
Melanie Cable-Alexander
Melanie is a journalist and former features editor of Country Life who swapped the desk for the real thing. She and her husband Martin run Ellesmere House, a bed and breakfast in Somerset, where Willow the whippety thing is chief of staff and head of entertainment. She is writing a book about welcoming strangers into her home. Her Substack is Strangers in Her Bed. The title is, alas, accurate.
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Should we credit the country house with the headpiece renaissance?Markers of time, place and personality, headpieces are little pieces of theatre; exquisite sculptural objects that exist in dialogue with the body, says Melanie Cable-Alexander.
By Melanie Cable-Alexander Published
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'Climbing is to ascend not only through space, but through centuries of lineage': The great staircases of Britain's finest country housesThe grand, sweeping staircases of old country houses are loaded with centuries of architectural, romantic and ghostly allure. Melanie Cable-Alexander takes a look at how they've become entwined with our ideas of what a country house should be.
By Melanie Cable-Alexander Published
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'She dismissed the twin bed as the invention of the Devil': A brief history of country-house sleeping etiquetteForget the standard double: country-house sleeping layouts have undergone all sorts of intriguing (and eyebrow-raising) shifts throughout history, observes Melanie Cable-Alexander.
By Melanie Cable-Alexander Published
