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Ruth Manning-Sanders: 'She was certain that it was every child’s birthright to visit a world of enchantment and occasional terrors'
Nursery favourite Ruth Manning-Sanders believed it was every child’s birthright to enter a world of enchantment and occasional terrors, where good always triumphs over evil, discovers Matthew Dennison.
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Curious Questions: Should you get rid of wasps?
Yes, they're a pain at your summer barbecue, but wasps are also voracious predators of other insects — and some of Nature’s most important pest controllers. Seirian Sumner, author of ‘Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps’, explains a few of the reasons that you might want to hold off calling the pest controller — and, indeed, why you it might be time to start providing wasp nesting houses in your garden, alongside that designer bee hotel.
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The Duchess of Cornwall names her all-time favourite books
An avid reader, The Duchess of Cornwall has long promoted the importance of literacy via her patronages of the National Literacy Trust and BookAid International — among many other bodies — as well as her popular literary hub, The Reading Room. Here, she selects her three favourite books.
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'Russia must be isolated. Utterly walled off,' said the Russian. 'When Putin falls, the new regime will be the same as the old'
Jason Goodwin heads east and meets an exiled Russian with an eye-opening perspective.
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Thomas Hardy's Wessex vs the real-life Dorset: Which bits are real, which dreams, and which are exact to the last stream and stile
Thomas Hardy’s depictions of a fictional Wessex and his own dear Dorset are more accurate than they may at first appear, says Susan Owens.
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Jonathan Self: What I found out when I finally read a book I'd been meaning to read for 40 years
The author finally plucked up the courage to read Montaigne — here's what he made of it.
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In Focus: Gerald Durrell, the 'pioneer with a marvellous sense of humour'
The author, conservationist and avid nature-lover describes his childhood in Corfu with the 'recollections of a child in a kind of earthy paradise,' in his book, My Family and Other Animals, finds Jack Watkins.
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Jonathan Self: The greatest novel of the 20th century? Maybe, but 'Ulysses' still sent me to sleep within three pages
Jonathan Self looks back on some of the great books published exactly a century ago.
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How M.R. James wove country house architecture into his ghost stories
In his ghost stories, M. R. James had a perceptive eye for architectural detail, as Jeremy Musson explains and Matthew Rice evokes in specially commissioned drawings.
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The wonderful tales of Christmas don’t change the difficulties we face, but they do serve to make the world a better place
Christmas is a time for comforting and uplifting stories, with their hope and unwavering faith in human nature.
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The 100 greatest cathedrals in Europe, as picked by Simon Jenkins
Simon Jenkins gives himself a daunting task with his latest book, Europe's 100 Best Cathedrals (Viking, £30), which does no less than attempt to both explain and judge the masterpieces of western civilisation. Clive Aslet took a look and found a tome that will set readers 'afire to go on architectural pilgrimage'.
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In Focus: Why the eerie thrives in art and culture
The tradition of ‘eerie’ literature and art, invoking fear, unease and dread, has flourished in the shadows of British landscape culture for centuries, says Robert Macfarlane.
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Anne Glenconner: How rehabilitating Princess Margaret made her a literary phenomenon on the cusp of her tenth decade
Anne Glenconner, the former lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret who has become a publishing phenomenon, speaks to Flora Watkins about finding fame late in life. Main photograph by Hal Shinnie.
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The English villages that are hotbeds of murder, intrigue and endless summer days — at least in the minds of novelists
Comforting yet complex, intriguing and alluring, the village setting is territory to which writers — and readers — will return again and again. Flora Watkins looks at how the customs, characters and communities of the English village have long sparked literary inspiration, from Jane Austen to Midsomer Murders.
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The enduring appeal of Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter's most famous creation, Peter Rabbit, remains as popular as ever, despite his genesis being well over a century ago. Jack Watkins investigates the enduring appeal of one of the naughtiest rabbits in children's literature.
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The best gardening books for summer
Our gardens editor Tiffany Daneff picks out her favourite new books on gardening, featuring the likes of Sarah Raven, Arthur Parkinson and her predecessor at Country Life, Kathryn Bradley-Hole.
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In Focus: A photographer's magical celebration of the farmers of Yorkshire
Photographer Valerie Mather has chronicled the lives of farmers in her award-winning images, which are now collected together together in a handsome book: Yorkshire Born & Bred: Farming Life.
