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During a Greek island summer holiday a few years ago, I'd spent almost the entire time lying on the beach reading. My resolute idleness was becoming something of a running […]

Countess Sondes is being served afternoon tea and scones. Her staff are wearing white jackets and starched aprons and the venue is Lees Court, a 4,500-acre arable estate near Faversham […]

Theatre actors often have just Sunday off, so we try to cram in as much as possible. As well as spending time with my husband, Alexander Hanson, who's also an […]

When she started looking for a house in Umbria, Sarah Cheshire, a business strategist from London, discovered that she had a problem - with windows. 'I wanted to be able […]

Cards, flowers, chocolates and champagne - you'd think that whatever your age and marital arrangements there's nothing to match the thrill of a Valentine's gift. Or is there? Send a […]

My best weekends are spent at my cottage in North Norfolk. I was interested in getting somewhere outside London and I saw it a few years ago while I was […]

We love getting away to the country but inevitably some weekends are spent in London because I'm needed at our furniture shop. On Saturday, we go to the farmers' market […]

The latest mobile phone, or vintage 1980s models, which can fetch up to pounds 1,000. Collectables, such as toy soldiers, Dinky cars and Royal Doulton. Designer labels for clothes or […]

The summer may be a distant memory, but there is no excuse for staying indoors and giving up on physical activity. Autumn is a great time of year to walk […]

Why Rye? It's peaceful and unchanging. There is a great sense of history and it's full of little curiosities, both buildings and people. Although the novelist Henry James lived and [...]

Clear, deep blue and shimmering with light, the hotel or villa pool can be one of the highlights of a summer holiday. As you dive into the water, stresses and [...]

'Leave dry cleaning in its packaging when you pack it,' says Unlisted London's Jayne Blight. 'For every bottom you pack, take three tops that go with it to create different […]

'Get bashing,' says Howard Fenn, handing me a hammer and a square of silver. His workshop in Bermondsey, south London, is soon filled with a cacophony of industrious banging as […]

As a premise for a reality TV show, it didn't sound like an obvious recipe for mass viewing: 22 Benedictine monks share their lives of austerity and self-denial for six […]

It seemed like the perfect solution. For someone who has always enjoyed the odd game of rounders in a park or on a beach, but has been handicapped by dreadful […]

Cocooned in towels, restful music playing in the background, the odour of massage oils (rosemary and lavender, since you ask) permeating the air and nothing but the imminent prospect of […]

Where could you find Julia Roberts sitting down to lunch next to a nurse from a nearby hospital whom she has never met before? The answer is at Bill's, a […]

-Don't assume that because materials are slipping or that the roof looks a mess it needs re-thatching. -Nor that a neat-looking roof (with a well-executed ridge pattern) is in prime […]

Ask most mothers what they really, really want and they will punch the air, demanding to 'Reclaim the House'. It is less a private battle against globalisation than despair at […]

-Christopher Wray has branches around the country (020 7751 8701; www.christopherwray.com). -Duluce Contempary Lighting, 70 North Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire (0113 243 6767). -Zeens Lighting, 775a Stratford Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham […]

The biggest compliment you can pay Phil Lawrence about his new shop in west London is to tell him it doesn't look like a menswear shop. 'I wanted a place […]

If you're linking a DVD player and hi-fi to your television, make sure they are of a similar specification so you don't lose sound and picture quality. Wall-mounting a widescreen […]

'An American customer bought a fake bearskin bedcover for her home in the Rocky Mountains and a bear broke in and slept on it.' Interior designer Cecilia Neal abstains from […]

Robin Llywelyn , the managing director of Portmeirion Village, a smart hotel in North Wales, would love a woven wool blanket from Melin Tregwynt in his Christmas present pile. His […]

When I was a student, my friend Emma made an interesting announcement - she was going to appear on Catchphrase, the quiz show. How we laughed - oh, the naffness […]

1. My Life by Bill Clinton (Random House Audio, cd pounds 16.99/audio cassette pounds 14.99). Read by the former President and ideal for those who don't want to wade through […]

My attitude to cleaning has always been the same as my attitude to doing a backflip into a swimming pool: I'd like to have a go and I'm fairly sure […]

His own novels might be a bit out of fashion at the moment, but Anthony Powell's dictum that 'Books Do Furnish a Room' has never been more apt. Powell probably […]

The revival of the cocktail has been well documented. Martinis, whiskey sours, negronis and Singapore slings are no longer only the stuff of Noel Coward plays and old films. In […]

One of the first things you see as you walk out of Wiesbaden's grand, Gothic station is a sign saying that this German spa town is twinned with Tunbridge Wells [...]

The babushka seemed particularly pleased with the purchases I had made from her tiny stall. 'Spaciba, spaciba,' (thank you, thank you) she cackled, pushing my roubles down between the many […]

Everyone has his or her own list of appalling student drinks: the Snakebite (half cider, half lager), the Blackwitch (cider, Pernod and black currant) or the Cement Mixer (Baileys, Kahlua […]

A delicate breeze gently lifts a flurry of snow off one of the onion domes of the Raifa monastery. Far above it, clouds drift by in a deep blue sky. […]

Using a hole-in-the-wall machine or ATM in Europe is such a quick and easy way of getting euros that most of us do it without thinking. But however convenient this […]

'How's that?' asks Nicky Perry, handing me a mug of tea. It's good - strong and refreshing. It tastes even better when you consider that we are in the heart […]

Most things that we buy for ourselves have an obvious practical use, with the exception of art. This is perhaps why, when it comes to choosing pictures, most of us […]

If familiarity breeds contempt, it is hardly surprising that most of us are so unimpressed with the word 'luxury'. After all, when a breakfast cereal can describe itself as 'luxury' […]

For even the most dedicated of shoppers, there are few prospects more alarming than Oxford Street in the sales. This weekend, hundreds of thousands of bargain hunters will be pouring […]

Get a group of Britons together and they will talk about the weather. That's the accepted wisdom anyway, but I'm not so sure. From my experience, it is increasingly common […]

'We had decided to swap excess of alcohol and dearth of transport options that New Year traditionally presents in the UK for a villa in Tuscany with a larder full […]

Before I went to Paphos my knowledge of western Cyprus was limited and rather idiosyncratic. My best friend at university was of Greek Cypriot parentage and at the beginning of [...]

From Laurel and Hardy's 1939 classic, A Chump at Oxford, to this year's adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction, film-makers have struggled to capture the essence of […]

He might be one of our most pugilistic politicians, but it was still quite a surprise to read in GQ magazine recently that Peter Mandelson loves nothing better than to […]

As I stepped onto the terrace of my holiday villa in southern Italy last month and gazed at the deep blue Ionian Sea I felt free and unencumbered. No work. […]

'I want you to feel that you look better with your glasses on than without them,' says Tom Davies, a man so devoted to eyewear that he wears a pair […]

The Berlin Wall might have come down more than a decade ago but in terms of German beach protocol, it is still as potent and divisive as ever. The thing […]

My first experience with an interior designer was not a happy one. Having banked a cheque for the advance of my first novel I decided that my tired and tatty […]

Over the coming weeks thousands of us will head for the crowded beaches of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic but northern Europe offers miles of near-empty sandy beaches that are […]

The exam-results season is upon us once again. Thousands of students around the country have just found out their grades. Obviously no one wants a First because that might look […]