I am a radio listener in the morning, so when I found myself doing the rounds of breakfast television on the day that the issue edited by The Prince of Wales came out, I wasn't sure what to expect. At ITV Studios, they took one look at me and rushed me to makeup, where a kind lady did her best with my sallow complexion. Another layer was added at the next interview and so, by the time the Sky make-up artists had finished with me, I had three layers of blusher and of other substances I know not what.
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My face and cheeks were beaming like burnished tangerines, old scars had been airbrushed into history and I looked a decade younger. The only problem was that, every time I spoke, I felt as if my face was going to fracture into a million pieces.
At the weekend, I drove a pig to Cardiff. My eldest son and his university housemates greeted the arrival of the carcass, an off-cut of Mrs Country Mouse's cheese business, with the sort of glee a toddler has for Father Christmas. If nothing else, university has taught them to appreciate the cost of food.
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The Castle Howard Mausoleum, a building so beautiful 'you'd almost want to be alive when buried in it', is facing its own demiseThe celebrated Castle Howard Mausoleum is a dynastic monument to the Howard family, but it needs further restoration if it is to survive. Christopher Ridgway tells its story; photography by Paul Higham.
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Can you buy happiness? The latest list of Britain's happiest places, and what you could end up with if you moved thereCan you buy happiness? Of course not, but you can buy a nicer house in a better town... and, well, that's probably going to help quite a bit.
