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Country Life: Snake tales
02 March 2005
My theme this week is exotic animals. I know this is not necessarily what you might expect from a column called Country Life, but then it doesn't specify which country.

Country Life: A snip in time
23 February 2005
This might be the first time that a vasectomy has been written about in these or any other property pages, even though it concerns a part of my anatomy that is nothing if not cherished property.

Country Life: Quicker access to a speedy recovery
16 February 2005
Our friends from north London, Ali and Chris, came to stay the other weekend with their children Lauren, Rosie and Jake.

Country Life: The responsibilities of snake-keeping
09 February 2005
In many ways we count ourselves lucky to have a wildlife consultant as a neighbour.

Country Life: Pheasants plummet to earth
02 February 2005
The pheasant shooting season finished yesterday. Those peculiarly beautiful yet brainless creatures need no longer live in fear of men in waxed jackets, although there are still the deadly perils of the A44; the pheasants round here like to play chicken with oncoming traffic, and frequently come off second best.

Country Life: An Almighty visit
26 January 2005
Last week, Jane and I finally went to see the church of St John the Evangelist, Shobdon, which is considered one of the treasures of Herefordshire.

Country Life: Weather watching
19 January 2005
Jane and I have moved. Not to a different house, but to a different bedroom.

Country Life: A fine act to follow
12 January 2005
It would be stretching the point to say that all the acclaim heaped on The Merchant House, modestly rated 14th best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine, has been the making of Ludlow.

A fishy tale of smoked salmon and shopping
22 December 2004
If anything ruined my Christmas, it was the abusive letters telling me to get a life

Country Life: a generosity of civic spirit
08 December 2004
It is said that you can tell something about a town from the person chosen to switch on its Christmas lights.

Country Life: Hampton Court for sale
01 December 2004
Hampton Court is about to go on the open market with the estate agents Knight Frank.

Country Life: Mistaken in the Metropolis
24 November 2004
One morning, not long after we left London to live in Herefordshire, I picked up a hitch-hiker on the A44. I've written about this encounter before.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating
23 November 2004
A particular cabernet sauvignon was described as evoking a banana with its own chat show

Country Life: More privy stories flushed out of the closet
17 November 2004
My item a fortnight ago about Herefordshire privies has flushed a remarkable number of privy stories out of the closet.

Country Life: If you get down in the woods
10 November 2004
An item in the Hereford Times caught my eye last week.

Do we really need any more technology?
09 November 2004
I rather like the idea of a city in which both rickshaws and flying taxis are proliferating

Country Life: Privy to information
03 November 2004
For my 43rd birthday last week I was given a book called Herefordshire Privies.

Country Life: Mutton makes a comeback
27 October 2004
A leaflet arrived in the post last week, sent by the Lloyds, a family of sheep and cattle farmers based in Herefordshire's Golden Valley.

Whatever happened to the art of losing graciously?
26 October 2004
Had Wenger accepted defeat equably his reputation this morning would be enhanced

Country Life: The dark side to strawberries
20 October 2004
There is nothing to write about the fox-hunting debate that hasn't already been written, except, perhaps, aaaaiiiieeee!

Country Life: All the fun of the village harvest auction
13 October 2004
Our life in Herefordshire increasingly resembles a soap opera.

Country Life: What's in a name?
06 October 2004
The 2004 Flavours of Herefordshire awards were dished out last week, with much mirth and much merriment at a lunch, fittingly, in Much Marcle.

Country Life: Problems in the Slough area
29 September 2004
Marianne, Martin, Ben and Zoe Talbot stayed in one of our holiday cottages recently. I mention this partly because I am obliged to.

Country Life: The gastronomification of Ludlow
22 September 2004
The Welsh Marches are abuzz with the news that the chef Shaun Hill has put his acclaimed Ludlow restaurant The Merchant House up for sale.

Unity is the way to victory over the Americans
21 September 2004
Here was a multinational group, representing all of Europe, pulling strongly in a single direction