildlife and the natural world

London Life

· Giles Kime admires The Goring’s stylish new look

· All you need to know in the capital this month

· Arabella Youens visits the best second-hand markets

Travel

· Richard MacKichan dives into Canada

· Kate Eshelby treks across Pakistan

· Rosie Paterson takes a chance on Italy

· Adam Hay-Nicholls follows in Bond’s tyre tracks in the Swiss Alps

· Rosie Paterson ventures into the US wilderness

· Hetty Lintell selects top travel accessories

· Christopher Wallace relives a Cape Town-to-Cairo adventure

· Pamela Goodman visits a faithful old geyser

Jason Goodwin’s favourite painting

The writer and historian selects a pencil drawing alive with energy

Ruin and rebirth

In the second of three articles, John Goodall tells how Bramham Park in West Yorkshire rose from the ashes of an 1828 fire

The legacy

Octavia Pollock places David Garrick centre stage for his role in revolutionising the theatre

Interiors

The latest lamps and lighting options, with Amelia Thorpe

Pottery winners

Tiffany Daneff talks terracotta with Beth Tarling, a Cornish collector with a passion for flowerpots

Foraging

All flash and no flavour — John Wright pans the scarlet elfcup

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino reveals the tale of the Royal Academy’s Prince and ponders the identity of the sitter for a 16th-century Venus

Let there be light

Matthew Dennison enlightens us on the history of the chandelier from its origins as a candlelit ‘crown of shimmering gold’

Alright, petal

Catriona Gray meets the talented botanical illustrators celebrating 30 years of chronicling Chelsea Physic Garden’s plant collection

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, History, Magazines

ART: Apollo Magazine – February 2025 Preview

February 2, 2025 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

APOLLO MAGAZINE (February 2, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Poking fun at 18th-Century Paris’…

The menacing visions of Jusepe de Ribera

Though clearly influenced by Caravaggio, the Spanish painter rendered saints and sinners in a ferocious style all of his own

The uneasy business of being an American artist: an interview with Rachel Cohen

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 repeat performances of William Morris

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