This week’s Best of Britain issue celebrates the best and most treasured of this country’s traditions, landscapes, literature, sporting occasions, animal life, art, creative skills, pubs, schools, gardens, boats, cars, theatre, shops, villages, market towns and golf courses.

** Tim Longville finds beauty and tranquillity in the garden of North Cove Hall, Beccles, Suffolk, on the edge of the Broads

** Gavin Stamp describes the transformation of medieval Lympne Castle in Kent into an Arts-and-Crafts house by Sir Robert Lorimer and explains its place in political history

** Katy Birchall lives like a queen for 24 hours at The Ritz, where she finds a staff committed to the highest of standards, from the wine cellar to floral decor

** Hetty Chidwick celebrates the best of British designers’ sporting fashion for summer

** From Flashman to Molesworth, the cricket pitch has long provided literary inspiration, finds George Appleton

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