Country & Town House - June 2019

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THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

JUNE 2019 £3.90

TIME OUT

The world’s best spas to reboot and revive

CULTURE CLUB

Your ultimate summer arts guide

AMY JACKSON

MARRY ME?

How to plan a wedding with aplomb

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CONTENTS J U N E 2 019

COLUMNS 18

20

THE GOOD LIFE There’s nothing quite like a meal by mama THE RURBANIST Elizabeth Day

UP FRONT 25 26

28 30 31 32 34 36 37 38

BEST DRESSAGED Ascot style SEASON’S MEETINGS Contrast pink and green for the summer season STYLE NOTEBOOK Put a clip in it MY STYLE Isabel Spearman LUCIA LOVES World-class diamonds are Graff’s best friends GOLD DIGGER Jewellery news BRIGHT YOUNG THING Lily Travers BEAUTY TEST Fancy doing 20,000 sit-ups in 30 minutes?

BODY & SOUL Postbiotics are the new probiotic WELL GROOMED Morning suits

THE GUIDE 43

50

52 53

54 56

58

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HERE COMES THE SUN The essential guide to the summer arts season WAR OF WORDS Tolstoy’s classic tale is the perfect operatic fodder GOOD READS Hay Festival favourites TROUBLE IN RURAL PARADISE Clare Empson finds that there’s a darker side to country life THE OLYMPIAN Rumble in the jungle ROAD TEST Jeremy Taylor revs it up a notch on the Wild Atlantic Way CONVERSATIONS AT SCARFES BAR Artist, new raver, or polymath? Matthew Bell wonders how best to define Fayann Smith’s multifaceted career

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W W W .W I L L I A M A N D S O N . C O M

T H E P E R F E C T D E S T I N AT I O N F O R T O W N & C O U N T R Y L I V I N G

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CONTENTS J U N E 2 019

FEATURES 60

70

BOLLYWOOD BRIT Davina Catt meets Amy Jackson to find out what it’s like being the only northern lass in Bollywood REIN SUPREME Nic FiddianGreen is still king of equine sculpture. Teresa Levonian Cole meets him at his studio

BRIDAL 75

THE WEDDING PLANNER How to approach the new fashion for opulence 77 BRIDAL BULLETIN Essential news for brides to be 78 THE PARTY PLANNER Wedding day saviours 80 THE VENUE Setting the scene 82 THE DRESS Ideas for every sort of bride 83 THE JEWELS Ignore the rules 84 SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW...

Bridal jewellery 92 THE BODY Prep like a pro 94 JUST HITCHED Be inspired by these real life weddings 96 THE HONEYMOON For adrenalin junkies 98 THE MINIMOON Short and oh so sweet 100 THE DETAILS It’s the little things that stick with your forever

SPA SPECIAL 103 THE GREAT ESCAPE

Reboot and recharge 106 CATCH SOME RAYS

Sunny spa spots 108 SPA SOS Super effective retreats

for when you need help, fast LONG WEEKENDS For those short on time 114 WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Specialist care 116 THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Leave the babysitter at home 112

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CONTENTS J U N E 2 019

THE INSIDER 119 TA DAH! A magic little lamp 120 BEE’S KNEES This motif is

as sweet as honey 122 DESIGN NOTES News, views

and inspiration by Carole Annett 124 GET SORTED Souped-up storage 125 DESIGN Q&A UNCLE’s Ryan Prince

FOOD & TRAVEL 127 LATIN LAKE DISTRICT Chile’s got

pulling power, says Anastasia Bernhardt 130 THE BUCKET LIST Sir Ranulph

Fiennes’ destination dream list THE HOTEL WIZARD Fiona Duncan THE WEEKENDER Macau, China GASTRO GOSSIP Daiquiris delivered BAP’S AWAY Herby prawn burger FORK & FIELD Is this the best pub grub in the UK? asks Clementina Jackson 138 CHEF’S NOTES Shaun Rankin makes the most of asparagus season 139 HAPPY HOUR Californian wine is all grown up, says Alice Lascelles 132 133 135 136 137

ON THE MOVE 141 142 144 145

PROPERTY OF THE MONTH LET’S MOVE TO... Marylebone MY HOUSE Nina Campbell FIVE OF THE BEST Stunning gardens

10 12 40 140

EDITOR’S LETTER CONTRIBUTORS HIGH SOCIETY STOCKISTS

REGULARS

112

ON THE COVER Amy Jackson wears Gyunel Couture dress, Garrard bangles and earrings. Flowers by Sayeh & Galton. Fashion direction by Nicole Smallwood. Photography

by Rachell Smith.

Make-up by Nathalie Eleni using Oxygenetix, ALLÉL, Shiseido, Uriage and Radara.

Hair by Bjorn Krischker using SACHAJUAN. Art Direction by Fleur Harding. Set Design

by Lee Flude. Location @Thorpe Manor

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CR AF TING TOMORROW IS A NE VER ENDING S TORY W H AT ’ S YO U R N E X T A C H I E V E M E N T ?

DEFY INVENTOR

T H E W O R L D ’ S M O S T P O W E R F U L S PA C E S H I P. F O R N O W .

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Zenith_HQ • Visual: U45_DE7 • Magazine: CTH • Language: English • Issue: 04/04/2019 •

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Amy Jackson wears Simone Rocha dress and head band, at matchesfashion.com

EDITOR’S PICK S

EDITOR’S LETTER

75

T

he story of a Liverpool lass becoming a Bollywood megastar and garnering a legion of seven million Instagram fans, is as unlikely as the patriarchal fantasy song-and-dance movies that India’s film industry is most famous for. But it seems life really can sometimes imitate art... Davina Catt meets the actor who’s the embodiment of the millennial woman, breaking down barriers and doing things on her own terms (p60).

It’s also wedding season and with that comes a veritable cornucopia of sartorial and organisational dilemmas. Lucky then that our retail editor, Rosalyn Wikeley, has curated an indispensable guide to getting hitched – whatever you wear though, lace, silk or tulle, your crowning glory must

70

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be a tiara, apparently (thank you, Meghan and Eugenie). See page 75.

Any bride (or groom) inevitably wants to look their very best for the big day, so we dispatched spa guru Daisy Finer to all four corners of the world to bring you the best spas which will have you looking and feeling tiptop, with mind relaxed, anxiety quelled and body honed. Tough gig but someone’s gotta do it (p103).

No weddings to go to? Never fear, summer brings with it enough cultural excitements to make you forget your Brexit woes. The uplifting joys of outdoor opera, the festivals which offer something for everyone, the sculpture parks which are fantastic for games of outdoor hide and seek... Let our summer arts guide fill you with ideas and inspiration (p43), just as seeing an artist at work filled Teresa Levonian Cole with rapt admiration when she visited the Surrey Downs studio of sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green, most famous for his monumental horse heads (p70). Summer is here at last. n @countryandtown /countryandtownhousemagazine /countryandtownhouse

DITCH BLACK For joyous, heartwarming orange in the form of Eponine’s bouclé swing coat

TIME OUT At the Original Mayr FX for detox, meditation and psychotherapy LISTEN Love Brahms more than Beyoncé?

Join Primephonic, a kind of Spotify for classical music

PLAY More of a player?

Steinway has released its Black Diamond, created in collaboration with Lang Lang

10 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2019

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Princess 40M – M/Y ANKA

E X P E R I E N C E T H E E X C E P T I O N A L® P R I N C E S S YA C H T S . C O M

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CONTRIBUTORS Clear space around logotype = 1.5*X

CLARE EMPSON

Highlight of the summer season?

Wilderness Festival.

My husband John programmes the music and we go every year with our three children.

Love of your life? Our rather shattered 17thcentury farmhouse. I think of the house as having its own character. Tired and dignified from being battered through the ages, from warring serfs to rampaging teenagers.

Ultimate honeymoon destination? Berlin has everything: art, history, cool restaurants, secret bars... Soho House is the place to stay.

Funniest thing that has happened to you in a spa? My husband and I had a four-handed massage in an exclusive Balinese spa. We disgraced ourselves by laughing hysterically on account of our matching paper pants. We were pretty much asked to leave.

TERESA LEVONIAN COLE

Highlight of the summer season? Glyndebourne – for the wonderfully English spectacle of people in black tie lugging picnics onto a damp lawn at 4pm. Oh, and the opera, of course!

Love of your life? My lips are sealed.

Ultimate honeymoon destination? Anywhere with discreet room service and a glorious, unobstructed view from the bedroom window.

Funniest thing that has happened to you in a spa? It was at a hammam in Sidi Bou Said: a heavily moustachioed masseuse stripped down to her underwear and climbed next to me on the slab to administer the massage. Terrifying, actually.

savoirbeds.com

London

New York

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Paris

Shanghai

Hong Kong

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CONTRIBUTORS

DAISY FINER

Highlight of the summer season? I’m not interested in the summer social scene at all.

I much prefer to disappear with family or have fun with friends, and there is nowhere better than England in the sunshine – if we get some! Meals outside; music outside; bare feet outside.

Love of your life? My children, because they are my blood. And words, because no one can take my words away from me.

Ultimate honeymoon destination? Somewhere completely off the map – simple comfort in nature with fires under the stars.

Funniest thing that has happened to you in a spa? Meeting the incredible restaurant critic Fay Maschler for the first time at a fasting clinic, Buchinger in Germany. We were eating nothing bar broth, but all we did was talk about food. She is heaven.

ROSALYN WIKELEY

Highlight of the summer season? Settling into a sunny pub garden and heading to rural France every year with the same old friends (and jokes).

Love of your life? My wardrobe as it’s the closest I’ll ever get to collecting art.

Writing should probably get a look in too.

Ultimate honeymoon destination? Kicking off on Cortina’s slopes via a few Gritti Palace Aperols in off-season Venice, before jetting to Namibia for the safari of all safaris, rounded off with five days in the Seychelles on a modest-sized yacht... Really though, Greek island hopping with a small motorboat, beers and no iPhones (or people) would do the job.

Funniest thing that has happened to you in a spa? I’m not sure spas are comedy central but being spanked half-naked with a birch bush by a hench and incredibly polite Russian gentleman probably comes close.

Thermostatic Shower Valve Design Centre | Chelsea Harbour landmark-collection.co.uk | Made in England

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Le Grand Bellevue, Switzerland

Chic Retreats is a collection of luxury boutique hotels and villas around the world, inspiring discerning travellers with its curated collection of charming stays run by passionate hosts.

Hotel Punta Tragara, Italy

chicretreats.com +44 (0)20 3397 0085

The Samata, Bali

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CO U NTRYA N DTOW N H O U S E .CO.U K

EDITOR Lucy Cleland EDITOR-AT-LARGE Alice B-B ASSOCIATE EDITOR Charlotte Metcalf MANAGING EDITOR Anastasia Bernhardt FEATURES ASSISTANT Clementina Jackson FASHION DIRECTOR Nicole Smallwood BEAUTY DIRECTOR Nathalie Eleni FASHION EDITOR Lucy Bond LUXURY EDITOR Lucia van der Post INTERIORS EDITOR Carole Annett JEWELLERY EDITOR Annabel Davidson RETAIL EDITOR Rosalyn Wikeley PROPERTY EDITOR Anna Tyzack MOTORING EDITOR Jeremy Taylor PROPERTY & MARKETING ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Gemma Cowley DIGITAL MANAGER Adam Dean SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Felicity Reid SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Ellie Rix CREATIVE & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Parm Bhamra JUNIOR PRODUCTION DESIGNER Samuel Thomas ONLINE EDITOR Rebecca Cox DIGITAL ASSISTANT Ellie Smith JUNIOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Kerri Stolerman TECHNICAL MANAGER Hannah Johnson TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Mark Pearson DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY Wil Harris ACCOUNTS & CREDIT CONTROLLER Aimi Nicastro SALES & OFFICE MANAGER Daisy Orr-Ewing FINANCE DIRECTOR Jill Newey GROUP PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Tia Graham MANAGING DIRECTOR Jeremy Isaac CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stephen Bayley, Simon de Burton, Fiona Duncan, Daisy Finer, Lydia Gard, Avril Groom, Richard Hopton, Emma Love, Mary Lussiana, Anna Pasternak, Caroline Phillips, Marcus Scriven THE EDITOR editorial@countryandtownhouse.co.uk FASHION fashion@countryandtownhouse.co.uk ADVERTISING advertising@countryandtownhouse.co.uk PROPERTY ADVERTISING property@countryandtownhouse.co.uk ACCOUNTS accounts@countryandtownhouse.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS subscribe@countryandtownhouse.co.uk

The Grouse Course Warm up for the 12th with our intesive and realistic half day simulated grouse courses, held at the beautiful Great Tew estate in Oxfordshire.

COUNTRY & TOWN HOUSE is a monthly magazine distributed to AB homes in Barnes, Battersea, Bayswater, Belgravia, Brook Green, Chelsea, Chiswick, Clapham, Coombe, Fulham, Holland Park, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Marylebone, Mayfair, Notting Hill, Pimlico, South Kensington, Wandsworth and Wimbledon, as well as being available from leading country and London estate agents. It is also on sale at selected WHSmith, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s stores and independent newsagents nationwide. It has an estimated readership of 150,000. It is available on subscription in the UK for £29.99 per annum. To subscribe online, iPad, iPhone and android all for only £24.99 visit: exacteditions.com/read/countrytownhouse. For subscription enquiries, please call 020 7384 9011 or email subscribe@countryandtownhouse.co.uk. It is published by Country & Town House Ltd, Studio 2, Chelsea Gate Studios, 115 Harwood Road, London SW6 4QL (tel: 020 7384 9011). Registered number 576850 England and Wales. Printed in the UK by William Gibbons and Sons Ltd, West Midlands. Paper supplied by Gerald Judd. Distribution by Letterbox.

Copyright © 2019 Country & Town House Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Materials are accepted on the understanding that no liability is incurred for safe custody. The publisher cannot be responsible for unsolicited material. All prices are correct at the time of going to press but are subject to change. Whilst every care is taken to ensure information is correct at time of going to press, it is subject to change, and C&TH Ltd. takes no responsibility for omissions or errors.

To book please email chris@shootingschool.co.uk 020 8845 1377 w w w.shoot ingschool.co.u k Shar vel Lane, West End Road Northolt, UB5 6RA

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COLUMN

THE GOOD LIFE

THIS MONTH I’LL BE

1

Going back for seconds – Iain Smith conjured up the best steak of my life at fiftycheyne.com

2

Having my physical functionality analysed at the Movement Lab at the new Lanserhof at the Arts Club. lanserhof.com

3

Seeing Cuban-born, LA-based Enrique Martinez Celaya’s show The Mariner’s Meadow. blain southern.com

3

M

HOT AND FIT Dress like an Aussie. pe-nation.com

CRAFT FIRST Egg spoon

by Alice Waters. permanent collection.com

CHANGE ONE THING Detox and destress at lanserhof.com

SWIM AND WEAR Bikini time by leslieamon.com

THE ART OF COOKING Mummy’s Chocolate Cake by sophiebb.com

ALICE PORTRAIT: JANE MCLEISH-KELSEY

THE POUNDING HEADACHE WAS INDESCRIBABLE. I had no idea that withdrawing from my cup (or four) of joe could be so bad.

I was at the Lanserhof Tegernsee; the sleekest of medi spas in meditative landscaped grounds in Bavaria, where guests follow the FX Mayr principles of detoxing; endless slow chewing, a diet of buckwheat toast and sheep’s yoghurt and no sugar, alcohol or caffeine (amongst many other restrictions). But unlike previous detoxes, this time I decided to be a good girl and not sneak in a French press and fresh ground coffee. However, just 24 hours in and my head feels like it’s in a vice.

I capitulate. And I’m put on the naughty list reserved for only the very worst coffee junkies: I’m to report to the kitchen, be checked off a list, handed the tiniest espresso and drink it back of house away from the other guests. Slowly, Handed down recipes always I’m weaned off. Five taste best, says Alice B-B months later and I’m still coffee free.

Y MUM IS A PHENOMENAL I feel less skittish, less toxic, generally calmer. However… confession: I’m COOK. Half-French, a having a daily matcha – it gives me pinch of greed and a dose of dyslexia, means all her dishes are about steady focus rather than the speedy spike of coffee. And it must be good layering flavours by smell, taste and for me cause it’s green. touch – rather than slavishly following TWO OF THE HOTTEST NAMES a recipe. For years, friends and family IN FITNESS FASHION: Pip have begged her to write a cookbook.

Edwards and Claire Tregoning are But Mum is also an amazing artist, so the co-founders of PE Nation, a her version of a cookbook was never brand of clothes for work out and going to be ordinary. Instead she has chosen to combine secret family recipes wear out. They turn heads as we meet in Notting Hill’s vegan restaurant with her prints, paintings and lino Farmacy; both mums in their 30s, nut cuts, working with the Whittington brown, rock hard bodies with Aussie Press, one of the oldest printers in sunshine in their smiles and energy the land, to create a book that talks of in their beat. ‘We wanted to create food via art, design and memories. As a brand around our lifestyle,’ says London celebrates Craft Week, there Pip. And it works. I convince myself is nothing that exemplifies skill and that slipping into their ’90s mood talent more than the launch collection makes me a little fitter, of this leatherbound beauty, healthier, smilier, more ambitious an edition of just 50 books: Mummy’s Chocolate Cake by Sophie and possibly even cooler. There’s no doubt these girls will go far; and Brudenell-Bruce is showing at it’s because they’re genuine. They’ve The Framers Gallery, W1T 2JT made their passion their work – and from 15–18 May. And I couldn’t that shines through. n be more proud.

LU XU RY & N ECESSIT Y

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INTERVIEW

THE RURBANIST

Author Elizabeth Day on cats, quinoa and her unexpected book of the year

What brings a smile to your face? I could

watch a cat pottering about for days.

What item do you wear the most? Nike

trainers. I have at least six pairs.

The last book I read was… Character Breakdown by Zawe Ashton and I loved it.

I was interviewing her at a book event, and I thought when I picked it up, ‘Oh man, another celebrity memoir’, but it turned out to be one of my books of the year: smart, funny, highly original and with an unconventional narrative that asked deep questions about the roles we all play in our lives.

Best piece of advice you have been given? ‘The universe is unfolding exactly

as is intended.’ It’s a quote from the prose poem, Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. I read it at a particularly anxious time in my life and it gave me such a sense of calm.

What brings out the worst in you?

Transport delays and cancellations. I like to be punctual and I’m also a control freak.

So something that simultaneously makes me late and is entirely out of my control makes me extremely irate.

Cats can’t fail to cheer up the author

Last song you listened to that made you dance? House of Pain’s Jump Around at my

40th birthday party last November. I am a huge 1990s hip-hop fan and so I got up on a banquette and danced like no-one was watching. It was so much fun. Subsequently I was sent several videos of it, which proved that everyone was, in fact, watching.

Favourite game? Thumb war. Because, unlike other games, it doesn’t go on too long and I’m pretty good at winning.

Where’s home? North London. But I also

I’d love my own IT department because I’m rubbish at computers. That and the scientific discovery that cheese isn’t fattening would improve my life no end.

Signature dish? Salmon with sumac, courgette and pesto quinoa. I’d most Swap coffee for green tea like to cook it for my boyfriend, who is always appreciative of my food.

Or Ariana Grande, Beyoncé and the Obamas, all of whom I’d like to meet, so this would be a good opportunity.

feel very at home in Los Angeles.

Where do you go to ‘lose’ yourself?

Reading a great book in a steaming hot bubble bath at the end of the night is my idea of escapist heaven.

Daily rituals... A cup of strong jasmine tea in the morning. I gave up coffee a few years ago because it was making me jittery and over-adrenalised, so now I’ve become a total green tea snob instead.

Night out? Ladies and Gentlemen in Kentish Town. It’s a cocktail bar in a former public toilet: you go downstairs into this secret den of iniquity and drink the best and strongest cocktails in a hilariously unexpected setting.

Best thing a cabbie has said to you? ‘My wife and I are foster carers. It has brought us so much joy.’

Where was the last place you ‘discovered’?

Seoul in South Korea. A city that incorporates many of my favourite things: fashion, coffee shops, amazing facials and cat cafés.

Elizabeth discovered Seoul on her travels

How To Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned About Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now.

(4th Estate, £12.99) n

PHOTOS: © JENNY SMITH; GETTY IMAGES

What are Saturday afternoons made for? Going to the cinema.

What would really improve your life?

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INSPIRATIONAL FURNITURE LONDON | 555 Kings Road | Chelsea | London | SW6 2EB | 020 7610 6626 NEWCASTLE | 14 Clayton Road | Jesmond | Newcastle upon Tyne | NE2 4RP | 0191 257 6112

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18 th to 22 nd June 2019

LI K E NOWHERE E L SE Tickets from £37 per person F i n e D i n i n g f r o m £ 2 9 8 + VAT p e r p e r s o n Book at ascot.co.uk

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STYLE BEAUTY JEWELLERY PA RT I E S

UP FRONT

BEST DRESSAGED Ascot style, sorted Hats on or hats off? Royal Ascot has teamed up with renowned stylist Prue White to help racegoers avoid a fashion faux pas. Phew! ascot.co.uk

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UP FRONT Jane Taylor London Crepe turban headband, £408. janetaylor london.com

Emily London Luciana hat, £645. harveynichols.com

Garrard Enchanted Palace brooch, £7,200. garrard.com

Emilia Wickstead SS’19 emiliawickstead.com

KITRI Effie wrap dress, £145. kitristudio.com

Edeline Lee Bourree dress, £995. edelinelee.com

TOW N

Rebecca Vallance Ruby ruffle dress, £445. rebecca vallance.com

Michaela Jedinak Giselle Dress, £495. michaelajedinak.com

COU NTRY

Nadya Shah Ayda cape, £980. nadyashah.com

Katerina Makriyianni Belle earrings, £402. farfetch.com

Suzannah Silk crepe wrap, £450. suzannah.com

ME + EM Satin trousers, £159 meandem.com

S T Y L E

SEASON’S MEETINGS Don’t play it safe in the style stakes

Giles x Aspinal Mini hat box, £550. aspinaloflondon.com

Black Eyewear Sunglasses, £187. blackeyewear.com

Sies Marjan Skirt, £550. net-a-porter.com

Asprey 167 Pochette, £1,700. asprey.com

Aquazzura Crystal Lotus mules, £580. aquazzura.com

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Ischia Wallpaper. Malibu Chairs in Solis.

Tropics Collection: Wallpaper, Print and Woven Fabrics www.thibautdesign.com tel: 020 7737 6555

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UP FRONT TAKE THREE

ATHLEISURE STAPLES RAIN PLAN

I’m finding myself strangely hoping for rain, just to be able to don one of the fabulous pieces from the latest Jil Sander collaboration with Mackintosh. They’re the best in the biz at manipulating bonded rubberised fabric, the waterproof material that forms the basis for this functional but fashionable capsule collection that still cuts that perfectly minimal, modern Jil Sander aesthetic. jilsander.com

F A S H I O N MICRO TREND

HAIR DECO

N E W S

STYLE NOTEBOOK

Functionality, but make it fashion.

By Clementina Jackson HOUSE OF LAFAYETTE Scrunchie, £66. matchesfashion.com

WALD BERLIN Hair clip, £50. wald-berlin.de

LELET Hair slide, £213 for three. net-a-porter.com

SHARING IS CARING

With wedding season upon us, thank goodness for Lohralee Astor and Elizabeth Sieff, whose gifting woes led them to launch Storcx, a new ‘giftraising’ site taking the stress out of money pooling. Create an event, invite guests to contribute and take seamless payments. storcx.com

1 MADELEINE THOMPSON x Spiritual Gangster yoga romper, £153. madeleine-thompson.com 2 VAARA Elsa bra (£85); Freya leggings (£125). vaara.com 3 SILOU Daisy leggings (£169); Venus bra (£119). siloulondon.com

MARIA BLACK Hair pin, £246. maria-black.com

FA SHIONA BL E F U N DR A ISI NG

MIA LARSSON & OTHER STORIES Hair clip, £120. stories.com

A charity shop run by Harrods? Fashion Re-Told is London’s most luxurious charity pop-up, and it’s coming to Marylebone to raise funds for the NSPCC, with donations from Stella McCartney and Chloé. Elbows at the ready. Until 2 June. harrods.com/fashion-re-told

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Alia

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UP FRONT Power dressing?

A midi dress from & Other Stories or Stine Goya with a beautifully cut blazer from Cefinn, and a pair of shoes I can actually walk in – preferably with an elegant block heel.

HOLIDAY ESSEN TI A LS

I am a white dress fanatic. I will pair them with some fabulous espadrilles and clutch bags found on far-flung market stalls. I am still looking for an excuse to wear a full length vintage white Laura Ashley dress I found in a shop in Ibiza last summer.

S T Y L E

ISABEL SPEARMAN

Samantha Cameron’s former stylist shares some sartorial advice What are you dressing up for this month? The launch of my

@DailyDressEdit pop-up on Motcomb Street, in collaboration with property developer Grosvenor. With 25 beautiful brands to choose from, I am struggling to pick what to wear on the night.

Style crush? I love how women in the business and political worlds use fashion to get their message across. Michelle Obama is the perfect example.

Favourite online retailers?

Whoever makes it a pleasure. High street brands are so good at this,

Under the radar labels? Scandi brands

that consistently deliver lovely print dresses – Hofmann Copenhagen, Birgitte Herskind and Gestuz are my favourites.

Finishing touches?

I prefer a ‘starting touch’– I’ll choose the bag or shoes and then dress around it.

Country walk?

I ride rather than walk, so a good gallop. It is a tonic for the job I do.

Lounge lizard?

Current trend?

A pair of high-waisted boyfriend jeans from Topshop with one of my husband’s old cashmere jumpers.

Wardrobe failsafe? A pair of black satin heels from Rupert Sanderson that I bought in Bicester Village five years ago.

They always make an outfit.

Lilac – you can colour block it with yellow or green. @DailyDressEdit opens on Motcomb Street, Belgravia 9–22 May

1 & Other Stories dress, £89. stories.com 2 Stine Goya Jacques dress, £450. net-a-porter.com 3 Cefinn Jamie blazer, £340. cefinn.com 4 Chinti & Parker Silk lemon dress, £496. chintiandparker.com 5 Arket Leather crossbody bag, £150. arket.com. 6 Ganni Falcon dress, £240. farfetch.com 7 Merlette Lante dress, £394. matchesfashion.com 8 Isabel Marant Étoile Telicia dress, £360. mytheresa.com 9 Birgitte Herskind Alice dress, £399. birgitteherskind.com 10 Topshop Lucas boyfriend jeans, £42. topshop.com 11 Rupert Sanderson Gem black pony calfhair shoes, £595. rupertsanderson.com

Everyday uniform?

I live in dresses and always look for a fun print or a block colour. As a freelance consultant, I can be in a board meeting in the morning and styling a photoshoot in the afternoon, so a flattering dress is my solution.

particularly Massimo Dutti and Arket.

ST Y L E CH E AT S Being happy and comfortable in what I wear to work is the best style cheat. It’s also vital to be confident in knowing what suits you and what doesn’t. And if you don’t – find someone who can help you.

PHOTOS: EVA K. SALVI

M Y

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UP FRONT

L U X U R Y

LIFE’S LIT TLE LU XURIES

LUCIA LOVES

Dealing the world’s most famous diamonds,

by Lucia van der Post

G

iven the long histories of many of the great jewellery houses, Graff is by those standard a newcomer. Though founded relatively recently (1960), it has opened some 60 stores and is renowned for the high quality of its stones. The uncanny ability of its founder and owner, Laurence Graff, to come by some of the world’s most sought-after gems is the stuff of world legend.

The names of those stones sound almost poetic: Lesotho Promise, Delaire Sunrise, Wittelsbach-Graff (at different times part of both the Austrian and Bavarian crown jewels and bought by Graff for £16.4m), Golden Empress, Graff Venus and Graff Pink.

Most recently the Graff Lesedi La Rona at 302.37 carats (cut from a larger 1.109 carat rough diamond found in Botswana) is the largest square emerald cut diamond in the

FROM TOP: Graff Lesedi La Rona rough diamond; unique rings and pendant, all made with satellite stones cut from the original rough; Graff’s more accessible Spiral range

world and the largest, highest clarity, highest colour diamond graded by the Gemological Institute of America.

While Graff has bought and sold some of the most famous and – inevitably – most expensive diamonds, it is not so widely known that the company also offers much more accessible pieces. The Spiral collection, for example, features delicately pretty jewellery made from swirls of pavé yellow, white or pink diamonds set in rose, white or yellow 18k gold. (These start at around £2,000.) There’s also the Kiss range, which has the ‘X’ motif at its heart, featuring diamonds and some gemstones (from £3,400).

It is still today a family company, with Laurence’s son François the CEO. Everything is done in-house, from sourcing gems to the cutting of stones. Much of the designing and making takes place at its London atelier. n

JAPANESE JEWELS One of my favourite London stores – Mouki Mou on London’s Chiltern Street – has a collection of jewellery by the Japanese designer Noguchi Bijoux. I’m particularly lusting after his white gold and diamond peardrop-shaped earrings (£1,280). But look out, too, for his collection of bracelets and rings. moukimou.com

BUCKET LIST Summer’s a-coming. You will need an ice bucket. Kalinko works with artisans in Myanmar to produce a splendid range of useful yet enchanting accessories for the home.

I’m rather taken with its Strand rattan ice bucket, made in bright blue, pale blue or natural (£68) – quite unlike those steel and glass numbers that proliferate on the high street. kalinko.com

CLUTCH AT STRAWS Straw or raffia bags will, according to the honchos at Net-a-Porter, be everywhere this summer and none is more popular than Misela’s version, Bella at Mayfair, the result of a collaboration with Alice Naylor-Leyland. Choose your colour – from pale mint through burnt sugar to deep chocolate brown. From £395 (+ £40 to get your initials on the front). misela.com

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UP FRONT TELLING TALES

For Boodles, a ‘Wonderland’ collection is a flight of fancy, and this fifth high jewellery collection, Always a Story, takes that notion quite literally. Parakeets, dragonflies, flamingos and hummingbirds flit across several pieces. Each of the collection’s 27 unique pieces – standing on their own rather than as part of a traditional suite – make reference to the fantastical (diamond cloud trees and sea turtles with pink star sapphire shells) and the whimsical (strawberry picking via pink and white diamonds and coloured diamond dandelions), but they are all, nevertheless, linked by the idea of narrative. boodles.com

Diamond, pink star sapphire and tourmaline Sea Turtles Tale bracelet, £POA, by Boodles

J E W E L L E R Y

THE GOLD DIGGER

Pink and white diamond Strawberry Picking necklace, £POA, by Boodles

IN YOUR DREAMS

STAR CROSSED Star sign cynic or zodiac-lover, you’d be hard pushed to not be enchanted

by Dior’s new fine jewellery collection ‘Astro Dior’. Twelve mother of pearl pendants dangle from a single diamond and a fine gold chain, depicting the signs of the zodiac in rustic, hand-drawn lines. dior.com

18kt yellow gold, black rhodium, verdigris brass and citrine earrings, £2,100, by Tessa Packard

Collections with narrative.

By Annabel Davidson GREEN WITH ENVY

9kt gold, verdigris brass, enamel and citrine In the Greenhouse earrings, £1,200, by Tessa Packard

MUM’S THE WORD

The use of verdigris brass, with its beautiful green patina of age, in Tessa Packard’s new collection, Once Upon a Time in my Secret Garden, is a masterclass in turning a non-precious material into utterly exquisite jewellery. From the beetles and frogs found in English gardens to the keys and ginkgo biloba leaves of garden gates and greenhouses, Packard has referenced, in her deft and witty way, all the delights of our cultivated outdoor spaces with aplomb. tessapackard.com

Alison Lou Desperate to hear that word come out of your baby’s mouth? You’ll have to wait at least a year, so say it for them with Mama necklace in 14kt gold and diamond, £810. net-a-porter.com

Amélie Brunswick The Little Ones Paris line is so sweetly simple - just diamond children, made to order. 18kt rose gold bracelet, £1,995. tomfoolerylondon.co.uk

Carolina Bucci Wear your family on your chest with a pavé baby girl or boy. Pendants in black or yellow gold, £3,770. carolinabucci.com

HEAD IN THE CLOUDS The newest additions to Annoushka Ducas’ Dream Catcher collection take the simplest element of the original pieces (the gold frames based on the twigs originally used) and turn them into beautifully spare hoop earrings and bangles in three shades of gold with a scattering of diamonds.

Dreamy indeed. annoushka.com

GO APE The Aspinall Foundation’s beloved gorillas have been immortalised in jewellery in a capsule collection by the foundation and Italian brand Amedeo. The gorillas’ faces have been hand carved by Amedeo’s master cameo artisans in Torre del Greco, and strung on boho-luxe cord or beaded bracelets, with 50 per cent of profits going direct to the charity. amedeo.shop

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UP FRONT

B E A U T Y

BRIGHT YOUNG THING

Nathalie Eleni creates a bold lip for actress Lily Travers What is your role in Victoria? I play

Duchess Sophie of Monmouth, the new mistress of the robes. She has a horrible married life and is constantly restricted by social expectation (as well as the Victorian corsets). Ultimately her desire for affection and freedom makes her into bit of a rebel.

How was your first day on set? It was a real whirlwind. One moment I was auditioning and a few days later I stepped onto this magnificent set next to Queen Victoria. Nothing was filmed chronologically, so I began midway through episode three.

How did you prepare for the role?

TEAM Make-up: Nathalie Eleni Hair: Emmanuel at Paul Edmonds Photo: RVDS

Although Sophie is fictional, part of her story was inspired by Caroline Norton who petitioned Queen Victoria for women’s rights, particularly regarding marriage, so it was important for me to do justice to this story. I also worked with Dave Burnett (who plays Joseph) and Nicholas Audsley (who plays the Duke) on our characters’ back stories to flesh out exactly who they were. Victoria airs on Sundays at 9pm on ITV. Catch up on the ITV Hub now.

GET THE LOOK 1 A bright lip will bring focus to your face, so perfect your complexion before applying foundation with Exuviance Vespera Bionic Serum, which soothes and smooths. £55. exuviance.com 2 Apply Shiseido Sheer Eye Zone to the inner corner of your eyes, brow bone and cheek bones to create natural highlights and conceal shadows. £24. lookfantastic.com 3 Keep lips beautifully soft and hydrated with Quantum Botanika Lip Gold 24 Karat, which contains lanolin, beeswax and 24-karat gold. £86. nataliyarobinson.co.uk 4 Apply Rouge Dior Liquid in Poison Metal for long-lasting lips. £30. dior.com 5 Apply Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation to your skin for a natural, soft-focus glow. £42. armanibeauty.co.uk

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UP FRONT

SMOK IN’ HOT CBD oil has a wealth of purported beauty benefits

Westlab Mindful Epsom and Himalayan salts with frankincense, bergamot and added CBD oil takes bathing to heady levels of tranquillity. £6.99. lookfantastic.com

Kiehl’s This herbal treatment for problematic skin with cannabis sativa seed oil calms and nurtures uncomfortable or blemishprone skin. £38. kiehls.co.uk

R E V I E W

BEAUTY TEST

T

he promise of a stronger core and sculpted abs without the accompanying hours in the gym? As a longtime exercisephobe, I practically ran to Dr Rita Rakus’ Knightsbridge clinic to trial EMsculpt, the latest development in non-surgical body sculpting of which Dr Rakus is global ambassador.

Immortalised as the London Lip Queen, but with many more surgical and non-surgical strings to her bow, I am inclined to expect big results from any new treatment she endorses.

But I found myself apprehensive: No needles, no surgery, no down time... How is that possible?

What sets EMsculpt apart is that it tackles fat cells and builds muscle fibres at the same time. The device induces supramaximal muscle contractions which aren’t achievable through working out – 20,000 in 30 minutes to be exact, and each one is more effective than a sit-up. The muscle starts to remodel its inner structure, strengthening and thickening, while surrounding fat cells are broken down, all while you lie comfortably on a clinic bed. And it’s

not just your abs that get a workout – the use of magnetic fields means that the whole abdomen, including those pesky love handles, is targeted.

While the treatment is painless, it’s not entirely comfortable. My visions of getting some uninterrupted reading time were sadly dashed.

The device strapped over my abdomen began its cycles of contractions – the first had a mild suction feeling, the second a tapping sensation and the third a longer, twisting movement, intensifying as the treatment went on. The sensation of your muscles working without your control is quite strange, the core experiencing tiny jolts with each vibration.

Left with a few beads of sweat and sore ‘postworkout’ abs, I was impressed at how much tighter the whole area felt after one session.

I even found my weekly pilates class easier – with a strengthened core, I was able to focus on other muscle groups. With three more sessions for ‘optimal results’ still to go, I have a feeling I might finally start enjoying exercise after all. drritarakus.co.uk n

Utan The world’s first CBD tanning water contains organic DHA and Scottish lavender oil, creating a beautiful golden glow. £18. utan.co.uk

YourZooki Research says that CBD oil can help with anxiety and stress. A clean, organic and non-GMO oil version for inner peace with purity. From £70. johnbellcroyden.co.uk

MGC Derma CBD stem cells dermabrasion scrub will buff away dulling dead skin cells. £60. lookfantastic.com

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Clementina Jackson trials EMsculpt, the treatment that sounds too good to be true

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UP FRONT W E L L N E S S

BODY & SOUL Bacteria is your best friend, says Camilla Hewitt

A RECIPE FOR WELLNESS

ANCIENT WISDOM

Carla Oates, author of The Beauty Chef Gut Guide, explains that the health benefits of fermentation extend beyond a food’s basic nutritional components. ‘Postbiotics’ refers to the bio-active compounds produced as by-products of fermentation.

When probiotics feed on nutrients during the fermentation process, the ‘waste’ they leave behind is considered postbiotics. While it’s early days for research, they are proving to be powerful proponents of gut health and may help fight inflammation, maintain the gut wall, combat pathogens, and modulate our immune system. thebeautychef.com

HEALTH HOT LIST

Closca Bottle The best looking water bottle on the market. closca.com

Grown A health tonics brand, producing potent formulas with therapeutic benefits. grown.life

BA K ED POSTBIOTIC K IMCHI

W

hen you cook probiotic foods, don’t worry too much about heating and destroying the live bacteria. Research increasingly shows that, even when heated, fermented foods contain bioactive compounds called postbiotics.

INGR EDIENTS

PHOTOS: © BELLA HOWARD

SERVES FOUR » 300g kimchi, homemade or store-bought » 250ml tinned coconut milk » 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes, plus extra for sprinkling

Rituals for Every Day Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips share their simple rituals to help you press pause.

(Hutchinson, £14.99)

METHOD Preheat the oven to 200°C and arrange the kimchi in two 3.5 cm deep, 375ml capacity ovenproof baking dishes.

Whisk the coconut milk and yeast flakes in a small saucepan and simmer over a low–medium heat for a few minutes until reduced slightly. Pour into the dishes to almost cover the kimchi. Sprinkle over some extra yeast flakes. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the liquid begins to bubble up around the edges.

Cool slightly before serving.

Recipe from The Beauty Chef Gut Guide by Carla Oates (Hardie Grant, £20)

E SC APE TH E CIT Y

Tart London, SW1 Eccleston Yards in Victoria is London’s newest destination for dining and wellbeing, attracting names like Barry’s Bootcamp and London’s first drop-in meditation studio Re:Mind.

The latest addition from Lucy CarrEllison and Jemima Jones (founders of Tart London) is Wild by Tart. The deli counter is the perfect pit-stop, serving fresh, healthy breakfast and lunch, plus smoothies containing The Beauty Chef’s Inner Beauty products. tart-london.com

Hackney Herbal A social enterprise promoting health and wellbeing through herbs. hackneyherbal.com

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UP FRONT WEDDING FAVOURS

When it comes to the traditional morning suit, Favourbrook is the go-to for smart garments made to exacting standards and in small quantities to preserve the individuality of its clients. Shaftesbury cashmere morning coat, £990. favourbrook.com.

A SEA CHANGE

Breitling and Outerknown have created a striking diver’s watch with a strap made from Econyl yarn, created from nylon waste including fishing nets.

Superocean Héritage II Chronograph Outerknown, £5,600. breitling.com

M E N ’ S

S T Y L E

WELL GROOMED Matt Thomas styles you from altar to plane

SOCK IT TO ME Scott-Nichol socks are hand-finished in Leicester’s famous Pantherella factory, and are celebrating English summertime with a range inspired by country pursuits.

Jolly good. £11. scott-nichol.com

WINGS OF DESIRE

LICENSED TO LIGHT

To mark the new Bond 25 film, in cinemas next year, French heritage brand S.T. Dupont has launched a James Bond Collection Ligne Two lighter, the design taking inspiration from the circular motifs in the classic title sequence of Dr. No. £1,200. williamand son.com

This new engineered collection of cufflinks by Alice Made This has been developed with patina artist Derek Bayley, inspired by a magpie’s wing and available in five tones. A perfect wedding accessory. £190 per pair. alicemadethis.com

SHADES OF THE JET SET

Aspinal of London has teamed up with Eyespace to launch its first range of sunglasses – and very smart they are too, with a men’s capsule inspired by the glamour of the Italian Riviera and classic movie star styling. £165. aspinaloflondon.com

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UP FRONT S O C I A L

S C E N E

HIGH SOCIETY People, parties, places

Sabrina Percy Pippa BennettWarner

Caroline Issa

Jasper Conran

Tristram Hunt and Michael Ward

Lady Amelia Windsor

Rosanna Falconer

Doina Ciobanu Tabitha Willett

Henry Conway

Pixie Geldof

Anne Robinson

Zara Martin and Pam Hogg George Ryan and Carlo Carello

SIXTIES SIRENS

Mini skirts and eyeliner flicks were the uniform of choice for London’s best dressed at the opening of the V&A’s Mary Quant exhibition.

Cocktails were topped up with Babycham, while guests shook their tail feathers to The London Shakes. We predict a ’60s revival on the high streets.

Virginia Bates and David Downton Pearl Mackie

Portia Freeman

Monique Sterling

Zenouska Mowatt

Laura Whitmore

Natalie Salmon

Beatrice Vincenzini and Miguel Flores Vianna

Martina Mondadori Sartogo and Marina Livanos

Camille Charriere

Erdem Moralioglu

PERFECT MATCH

MatchesFashion.com threw a super chic dinner party in the attic of 5 Carlos Place to show off its homeware collection made with Cabana magazine. A fitting way to launch the new Cabana Café there too – best for an Italian breakfast.

Lucinda Chambers

Jake and Samira Parkinson Smith Kelly Eastwood

DISCO DIVAS

Serafina Sama Nina Flohr and Sophie Goodwin

Sequins were seemingly nonoptional at this glamorous gala held at Raffles Chelsea to raise funds for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Alexandra Carello, Rosanna Falconer and their committee took to the dancefloor with bongo drums, glitter balls and unbridled revelry à la Studio 54.

PHOTOS: DAVE BENETT; GETTY IMAGES

Jayne Pickering Leo Fenwick and Giulia Costantini

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PROMOTION

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Nevill Holt Opera is at the vanguard of new talent and design

A

refined summer festival returning for its seventh year, Nevill Holt Opera, near Market Harborough, mixes award-winning opera with dramatic sculpture and culinary experiences. Both veteran operagoers and rookie spectators feel equally at home here.

Since it was founded by David Ross in 2013, the festival has fulfilled its long-term mission of supporting young operatic talent. Last summer it opened the UK’s most unique and intimate 400-seat theatre.

FROM ABOVE: Horse at Water by The acoustics of ‘Britain’s Nic Fiddian-Green; 400-seat opera best opera venue’ have theatre designed by Witherford Watson Mann Architects; grade been devised to give II*-listed courtyard young yet phenomenal voices the limelight they deserve. Stirling Prize winning architects, Witherford Watson Mann’s architectural masterpiece in the estate’s central grade II*-listed courtyard opens

out into its extensive grounds, where the magic continues.

An outdoor exhibition highlights the best of British sculpture, featuring works by Conrad Shawcross, Antony Gormley, Nic Fiddian-Green and Allen Jones among others.

The sun-trapping landscape gardens designed by RHS Chelsea gold winner, Rupert Golby, offer al fresco dining. Pitch a picnic among the flowers or in one of many private pavilions, which seat up to 12, with the option to borrow a porter to transport hampers to your spot.

In the interval the Kitchen Garden serves an informal buffet menu of fresh seasonal ingredients as curated by guest chef, Ben Tish of The Stafford, London. For those after something more lavish, new this year is a three-course gourmet menu served in the pop-up restaurant.

Once its gown-clad guests have dispersed into the midsummer night, Nevill Holt Opera does not rest on its laurels. Its year-round education programme, in partnership with David Ross Education Trust, delivers opera workshops to over 35 local schools and also operates a Young Artist Programme that smooths the transition from school or college into a professional opera career. This year distinguished UK artist Bridget Riley will take up the role of Honorary Patron for the summer festival.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is on 12, 13, 15 and 16 June; Cosi Fan Tutte is on 26, 27, 29, 30 June and 2 July. nevillholtopera.co.uk

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ART CU LT U R E BOOKS PEOPLE

THE GUIDE

HERE COMES THE SUN Festivals, flower shows, food markets – the array on offer this summer season is enough to make the head spin. And that’s before we even get started on the opera. Jenny Rowe selects the best

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11–12 MAY

Althorp Food and Drink Festival, Northamptonshire

This year’s culinary event runs alongside a new exhibition, Animals of Althorp (also showing from 1 July to 31 August), that tells the story of the estate’s lesserknown, four-legged residents through a series of intriguing artefacts – so make a weekend of it. spencerofalthorp.com

2

17–19 MAY

Fairfax & Favor Rockingham International Horse Trials, Northamptonshire

Views over the Welland Valley and an impressive five counties make this British eventing programme a special summer spectacle. Arena highlights include the Riding Club Team Showjumping event, plus trade stands with the coming season’s must-have country clobber. rockinghamcastlehorsetrials.com

3

UNTIL 1 JUNE

I’ll Say it Again!, London

This all-female arts festival returns to Tara Theatre for its second year, its celebratory stories intelligently told through 21 theatre, music, comedy and dance events. Look out for the timely wit of Nyla Levy’s play, Does My Bomb Look Big In This? tara-arts.com

4

17 MAY TO 15 SEPTEMBER

Pub in the Park, UK tour

A sell-out success last year, Tom Kerridge is taking his pubs and pals to more locations this time around, sharing his passion for good grub and music in eight towns and cities, including Tunbridge Wells, Bath and Leeds. The line-up includes Jodie Kidd’s Half Moon Kirdford and Heston Blumenthal’s The Hind’s Head. pubintheparkuk.com

5

20–25 MAY

Chelsea in Bloom, London

Organised by Cadogan in association with the Royal Horticultural Society, this year’s theme will sink over 60 shops, restaurants and hotels ‘Under the Sea’, where they’ll compete for the coveted award of Best Floral Display. chelseainbloom.co.uk

HAY FESTIVAL, Wales Inspire your summer with intellectual adventures at Wales’ Hay Festival. The incredible array of speakers includes world-changing novelist Arundhati Roy, activist Stacey Dooley, psychologist Steven Pinker, David Lammy MP and comedian Sandi Toksvig – all raring to get your mind whirring. Panel discussions cover topics ranging from ‘The Truth about Fat’ to a myth-busting session on food and plastics. In association with Country & Town House you can take a deep dive into the world of brand building.

Whether you want to hear from the big names or just how LinkedIn could form the cornerstone of your own personal brand, an expert panel chaired by former Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey will have the answers. Among those hotly debating what makes the best brands pop will be jewellery designer and creative director of her eponymous brand, Annoushka Ducas, fashion designer Edeline Lee and creative director of Berry Bros & Rudd, Geordie Willis.

23 May to 2 June; hayfestival.com

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29 MAY TO 26 JULY

Garsington Opera, Oxford

Its 30th anniversary season, set in the enchanting Wormsley estate, will showcase four new productions, including the UK stage premiere of Offenbach’s hypnotic Fantasio, Mozart’s darkly powerful Don Giovanni and Britten’s classic masterpiece, The Turn of the Screw. garsingtonopera.org

7

13 JUNE TO 27 JULY

Caught in the Net, London

Developed in collaboration with Erub Arts and Lynette Griffiths and Marion Gaemers, Australian artists at the vanguard of the movement against ghost nets (abandoned fishing nets), the Caught in the Net exhibition at JGM Gallery is a call to arms against plastic pollution. jgmart.co.uk

8

15 JUNE, 6 & 27 JULY

Smoked & Uncut Festival, Somerset

Smoked & Uncut’s reliably delectable range of upmarket food and drink make this the prime event for more discerning festival goers. The glamping village at The Pig near Bath and Lime Wood is back, complete with a feast of Italian fare, courtesy of chef Angela Hartnett. smokedanduncut.com

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18–22 JUNE

Royal Ascot, Surrey

Racing thrills over for the day, party to the tunes of DJ duo Pips & Henri, and Radio One’s Chris Stark. This year the Village Green is home to the everpopular Villiers Club, previously situated in the Village Enclosure. ascot.co.uk

NEVILL HOLT OPERA, Leicestershire Dubbed ‘the Glyndebourne of the Midlands’, last year Nevill Holt Opera opened a brand new theatre, designed to elevate young, developing voices. NHO supports emerging global operatic talent, and RIBA Stirling Prize-winning architectural studio, Witherford Watson Mann, has worked with world leading acousticians, Sound Space Vision, to realise its mission. This means the estate’s country house, originally owned by the Cunard family who were renowned hosts, has come full circle in the last few years, now attracting thousands of glamorous operagoers each summer.

Performances of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream promise another showstopping set of atmospheric summer evenings. More than just a theatrical experience, enjoy the opening act in the estate’s immaculate gardens that showcase a collection of modern British art and sculpture.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream 12, 13, 15 and 16 June; Cosi Fan Tutte 26, 27, 29, 30 June and 2 July. nevillholtopera.co.uk

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This summer stunner is back with a bang for its tenth year, set in the natural theatre of Hatch House’s beautifully wild 17th-century gardens. Growing organically from humble beginnings, this dance extravaganza now showcases the gold standard of global ballet dancers.

This year, Ksenia Ovsyanick, Principal of Staatsballett Berlin, will return to perform at Hatch, along with Steven McRae, Principal of The Royal Ballet, who will dance a work that fuses ballet and tap. Xander Parish OBE, Principal of the Mariinsky Ballet in St Petersburg, will also feature over the weekend – the first British dancer to be employed by this prestigious company. Though the ethereal movement of such world-class dancers under the stars is undeniably the magic of the night, it’s enhanced by complimentary champagne and a three-course wine and dine delectation. This grand plan, devised

by Matt Brady, director of The Covent Garden Dance Company, is as flawless as the dancers themselves.

26–28 July; hatch-house.co.uk

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19–28 JUNE

The Art & Antiques Fair Olympia, London

London’s longest-running antiques event has extended its stay to ten days this year. Browse contentedly for exquisite treasures that will transform your home. olympia-art-antiques.com

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21 JUNE TO 8 SEPTEMBER

The Tempest, UK Tour

Illyria, the only UK open air touring company to have won four international awards, brings The Tempest to life in Britain’s most atmospheric outdoor locations, including the castles of Thirlestane in Edinburgh and Arundel in Chichester. illyria.co.uk

12

22 JUNE TO 29 SEPTEMBER

Yorkshire Sculpture International

A free 100-day festival, the inaugural edition of YSI will show works outdoors in Leeds city centre and Wakefield, including seven major

sculptures by Damien Hirst. It includes a programme of events and exhibitions across the four world-renowned galleries that form the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle. yorkshire-sculpture.org

13

27 JUNE TO 3 JULY

Masterpiece, London

A cross-collecting fair featuring art, design, furniture and jewellery, Masterpiece takes over the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. It’s the summer’s unmissable art fair. masterpiecefair.com

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4–7 JULY

Cartier Style et Luxe at Goodwood Festival of Speed, Chichester

The stunts pulled by cars and bikes as they race up Goodwood’s Hillclimb track is more than enough to get your heart pumping. But for a quiet contest of style, elegance and rarity value, head for the Cartier Lawn. goodwood.com

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PHOTOS: © SAM HARDWICK; JITKA PALMER, FLOATING BEAUTY, COURTESY FRESH AIR SCULPTURE AND THE ARTIST

HATCH BALLET, Wiltshire

15

10–14 JULY

Henley Festival, Oxfordshire

Art, music, comedy and black tie make for an ideal summer soirée. Family Sunday features an eclectic selection of youth choirs, dance theatre and the mainstay of any summer fair – face paint. henley-festival.co.uk

16

19–21 JULY

Thames Traditional Boat Festival, Oxfordshire

Three days dedicated to British boatbuilding and craftmanship, as well as a WWI air display and vintage car show. Many boatmen and women invite visitors aboard, if you’ve the sea legs for it. tradboatfestival.com

17

26–28 JULY

The Game Fair, Warwickshire

PHOTOS: © SAM HARDWICK; JITKA PALMER, FLOATING BEAUTY, COURTESY FRESH AIR SCULPTURE AND THE ARTIST

Every field sport has a place at Hatfield House, which hosts Europe’s largest countryside festival. Admire

spectacular live demos and enjoy the loyal attendance of all your favourite world-class brands, including Fairfax & Favor, Albion England and Aigle. thegamefair.org

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23–25 AUGUST

The Big Feastival, Cotswolds

Don’t let an impressive trio of headliners (Rudimental, Jess Glynne and Elbow) distract from the foodie focus of this farm-based weekender.

NEFF Skillery kitchen tutorials mean you won’t just have a great time, but learn life lessons too. thebigfeastival.com

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23–26 AUGUST

Curious Arts Festival, East Sussex

Boutique and bonkers enough to keep you and your curious kids on their toes, this family-friendly literary, comedy and music festival is small, civilised and charming. Now in the beautiful new location of Pippingford Park in Ashdown Forest. curiousartsfestival.com

FRESH AIR SCULPTURE, Gloucestershire The beautiful and extensive gardens of The Old Rectory in the Cotswold village of Quenington are the backdrop to this biennial contemporary sculpture show. Both traditional and experimental works, functional and decorative, large and small, are sprinkled throughout the grounds. But these pieces aren’t just for show. On sale with prices ranging from £50 to £50,000, it’s one of the most enchanting shopping experiences, since many installations have been created specifically for the gardens. Highlights include a ceramic installation across the river by Elaine Bolt, willow sculptures by Mary Butcher MBE and Julia Clarke, and Metamorphoman by John Williams.

The Pool House Gallery will host a smaller-scale exhibition, entitled From Where I’m Standing, in which artists interpret ‘views’ using media ranging from cloth to metals. 16 June to 7 July; freshairsculpture.com

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Dreaming of bygone days full of simple pleasures? Charlie and Caroline Gladstones’ farm in Wales delivers just that. Mass sing-a-longs, comedy, abseiling, poetry, pottery, painting, wild swimming and axe throwing… each to their own!

Launched in 2014, the four friends who pioneered the Good Life Experience didn’t want to their vision confined to just culture or food or craft. They wanted nothing less than to nurture the soul by creating memories of unbridled joy.

Chefs cooking over the campfire this year include Sandor Katz and Honey + Co, and there will be many opportunities to hear poets, pioneers, craftspeople and explorers speak, plus much raucous music. Even better, there is no VIP tent or backstage out-of-bounds area. The full line-up (and their dogs, probably) will be living the good life as equals and more than happy to chat to you. That’s why this festival can claim to be the friendliest and most intimate around – committed to keeping things small so each guest benefits to the max. 12–15 September; thegoodlifeexperience.co.uk

20

24–25 AUGUST

River Cottage Festival, Devon

Feast in the River Cottage threshing barn, forage with John Wright, talk Pakistani cuisine with Sumayya Usmani and then relax to good music. Yoga, reiki and woodcraft workshops are also on the bill this year. rivercottage.net

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5–8 SEPTEMBER

Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, Lincolnshire

Your last chance to revel in the nail-biting drama of top-class showjumping, crosscountry and dressage before Britain is taken under Autumn’s wet wing. burghley-horse.co.uk

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21–22 SEPTEMBER

Abergavenny Food Festival, Wales

Pick the brains of chefs, farmers and food writers, where masterclasses and debates make this more than a day of eating (though there’s a fair bit of that). abergavennyfoodfestival.com

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ALL SUMMER

Chichester Festival Theatre, West Sussex

Countless plays that debut at Chichester end up transferring to the West End. This year there are two musicals, some Shakespeare and new family shows. cft.org.uk

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NEW OPENING

Hauteville House, Guernsey

Following a refurbishment costing nearly £4 million, the home of Victor Hugo during his exile from France has reopened its doors. visitguernsey.com

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NEW OPENING

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London

John Soane’s little-known manor house in Ealing is a living portfolio of his architectural range. Refurbished and reopened with its own auspicious gallery space, the inaugural exhibition by Anish Kapoor is complementary yet questioning. pitzhanger.org.uk n

PHOTOS: © NENAD OBRADOVIC

THE GOOD LIFE EXPERIENCE, Wales

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Garrard.com

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THE GUIDE Welsh National Opera brings Tolstoy’s War and Peace to life

WAR OF WORDS

Welsh National Opera takes Tolstoy’s epic to the stage.

By Jenny Rowe

P

erhaps fulfilling the novel’s natural destiny, Sergei Prokofiev fearlessly undertook the adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s veritable tome War and Peace into an opera in the early 1940s, having composed his first at nine years old. In a similarly ambitious vein, Welsh National Opera (WNO) are putting on War and Peace at the Royal Opera House this July, reinvigorated by the contemporary geniuses of creative director, David Pountney and leading lady Lauren Michelle, as Natasha.

The story is split in two: first there is peace, then war. The latter part was incited to its extreme when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1942 and the Committee on the Arts pressed Prokofiev to amplify its heroic and patriotic beats. Peace, on the other hand, is wrought with romance and temptation. Natasha and Andrei’s intimate love story implodes when the devastating

War and Peace comes to the ROH

reality of the French invasion of Russia comes to the fore in 1812.

Lauren Michelle, who returns to WNO after her debut as Jessica in the 2016 production of The Merchant of Venice, emphasises that the power of the opera is borne out of the contrast: ‘One cannot be without the other’. Indeed, it is not only the magnitude of the production but its form that tests the talented cast. The juxtaposition even affects the dynamics of Natasha’s character. ‘The bulk of the role is in the

first act,’ Michelle explains. ‘Natasha returns near the end of the final act but waits in the wings for more than an hour. This creates the challenge of sustaining the energy of the role.’

For the audience, there is no such hiatus; while Natasha stews, her fiancé Andrei fights for their country’s freedom. The famous size and excellence of the WNO chorus succeeds in making War and Peace the rousing spectacle it was intended to be. Michelle’s favourite moments are those that draw everyone – both on and off-stage – together; united by music and movement. The ballroom scene stands out for her: ‘Collectively, as an ensemble, we tell the story – there is even dancing. It’s a perfect example of the whole being far greater than the sum of its parts.’

Rehearsals are well underway and Michelle promises that the exhilaration of performing on the prestigious ROH stage lends the show a unique energy. Only opera can do the War and Peace saga true dramatic justice, moving the house between the intense intricacies of public and private emotions in thrilling swells, ebbs and flows.

A summer season must-see of epic proportions. wno.org.uk n

PHOTOS: © CLIVE BARDA; © ROH; © SIM CANETTY-CLARKE

O P E R A

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PROMOTION

CREATING THE FUTURE Weatherbys Private Bank, leading the way in a changing world

‘T

he future is family and there’s no family without a future,’ was one of the opening lines of CEO Roger Weatherby’s speech at the Bank’s inaugural Creating the Future Conference in 2018.

Co-created with philanthropist Mike Dickson, the conference was designed to explore some of the world’s most challenging and exciting issues.

Fourteen outstanding speakers, including a three times Nobel Peace Prize nominee, tackled topics such as how to bring an end to conflict, the future of money, artificial intelligence, education, regenerative medicine and climate change.

Creating the Future Conference guests In October 2019 there will be a second conference at the Institute of Engineering in London, also winning Leader of the and Technology, where some of the Year at the Business Green Awards. In his best brains of our time will tackle the big talk James will grapple with the greatest issues. This year’s line-up includes futurist, challenges of our time including climate Mark Stevenson; behavioural scientist Roger Weatherby, CEO, change and toxic chemicals. and deputy chairman at Ogilvy, Rory Weatherbys Private Bank Dr Gabrielle Walker focuses on Sutherland; investigative journalist, Carole energy transition, sustainability Cadwalladr and economist, Kate Raworth, and climate change, working to name but a few. Of the speakers from with global companies to analyse both years Mike Dickson says, ‘They are all working emerging trends and challenge on practical solutions to create a better future, that conventional thinking. She has are brilliant, brave and inspiring.’ written four books, including In the interim, the bank has been organising bestselling The Hot Topic, a series of smaller scale events – Future Forums described by Al Gore as a ‘beacon – hosted by Roger Weatherby alongside event of clarity’. She has a PhD from partner, Pierre Lagrange, Chairman of Dr Scilla Elworthy, Founder of Peace Direct Cambridge and has taught at Huntsman on Savile Row. Guests are both Cambridge and Princeton. invited to deep-dive into one specific Weatherbys Private Bank has provided Country issue: two expert and inspirational and Town House with two seats at the next speakers talk on the subject and then Environment Future Forum on 11 June 2019, invite questions, debate and solution6-8pm at The Huntsman Club, 11 Savile Row, based conversation. You can watch London W1S 3PS. The event includes a drinks the speakers at the Education Future reception and concludes with questions Forum earlier this year on their website and debate. If you would (weatherbys.bank/insights/events).

Ed Fidoe, Co-founder be interested in attending, The next in the series is the Environment of School 21 please write to weatherbys@ Future Forum taking place on 11 June countryandtownhouse.co.uk.

2019 and the speakers are as follows: James Thornton, Founding CEO of ClientEarth. He If you would like to know is an environmental lawyer and social entrepreneur more about Weatherbys dubbed by The New Statesman as one of the top ten Rory Sutherland, Deputy Private Bank, please email people who could change the world. In 2016 he was Chairman, Ogilvy events@weatherbys.co.uk named as one of the 1,000 most influential people

TERMS & CONDITIONS: By emailing weatherbys@countryandtownhouse.co.uk you automatically consent for us to share your email with Weatherbys Private Bank for marketing purposes.

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THE GUIDE TRAVEL

B O O K S

GOOD READS

Quiet Flows the Wye: Richard Hopton reviews books by authors appearing at the Hay Festival FICTION

MEMOIR

The Wall

Under The Camelthorn Tree

John Lanchester How grim can things get?

The answer suggested by John Lanchester’s new novel, is very grim indeed. The Wall presents a view of Britain after the ‘Change’ – when the older generation ‘irretrievably fucked up the world’ – as a bleakly monochrome, authoritarian, autarky North Korea in the North Sea. Lanchester’s Britain is surrounded by an immense sea wall, guarded by a conscripted garrison, to keep the world out and the natives in. For all its pessimism, it’s a powerful story, almost an allegory, a warning against the perils of isolationism and xenophobia.

(Faber & Faber, £14.99)

Kate Nicholls This episodic memoir skips between southern Africa and London over a period of more than 20 years from 1994. It tells of the author’s life bringing up her children in the Botswana bush, surrounded by lions.

It’s both charming (the bush life, wild animals and home-schooled children) and traumatic (rape, alcoholism and penury), a tale told with humour and unflinching honesty. One has to admire the author’s guts and tenacity as well as the courage and resourcefulness of her children, testament to the strength of the human spirit. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £18.99)

POETRY

FICTION

Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic

Machines Like Me

Simon Armitage ‘Poetry need not be an autonomous or hermetically sealed activity,’ writes Simon Armitage, a proposition which his latest collection, written for patrons as diverse as the Bronte Parsonage Museum and Sky Arts, well illustrates. He tackles the plight of war veterans and muses on the British countryside. There are some witty, short prose pieces, too; in one he describes David Bowie’s voice as being like ‘cigarette smoke blowing through a pre-loved clarinet’.

Armitage writes with precision, humanity and whimsy. (Faber & Faber, £16.99)

Ian McEwan This unsettling novel tells the story of the three-cornered relationship between Charlie, his girlfriend, Miranda, and Adam, an android. Set in London in 1982, it poses questions about artificial intelligence and how humans should interact with it, as well as about honesty, revenge and forgiveness. This is a world in which all is not as it should be, a sense of dislocation fostered by McEwan’s scrambling of the historical record. It’s an important literary contribution to the AI debate, one of the great questions of our time.

(Jonathan Cape, £18.99)

Around The World In 80 Trains Monisha Rajesh Trains are, Monisha Rajesh writes, ‘an open window into the soul of a country’.

This account of her 45,000-mile, sevenmonth journey is packed with anecdotes of the random meetings and conversations that fill the long hours of transcontinental train journeys, learning much of the railways’ histories and folklore. Modern long-distance train travel may not be glamorous but it does lay on a constantly-changing human drama for the traveller’s delight – and occasional disgust. (Bloomsbury, £20)

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Toffee Sarah Crossan Toffee tells the story of 16-year-old Allison, who runs away from her abusive father to Bude in Cornwall.

There she takes refuge with an elderly woman, Marla, who suffers from dementia.

The novel’s subject matter – child abuse, running away from home, dementia – is not comfortable but Crossan handles it with a deft touch, never labouring the point but never ducking it. The story is told through a series of blank-verse poems, which are effectively short chapters, a medium that succeeds triumphantly. Toffee is a beautifully-wrought, surprising, gripping book. (Bloomsbury, £12.99)

BREXIT

Beyond Brexit Vernon Bogdanor If you need a succinct, sober guide to the questions that lie behind the Brexit fiasco, something to cut through the sound and fury, Professor Bogdanor’s new book should be your first port of call. He was David Cameron’s tutor at Oxford. (I.B Tauris, £20) n

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THE GUIDE B O O K S

TROUBLE IN RURAL PARADISE

classic Sixties film featuring Susan George and Dustin Hoffman. The father who casually asked a farmer if he would milk his cows a few minutes later each day as it was blocking his school run. I mean, would you?

The countryside can be dog-eat-dog, as A friend of ours enraged the local Clare Empson discovered when she made the move hunt when she politely requested that the hounds be exercised somewhere other than outside her front door at six every morning as it set off her yappy dogs. Then there were the weekenders who arrived at their newly redecorated pad to find a dead rabbit nailed to the front door. This happens quite a bit apparently.

If you want to hear both sides of the story, look no further than your nearest resolutely ungastro-ed pub.

Order a pint of scrumpy and settle in.

In our part of the country it’s clear there are simmering resentments between old guard and new.

There’s the whole aspect of living in a tight-knit community slash goldfish bowl; your London anonymity well and truly blown. Rumoured affairs sweep through the area like a hurricane, Chinese whispers hen we first moved exacerbating them into something of Profumo proportions. to the country we One woman made the mistake of dirty dancing with found it almost someone else’s husband; hung out to dry for something that absurdly bucolic. We swapped amounted to no more than a Pulp Fiction-style dance off. our terraced house on a busy When you’re in a community you have to be so careful south London street for a not to fall out with your friends – otherwise a whole ‘us and cottage on a country estate in them’ situation arises. One male friend stopped talking Wiltshire. Our children were to me for over a year because I had thought a conversation tiny, four and six, and we could was hilariously funny but it turned out he didn’t. Only I not have found a more idyllic didn’t realise until everyone else started talking about it. setting for them if we tried. We arrived in the thick of We patched things up but there were a few months when it lambing season to day-old lambs gambolling in the drive, was awkward bumping into each other at parties. It made me a parkland full of deer, and a pond brimming with realise how precarious our new-found friendship circle was. tadpoles. Each day they arrived home from school and It was this sense of claustrophobia that inspired me to raced each other to the pond, and my husband and I smugly write my debut novel Him, taking the rural idyll and turning congratulated ourselves and murmured, ‘paradise’. it on its head. I wanted to create a group of privileged, The village school we had chosen was equally insular friends who are rich enough to live outside society’s wholesome. The children went sketching in the hills at normal code of conduct. But much lunch and my daughter learned traditional Dorset dancing. like the community I inhabit, it’s a On May Day she wore a white dress and danced around circle that is powered by secrets. a maypole with ribbons. ‘Ah,’ we said, ‘what heaven.’

Ten years later, I still love living Through school we found other parents to be friends in the country; being blocked by with, mums who arrived for lunch with gifts of homemade cows on the school run; seeing the elderflower cordial or eggs from the garden. After the hounds out for their morning run. dog-eat-dog world of London, it felt like a parallel universe.

But I have learned the inherent It was only after a few months that the cracks began to value of discretion. Your secret is appear, revealing a dark underbelly to the rural dream that safe with me. Him by Clare Empson we never imagined. We began to notice fallouts between is out now (Orion, £7.99) n ‘incomers’ and farmers that were worthy of Straw Dogs, the

PHOTOS: OLI GREEN; GETTY IMAGES

W

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THE GUIDE Muhammad Ali trains for a re-match with Spinks in a bid to win the world title for a third time

THE OLYMPIAN

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, says Sebastian Coe

I

have a reasonable collection of sporting biographies, and they are not all from the athletics firmament. I guess that it is instructive that from where I am scribbling, I can see at least four sitting on my bookshelves which chronicle the life and times of Muhammad Ali. Go into any pub on a Friday night and start the ‘who is the greatest?’ debate, and I would wager the alcohol intake of the evening that Ali would top the pile.

Muhammad Ali was a gamechanger, and for many, because of his stand on civil rights in his native USA, an icon who will never be forgotten. I can think of no other sportsman or woman who has remotely reached the global recognition that Ali enjoys, even after his death. However, it is for the noble art of boxing that he will forever be remembered.

As a child, I remember waking up and excitedly asking my parents whether Ali (then Cassius Clay) had won while half the

world was asleep. Inevitably the answer was yes. And you would have to wait patiently until the weekend for the grainy black and white images of his victory to appear on television. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, during the Second World War, he was steered towards boxing by a local cop and boxing coach who recognised not a precocious talent, but an angry young man.

Navigating himself through the amateur ranks with ease, his global breakthrough came in Rome at the 1960 Games where he won the heavyweight title, barely breaking sweat, and first displaying his penchant for showmanship and self-promotion. On returning to Louisville, he ended up in an unplanned fight with a white gang in a local café. In anger, he threw his Olympic medal into the Ohio river.

My abiding memory will always be the moment when, 36 years later, at the Atlanta Games (where he lit the torch) he was

presented with a freshly minted gold medal.

I stood no more than ten yards away from the impromptu ceremony during one of the breaks in the Olympic basketball final.

One year after his Olympic victory he converted to Islam, ultimately robbing the sport of his best years when he refused to be drafted into the military and serve in the Vietnam War. Found guilty, he lost his titles, which by then included the world heavyweight title after defeating the powerful Sonny Liston.

He was only 22. In all, he beat 21 boxers for the heavyweight title, 14 of them unified.

Having failed to win back his title in 1971 in ‘The Fight of the Century’ against Joe Frazier, his epic recapture of the title in a match against George Foreman in 1974 – The Rumble in the Jungle – is the fight that most aficionados treasure.

The end of his career was not a fitting tribute to a boxing genius but it could not mask the mountainous imprint he left on his sport, on civil rights and the beacon of hope he provided for the dispossessed. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which may or may not be attributed to his boxing, he continued to charm until his death three years ago. n

PHOTO: REX FEATURES

S P O R T S

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P R I C E M AT C H G U A R A N T E E D | I N T E R E S T F R E E C R E D I T | B I G G E S T S E L E C T I O N O N V I S P R I N G B E D S

Bridport ︱ Bristol ︱ Bury St Edmunds ︱ Chelmsford ︱ Cheltenham ︱ Glasgow ︱ Handcross ︱ Harrogate ︱ Hartley Wintney London, Chelsea ︱ London, Richmond ︱London, West End ︱ Manchester ︱ Nottingham ︱ Oxford ︱ Tunbridge Wells ︱ Weybridge

And so to Bed.indd 1

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C A R S

ROAD TEST

There is a reason why you can’t move for Land Rover Discoveries in the Waitrose car park, says Jeremy Taylor

VITA L STATS Land Rover Discovery PRICE £65,205 ENGINE 3.0-litre V6 diesel POWER 306bhp 0-62MPH 7 seconds ECONOMY 31.6mpg

TOWN

COUNTRY

Remember the boxy old Discovery? It was really a cheaper version of the Range Rover without the posh appeal. So when the new Discovery appeared a year or two back, I was disappointed that the bland styling blended in with every other SUV in my local Waitrose car park.

I also wasn’t sure about the off-set rear number plate which gave the Land Rover a lopsided gait, plus an average infotainment system – now a focal point in any car cabin – didn’t match up to the Discovery’s key German rivals.

But having spent a week driving in and out of the capital, I can’t think of any seven-seat familymover that does everything you ask of it quite as well as this stunning, fifth generation model.

Now with extra aluminium, the 4x4 is up to 480kg lighter than the old model, making it nimble and economical about town. The interior even matches a Range Rover for quality – it’s urban luxury in muddy boots.

A five-star car – if it wasn’t quite so huge in the city, difficult to park and afforded better visibility.

RATING: 4/5 HANDBAGS

A ‘proper’ new Land Rover will be launched in a few months. It won’t be a farmyard workhorse like the legendary Defender but a rather more luxurious affair. The problem is, this latest Discovery is startlingly good at everything already.

Our Discovery is unstoppable off-road and by far the most practical Land Rover model you can buy. Chuck the bikes, labradors or any other lifestyle paraphernalia in the boot and there’s still room for more. It makes rivals like the Mitsubishi Shogun and Jeep Grand Cherokee look positively old-fashioned by comparison, although you need to opt for our more expensive V6 diesel rather than the 2.0-litre for best results.

Favourite features are the seats that fold via a smartphone app, a dashboard that’s almost as uncluttered as a Volvo, plus masses of comfort, whatever seat you choose to sit on. Options to pick include cool LED headlights, a blindspot monitor – great on the motorway for overtaking – and a fulllength glass roof, which really brightens up the cabin.

So this versatile Land Rover begs the question, why would anybody buy a more expensive Range Rover Sport or Velar? The sensible money is on a Disco.

RATING: 5/5 WELLIES

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THE GUIDE

THE DRIVE

VITA L STATS Maserati Levante GranLusso PRICE £67,300

John Wayne was best-known as a swaggering cowboy but, in 1951, he visited west Ireland to film The Quiet Man, a low budget tale of an Americanmade-good, returning to his Celtic roots only to fall for Maureen O’Hara’s terrible ‘Oirish’ accent. It was nominated for an Oscar and the town of Cong was suddenly a tourist haven.

I’ve just arrived from a tour of the Wild Atlantic Way in a Maserati Levante – an Italian SUV that has just been updated for 2019. It’s a stylish alternative to the average utility vehicle and, like A luxurious pit stop on the Ashford Castle estate will help you refuel

ENGINE 3.0-litre V6 twin turbo petrol POWER 350bhp

BOOK IT: Ferry to Ireland, from £190 return (stenaline. co.uk). Ashford Castle (ashfordcastle.com). Wild Atlantic Way (wildatlanticway.com) n

0-62MPH 6.0 seconds ECONOMY 23.9mpg

ON Y ER BIK E COUNTRY AND TOWN

the Duke, makes an entrance wherever you drive it – mainly thanks to a thumping exhaust note.

It has been the perfect partner for my drive along the Wild Atlantic Way, more than 1,500 miles of the Republic’s most spectacular coastal scenery. The drive is a comfortable two-week tour but I only have a couple of days, so the stretch around the coastline of County Galway offers a taste of what’s on offer.

The Maserati is agile along a bumpy Irish bog road – not exactly a sports car but very enjoyable.

This particular model has optional silk seats too, a collaboration with Italian designer Ermenegildo Zegna. Air suspension sorts the rough from the smooth, while a sport mode makes that quad exhaust system even louder (possibly too loud!).

Inside, the touchscreen infotainment system isn’t as user-friendly as it could be, and the new gear lever can get in the way as you reach towards the screen.

Other SUVs do it better but they don’t have the Maserati badge on the boot – a boot that isn’t class-leading for size either. It’s an Italian car after all, so expect to compromise some practicality for design.

Our journey ends at The Lodge at Ashford Castle, on the shores of Lough Corrib. The former ancestral home of the Guinness family has now, as a luxury hotel, welcomed the rich and famous for decades, from Princess Grace to Sharon Stone. The Lodge is the ‘new’ bit, tucked away by the waterside in another part of the 350-acre estate. There’s a country house vibe that’s more contemporary than castle – expect deep pile carpets, an impressive collection of modern art and, if you are staying on a weekend, probably a wedding party too.

Ask for a lough view in Wilde’s restaurant, where the scallop starter is legendary. You’ll need a hearty meal – it’s an 11-hour drive via the Dublin ferry back to London…

RATING 4/5

ELECTRA STRAIGHT 8 3i Middle-aged men in Lycra? It’s not a good look. Which is another reason why the Electra Straight 8 is such a cool bike. This threespeed machine isn’t designed for going fast – it’s more a trendy late-night cruiser. The high handlebars and wide saddle make for an upright, comfortable bike designed for urban riding. It doesn’t like hills and at 30kg+ can be tricky to lift onto a car roof rack. But this Electra is worth it for those trendy red spokes and over-sized, fat tyres. £675. electrabike.com

PASHLEY-MORGAN 8 This retro collaboration between trad British bike makers Pashley and Malvern-based Morgan Cars is incredibly desirable. The eight-speed bike features laminated wood veneer mudguards and a race number behind the handlebars. Many of the build techniques are still used by Morgan today, making this one of the most aesthetically pleasing bikes on the market. £1,595. pashley.co.uk

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THE GUIDE

Matthew Bell meets polymath Fayann Smith ahead of the launch of a new design district in Venice Portrait by ALEXANDRA DAO

I

s it awful to admit that my eyes glazed over when I read the PR description of Fayann Smith as a ‘multidisciplinary artist, creative polymath and BAME ceiling-breaking new rave pioneer’? Life was so much easier when people had one-word job titles, like dentist, or fishmonger. But it was also a lot less interesting, and as you speak to Fayann you realise she embodies that generation of slashies who have tossed aside the shackles of job security in search of something more.

For one thing, she doesn’t take herself as seriously as all those words suggest. ‘London is a hard city to survive in, you have to wear lots of hats,’ she says. To spend an hour discussing gender, colour and politics with some residents of East London could be exhausting; with her it’s full of laughter and enlightenment.

Perhaps that’s because she’s not a doe-eyed idealist. She is a pragmatist, committed to her cause, but canny in knowing how best to effect change. ‘I view activism in terms of its effectiveness,’ she says as we discuss the naked protest taking place in the House of Commons that day. ‘Too often, the raw emotion of a movement will supersede Country or town? the strategy, but as an activist you’ve got to act If it’s ’80s like a corporation would. So let’s take over the Manhattan, town every day. newspapers rather than run around naked. I’d rather own the papers than protest against them.’

Power breakfast of long lunch?

Not that she is against the use of the naked Power breakfast: body as an art form. Her latest project is as one breakfast is king. of three women in the October! Collective who Glass of wine or have created the flagship installation Body As green tea?

Home at this year’s Venice Biennale, marking I’m going to say green tea, to win the launch of the Giudecca Art District. some approval.

Body As Home features a film made by Aleksandra Karpowicz which explores notions Cat or dog?

Any animal that of physical selfhood, for which Fayann composed needs my love. the music. The message seems to be that, Rolling hills wherever we are, we ultimately have no home or seaside? but in our own bodies. ‘That was Aleksandra’s Seaside. Drama. conclusion, but I actually find that hard. I’m Cosy knits or stubbornly English, and feel most at home here.’ sharp power Fayann was born in 1980 and grew up on suits? Power suits. A bit of the Eyres Monsell council estate in Leicester.

Joan Crawford Although Leicester is one of the most racially in the mix. diverse cities in Britain, a 2001 census of Eyres Monsell found it to be 95 per cent white. The

IN BRIEF

BNP won almost 20 per cent of the vote in a 2010 council election.

Fayann knew she had to get out of there if she wanted to achieve anything creatively, but she still feels a connection to her birthplace, and worries about the effects of our fast-moving globalised culture on places like Leicester. ‘It can feel like the world is passing you by, which can feel quite threatening,’ she says. ‘If things are going on in the outside world that have no bearing on your life, and meanwhile your manufacturing jobs suddenly aren’t there, it’s challenging.’

Understanding where people are coming from is something Fayann believes in passionately. For a time, she followed Stormfront on social media, reading the forums to try and understand the mentality of the far right. ‘A lot of what I found there was horrible, but that bad feeling is because these people don’t feel listened to.’ Her solution to tackling racism and extremism is to encourage open debate. ‘Censoring ideas is a slippery slope, even if you completely disagree. Some of my left-wing friends forget that the exact same rationale can be used against them.’

Fayann’s first big artistic incarnation was as a club promoter in the mid-noughties. In 2006, her All You Can Eat nights at the Ministry of Sound were the hottest ticket in town. It was, she says, one of those rare bursts of creative energy. ‘Something coalesced. The Independent very kindly said they felt it was like the last youth culture movement. And it really felt like that from the inside. The night simultaneously loved and reviled the whole new rave thing. It all fell apart fairly quickly, but if you looked around that room, everyone went on to do something amazing: launch a magazine or start a theatre company. It wasn’t artificial, we didn’t put them there because of their names. This was pre-social media, so we didn’t have that ubiquitous promotional tool.’

Her generation missed out on the big social media wave, but she is glad to have been born when she was. ‘Growing up in the ’80s, there was a lot of utopian talk about technology saving the world. But now we feel disenfranchised. I don’t know how it must feel for subsequent generations who didn’t have that brief explosion of optimism.’ She worries that despite increased connectivity, people are communicating less effectively. ‘I see good friends falling out because of debates they are having online. Shutting down a dialogue is a failure of activism.’

Historically the best art emerges from times of cultural upheaval.

Is that true of now? ‘Culturally, these times should be producing more exciting responses, but the financial situation we’re in, where everyone is terrified of spending any money, makes it hard.’ Because for all that we might envy of the slashy’s life, it’s not without its downsides. ‘There’s a sense of peril that comes with the gig economy. A lot of insecurity.’

Which is, you might say, the defining mood of our age. n

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Fayann Smith launches a flagship installation Body As Home at Venice Biennale this year

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Dress, Dolce & Gabbana

BOLLYWOOD

BRIT

The unlikely tale of Liverpool beauty queen turned Bollywood film star is worthy of the movies that Amy Jackson is now famous for. DAVINA CATT meets the northern lass who’s the manifestation of a millennial woman Fashion Director NICOLE SMALLWOOD Photography RACHELL SMITH Art Director FLEUR HARDING

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Dress, Zimmermann.

Earrings, David Morris

‘I To categorise her as another multihyphenate product of our fragmented, social media driven age would be to underestimate the unlikely and pioneering turn she has successfully cultivated for herself as our first ‘Bollywood Brit’

speak Hindi conversationally,’ says Amy Jackson, the 27-year-old Brit from Liverpool who broke into Bollywood, ‘but I’ve also done films in four different languages in India because there are so many different regions and cinema, across them, is huge. I mainly play English women but I have also played American, Romanian and Portuguese,’ she says casually.

Jackson might not be a name immediately on your radar, but if it was, it might be easy to categorise her as another multi-hyphenate product of our fragmented, social media driven age – model turned actress turned ambassador turned business woman. But that would be to underestimate the unlikely and pioneering turn she has successfully cultivated for herself as our first ‘Bollywood Brit’. ‘There’s definitely no one from Liverpool over there,’ she laughs.

Jackson is talking to me from the back of a taxi as she’s enjoying a short break, ‘a first in almost ten years’. She evidently hasn’t lost any of her north-ofthe-border, earthy charm since film-land recognition came her way – conversation is sprinkled with laughs and gratitude for her good fortune. Since her 2010 debut feature film, Madrasapattinam (also her acting debut), won her critical acclaim and award nominations, she has gone on to nurture a distinctive screen presence, starring in 16 Indian films including the groundbreaking 2.0 (a science fiction sequel to Robot), to date the most expensive Indian film made and the sixth highest grossing Indian film worldwide.

She is equally well versed in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada, has dubbed her own dialogues, and recently made the arduous leap stateside, appearing in the The CW network’s popular Supergirl series alongside Melissa Benoist.

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Dress, Emilia Wickstead. Earrings and ring, both David Morris

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Dress, Magda Butrym at Boutique 1. Coat, Isabel Marant at Boutique 1. Ring, David Morris

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Dress and scarf, Elie Saab.

Earrings, Garrard

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‘Social media has its pros and cons but I like being close to my supporters and I actually think that if you use it well, there is nothing like it in the world’ Growing up in Woolton, Liverpool with a horseriding instructor mother and BBC Radio Merseyside producer father, Jackson had no intention of pursuing an entertainment career (nor had she any connection to India). But when she won Miss Teen World in 2009, she was spotted by director A.L. Vijay, who at the time was casting for a leading lady for his Tamil language period drama Madrasapattinam. ‘I went along to the audition where I did some improvisation and acted out a few scenes. It all felt so alien to me, but next thing I knew, I was spending my 17th birthday on set in India.’

While Bollywood films, Madrasapattinam included, have traditionally been known for following formulaic and largely patriarchal tropes, how does she think the industry can update for the modern day? ‘Within the last ten years it has come on enormously. Yes, that film was very hero-centric, full of the traditional song and dance fantasy romance, but some of my later films such as Singh is Bliing, where I did all my own stunts (unheard of at the time in India), have scored well at the box office. I’ve also noticed a lot of other Indian actresses, like Kareena Kapoor, doing really strong female centric films or, like Priyanka Chopra, crossing over into international cinema and which have a positive message.’

Does Jackson feel part of a sea change, giving visibility to the Indian film industry, which can no longer exist in insularity but must integrate and explore diversity in its filmmaking? ‘Yes, the young generation of actresses want to be portrayed like that on the screen. And the younger writers and directors coming through aren’t stuck in the idealism of the ’50s – they also want that change.

Bollywood is international now – we have an instant audience all over the world.’

While she might have initially felt out of her depth in the country with its unique culture – ‘I spent three to four years living between Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi being taught dance and language. It hadn’t been a conscious decision to live in India, but the roles kept coming back to back’ – Jackson is now laudably using her experiences to raise awareness for charitable organisations acting as a link between countries. She recently signed as ambassador to the venerable UK-based Elephant Family charity which works to raise awareness of the plight of Asian elephants, as well as working very closely with the Sneha Sagar orphanage in Mumbai. ‘It’s for girls from newborn to the age of 15. I really want to concentrate on female representation.’

Indeed it was the ‘real bad ass’ attitude of Saturn Girl, the telekinetic powered character sprung from the superhero universe comics of decades back, that attracted her to the role in Supergirl. It also gave Jackson her first foot in the door stateside; ‘I grew as an actress from it. The director changed each episode so you were asked if you liked a shot or how you thought a scene could be improved – you got independence from it.’

The land of opportunity for Jackson is vast; she has been awarded with a flood of endorsements, her official App has launched and her social media collaborations reach an audience of nearly seven million. She recently returned from Malibu, where she starred in photographer Josh Ryan’s new S/S’19 Guess campaign (out this month): ‘I have wanted to be a Guess girl since the beginning of time,’ says Jackson. ‘It’s not with the signature motorbike, though, but a classic car instead – I have become interested in them since my fiancé collects them.’ Said partner would be George Panayiotou (son of London property empire businessman, Andreas Panayiotou) with whom she is expecting her first child at the end of September.

How does she cope with the media focus on her private life? ‘I think it’s part and parcel of what I do. I am an open person but it’s nice to keep some things private – I think it’s vital in this social media centred world.’

What are her tricks, then, to help maintain an identity as a representation of the modern, millennial woman – multi-faceted, perennially visible and directly engaged with the whims of her following? ‘I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way of doing it whether you go to stage school for five years or learn on the job – but outside of work it’s important to keep hobbies and interests. Social media has its pros and cons, but I like being close to my supporters and I actually think that if you use it well, there is nothing like it in the world – no one has ever been able to enjoy this type of communication before. I really enjoy it, so I hope it comes across as authentic and real.’

And with that the taxi arrives at her north London home and Jackson has to get back to organising her wedding in Italy, riding her horses out in nearby Trent Park, watching movies starring her unlikely idol, Anthony Hopkins, as well as reading the scripts flooding in from all corners. ‘Last year, I was balancing shooting 2.0 in India and Supergirl in America. I am an actress, so wherever the good scripts are I will go – whether it be India or Timbuktu – but ideally I’d love to be able to be in one place and find film work in London.’ And while her story’s beginning is one of fate, evidently she has the verve and know-how to continue to create her future on her own terms. n

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Dress, Temperley London.

Earrings, David Morris.

Cushions, Phillips & Cheers

LOCATION Thorpe Manor in Oxfordshire has opened as an exclusive-hire option for weddings and parties.

The Grade II* listed Georgian property features 14 bedrooms, dining room, bar, games room, cinema, gym and butler service. thorpemanorhouse.co.uk Flowers by Sayeh & Galton, London’s most prestigious luxury florist. sayehgaltonflowers.com TEAM Set Designer: Lee Flude Make-up: Nathalie Eleni using Oxygenetix, ALLÉL, Shiseido, Uriage and Radara Hair: Bjorn Krischker @ Frank Agency using SACHAJUAN Fashion assistant: Kerri Stolerman Photographer’s assistant: Oscar Yoosefinejad and Cameron Smith STOCKISTS: PAGE 140

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PHOTOS: © DREW GARDNER; © HUGO BURNAND

REIN SUPREME

With an upcoming exhibition in Venice, equine sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green is still very much in the saddle, says Teresa Levonian Cole 70 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2019

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PHOTOS: © DREW GARDNER; © HUGO BURNAND

A LEFT: Patinating Roman Horse bronze at Castello di Reschio BELOW: Nic’s studio in Surrey

lexander the Great and Bucephalus, Napoleon and Marengo, Wellington and Copenhagen... History abounds with legendary partnerships between man and horse. Often these are horses of war (Marengo and Copenhagen might have spied each other at Waterloo); sometimes they feature in other extreme fields of endeavour, most notably the rejoneo – the bullfight on horseback – of which the most celebrated pairing is perhaps that of Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza and Cagancho. Not to be confused with the unfortunate stalwart of the picador, the horse of the rejoneador elevates dressage to its ultimate, dangerous and beautiful – if controversial – level: man and horse transmogrified into balletic centaur, distinguished by nobility, grace and endurance.

Such are the qualities that inform the work of sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green. ‘I am fascinated by the relationship between man and horse through the centuries,’ he tells me as he recounts the less-storied fate of Australian stockmen who, in the First World War, took their horses by sea to Egypt to serve on the front line, overcame the German army, but were then unable to transport them back home. ‘Rather than leave them in the hands of the Egyptians, they executed their beloved horses at dawn. Can you imagine that?’

We are sitting in the car outside his studio, waiting for the downpour to abate. In front of us in the yard lies an unfinished, 23-foot, equine head, its copper skin glistening in the rain. It is destined for a spot along the A3 – a project that entails a cat’s cradle of red tape. ‘A permanent structure of that size requires planning permission,’ explains Fiddian-Green, ‘so we are placing the horse on wheels – that way, it’s not considered permanent.’

Fiddian-Green is best-known as a sculptor of monumental horse heads. Anyone who has passed Marble Arch will be familiar with his depiction of a horse at water. Thoroughbred, Irish, Andalusian, Marwari, Han Dynasty horses – all have served as models for his works.

But it was the marble image of one in particular, designed in the fifth century BC by Phidias, that sparked his lifelong obsession with getting under the skin of this animal.

Literally. ‘I had the skull of a horse in my bedroom in London,’ he tells me. ‘It all began with a visit to the British Museum, as an art student at Wimbledon, when I saw the horse of Selene from the Parthenon. I was so struck by its structure, balance, proportion, grace… qualities I’ve been aiming [to portray] ever since.’

We make a dash into the studio – a converted cowshed in the Surrey countryside, where he has lived with his wife Henrietta (‘a born horsewoman’) for some 25 years.

Inside, people are working on making fibreglass moulds – taken in turn from plaster models – that will serve as the armature for his beaten metal sculptures. Unusually, Fiddian-Green works his own metal, beating lead and copper, and casting bronze, using the 5,000-year-old lost wax technique. It is an arduous, archaic and dangerous process, whereby the alloy is heated to 1,200°C in 50kg batches and poured into ceramic moulds, in hellish scenes reminiscent of Bosch. ‘You have a maximum of ten minutes in which to do it, before the bronze begins to solidify rapidly,’ he explains. ‘There’s something alchemical about it, an elemental quality, which I like.’

Giant models stand around us, along with works-inprogress: a Carrara marble horse’s head and another in gleaming bronze, awaiting patination. Less well-known, but equally powerful, is a series of religious works by FiddianGreen: a Crucifixion panel stands next to a photograph of Pope John Paul II; a fibreglass cast of the artist’s own hands, joined in prayer, waits to be covered in lead.

Elsewhere, a beautiful head of Christ in a crown of thorns, modelled by a Franciscan brother, peeks out of a crate. Faith plays a central role in the life of Fiddian-Green, a Catholic convert – faith which has only been strengthened by his ‘miraculous’ survival of brain and bladder cancers, as well as life-threatening leukaemia, diagnosed in 2006. ‘Although I was very ill, it never crossed my mind that I would not live,’ he says. ‘I was working on the maquettes for a 27-foot bronze horse’s head for Lady Bamford from my hospital bed.’

Still Water (as that work would come to be called), was completed on his recovery three years later, and became the sculpture that propelled Fiddian-Green to fame.

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came up with a master stroke, persuading Westminster Council to place the sculpture temporarily at Marble Arch.

It proved so popular that the council agreed to a permanent installation of the replacement model that stands there today. ‘Although,’ says Fiddian-Green, ‘they did not know it would be six feet taller and three tonnes heavier than the original. That created all sorts of problems.’ The project cost Fiddian-Green some £250,000. He is also responsible for the sculpture’s upkeep. ‘But it’s a great advertisement!’

We return to his home – an airy converted barn attached to an 18th-century cottage, peppered with FiddianGreen sculptures of more manageable proportions.

Through floor-to-ceiling glass doors, I see a 12-foot copper horse’s head in the courtyard and, beyond that, fleshand-blood versions, peacefully grazing. Among them is Sebastian, Henrietta’s thoroughbred cross Irish skewbald, who served as the model for Still Water. ‘When the children were small, the horses would trot over the oak floorboards into the kitchen for breakfast,’ says Fiddian-Green. He stands sketching at an easel as we speak, while I sit at the kitchen table, playing with a small chunk of Turkish malachite. From monumental to miniature – there’s something primordial in the thought that, next time I see this stone, it will have been transformed into a work of art: a horse’s head to be displayed at Masterpiece London in June: part of an exhibition of Nic’s miniatures carved from Burmese jade, Afghan lapis lazuli and gold, among other precious materials. ‘The idea developed from a project for Louisa Guinness that I worked on about three years ago, on the concept of art as jewellery,’ he says. ‘I love working in gold – the colour!’

More immediately, however, Henrietta is wrestling with the logistics of another project. Fiddian-Green has been

invited to exhibit at the church of Madonna dell’Orto in Venice during this year’s Biennale, and is currently deciding which works to take. Three monumental equine heads in copper – ‘a metal used in the Renaissance’ – are on the cards, as well as smaller bronzes, possibly a marble head, a 16-foot-high pair of hands joined in prayer, and a series of drawings of the Grand Canal, which he is sketching as we speak. ‘A new “horse at water” will be made specifically for the event, to be placed on the ancient pavement in front of the entrance of the church,’ he says. There are plans also for a ‘Greek’ horse’s head to be brought from the Castello di Reschio estate in Umbria, where he was able to study Andalusian horses in motion, and has since bought a cottage. ‘It’s all about the journey,’ he says. ‘Maybe we will cover the horse in gold leaf. The idea is to make a spectacle of the horse’s arrival, by barge… create a sense of drama.’

Given the labyrinthine bureaucracy of La Serenissima, one suspects drama will be a given: transporting and installing these larger works, at a site on a tiny canal in Cannaregio, is fraught with difficulties. And then there are concerns about the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit… But team Fiddian-Green is undaunted by such considerations. Only when I mention the other horses of Venice – that famous quartet above the porch of St. Mark’s Basilica, pilfered from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade – does he hint at a wobble.

‘It is a city of such tremendous artistic heritage,’ he says.

‘You know, Tintoretto painted the altar of Madonna dell’Orto, and is buried there. Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing in Venice. It’s an honour to be there.’

Nic Fiddian-Green is exhibiting at Madonna dell’Orto, Venice, from 1 May to 31 July 2019 and at Masterpiece London from 27 June. n

PHOTOS: © DREW GARDNER

ABOVE: Nic with Horse at Water maquette for the Marble Arch monument, leading Sebastian, his wife’s horse

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ORIGINAL, LIMITED-EDITION ART DECO POSTERS

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THE WEDDING PLANNER Say ‘I do’ to hassle-free wedding prep with our comprehensive bridal guide

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Chloe Hunter on her wedding day in Italy

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ON THE COVER: Oscar de la Renta Rose Garden Matelassé gown, from £8,493. oscardelarenta.com

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PHOTOS: CHLOE HUNTER © TALI_PHOTOGRAPHY

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ast year was a big one where weddings were concerned.

The Duchess of Sussex oozed unfussy elegance in a Givenchy gown, while Princess Eugenie skipped the veil and donned a low-back Peter Pilotto number with a tiara lent by her Grandmother. The irony, of course, is that despite royal wedding hysteria and noise around the princesses’ pared-down gowns, 2019’s bridal couture barometer reads ruffles, thick brocade, heavy embroidery and near pre-Raphaelite plume. Boho lace is out and that tricky sweet spot of tasteful, hearty opulence is in. But not too opulent; eco-conscious weddings are on the rise and the very concept of nuptials is being challenged (reconciling the consumer theatre and traditions of weddings with the green age is no picnic). I wanted this guide to be a visual feast for all readers but also a useful starter pack for brides-to-be. And with wedding season now in full swing and the taste, scale and message of each wedding wonderfully varied, the only consistent message seems to be ‘iPhone down, head up and enjoy the moment’.

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BRIDAL Beyond something blue La Perla has fluttered into bridalwear with a new made-to-measure collection designed by Alessandra Bertuzzi. An intimate understanding of the female body comes in handy for such a move. laperla.com

TOP TRENDS

Best foot forward Emmy London’s new Porto collection not only includes a few handsome pairs of midi-heels and flats for brides uneasy in six-inchers but also a selection of detachable Swarovski crystal shoe clips. emmy london.com

INSIDE OUT Indoor restaurant gardens are blooming lovely. lpmbohemia.com SWAP THE CALAIS DASH For a vineyard day trip with Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat. From £6,787 for two. fourseasons.com

BRIDAL BULLETIN

WOKE WEDDINGS The Wedding Shop has a growing range of ethical brands from Canvas Home (pictured) to One Night Eight Five. weddingshop.com

Trends and news from the front pews Royal rags From co-designing Princess Diana’s wedding gown to dressing every A-lister from Bianca Jagger to Rita Ora, British fashion legend Elizabeth Emanuel celebrates 40 years in design with her first full couture spring collection. elizabethemanuel.co.uk

Ring hunter Former jewellery editor Pip Durell is harnessing her encyclopaedic knowledge of designers, dealers and antique specialists to help clueless souls choose their partner’s engagement ring. Thank God someone’s on the case. theboxldn.com Ring by Tada & Toy

SEASONAL SLICES ‘Citrus for winter and raspberries and peach for summer,’ says bespoke baker Lucy Burton. lucyburtoncakes.com

Star styling The ultimate wedding style concierge duo: celebrity stylist Nicole Smallwood and fashion designer Carolyn Parmar deploy their sartorial powers and little black book, from exclusive hairdressers to undiscovered venues. ceremonybyparmar parker.com

TIARAS ARE BACK! The bigger, the better.

18ct white gold tiara, £POA. garrard.com

NON-BRIDAL BRIDES Ask a fashion designer for a one-off à la Alex Carl in RACIL. racil.com

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BRIDAL

THE PARTY PLANNER

Hiring a safe pair of hands could save your marriage before it has even begun Liz Linkleter Events Known for steering well clear of clichés and rustling up tasteful, often understated alternatives, their bespoke wedding planning and design services are visual catnip for style-conscious couples.

Most memorable day? ‘A Cotswold wedding at one of our favourite venues, Sezincote, where we created a transparent marquee structure with a foliage canopy across the whole ceiling.’

Top tips ‘Ensure the dance floor, bar and smoking area are close together otherwise it can cause a split and kill the atmosphere – and don’t make the smoking area too comfy. Whatever you do, don’t get too sucked into Pinterest. Keep it personal, so it doesn’t date.’ lizlinkleter.com

Niemierko From researching your dream venue to nailing the details, Mark Niemierko is the man for couples after a lavish, bespoke bash, overseeing only five weddings a year himself (recently Julia and James Corden’s). His team consider the couple’s preferences and personalities to create a show-stopping and deeply personal day.

Most memorably day? ‘A July wedding at an Oxfordshire palace with a rehearsal dinner on the Belmond British Pullman from London to Oxford, a classic wedding ceremony, Alice in Wonderland pudding room and basement club themed around Studio 54.’

Top tips ‘Good service and a fully stocked bar. Keep flower arrangements low so guests can socialise across the table and use tapered candles to add height.’ niemierko.com

ON A BUDGET? While DIY planning is daunting, planning app Bridebook has 93,000 couples giving it a go with a personalised checklist, budgeter and guestlist manager. With over 700,000 venues and suppliers, this is organisational gold for the assertive, busy bride looking to save a few bob and keep her sanity while she’s at it. bridebook.co.uk

PHOTOS: DAVID PULLUM PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY NIEMIERKO

Alexandra Pisani Growing up in five-star hotels (her family owns the Corinthia Group), luxury hospitality is in Alexandra Pisani’s blood. She is all about elegance and the personal touch, from lavish, sun-soaked nuptials on her home turf in Malta to English countryside weddings wrapped in ritual and romance.

Most memorable day? ‘A three-day Tuscan wedding. We lit over 1,000 candles to line the path leading up to a beautiful glass marquee – the setting was just magical. The following day guests enjoyed an Aperol and pizza pool party with views over the rolling Tuscan hills.’

Top tips ‘You can create your dream wedding, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Have fun and try not to get too stressed. Firstly, that’s my job and secondly, it will all come together in the end.

Be present in each moment.’ alexandrapisani.com

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PROMOTION

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Wanderlust Wine Six bottles of Nyetimber Classic Cuvée, £198

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The Wedding Shop is the modern day answer to the traditional gift list

Lime Culinary Concepts Chelsea Tulip Velvet chair, £549

Emma Bridgewater Teapot, £60

Forget unwanted kettles and ugly vases, The Wedding Shop offers a wedding list with a difference. Evolving with increasingly experience focused and ethically wired couples, and with showrooms in Chelsea, Selfridges Oxford Street, Edinburgh and Dublin, The Wedding Shop makes the process easy, offering a treasure trove of products, experiences, fund contribution pots and charitable options. Whether curating online or exploring their beautifully presented Chelsea townhouse, there is something to suit all tastes and budgets. hello@weddingshop.com; 0207 384 8400; weddingshop.com

CULT CLASSICS

Brics Life holdall, £290

Kitchen Aid 100th anniversary edition stand mixer, £699

Burleigh Side plate, £12

Waterford Crystal Lismore vase, £135 Magimix Toaster, £120

Le Creuset 4.2l casserole, £225

Carrs of Sheffield Silver frame, £69.50

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THE VENUE

The surroundings set the tone, so will it be country, town or overseas?

COU NTRY

Barnsley House, Gloucestershire For the quintessential English setting amid historic gardens, teeming with flowers, birds, herbs and sweet aromas. barnsleyhouse.com

TOWN

AB ROAD

The Foundling Museum, Bloomsbury Best for Dickensian design and Bloomsbury’s bookish legacy – and it’s one of the only museums in London offering exclusive hire. foundlingmuseum.org.uk

Villa Cetinale, Italy Unfettered Italian splendour, legendary gardens, frescoes and a fabulously imposing façade. villacetinale.com

Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham Plump for gothic opulence in London’s leafy fringes (once Walpole’s own castle). strawberryhillhouse.org.uk

Château Castigno, France Exclusive use of a bohemian French village and its château, renowned for its gastro panache and organic wines. villagecastigno.com

Ballyfin, Ireland Yesteryear opulence and sumptuous interiors at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains in rural Ireland. ballyfin.com

Petersham Nurseries, Richmond For a rustic, flower-fuelled celebration with tasty, locally-sourced dishes and fairy lights aplenty. petershamnurseries.com

Holkham Hall, Norfolk Breathtaking parkland rolling into the rugged Norfolk coastline, along with a magnificent marble hall. holkham.co.uk

Hacienda de San Rafael, Spain Rural Andalusian charm amid orchards, olive groves, sunflower fields and a warm Atlantic breeze. haciendadesanrafael.com Bled Castle, Slovenia For medieval merrymaking, perched atop a steep cliff with dramatic views across the ethereal Lake Bled. blejski-grad.si

The Brewery, The City The Whitbread brewing legacy’s vast, barnlike spaces in the city centre. thebrewery.co.uk Huntsham Court, Devon A knees-up in one of Devon’s prettiest corners, with its own church and beds for up to 90 people. huntshamcourt.co.uk

10–11 Carlton House Terrace, St James’s Sweeping views across St James’s Park and grand Georgian bones that demand minimal decoration. 10-11cht.com

Domaine des Etangs, France This handsomely renovated 11th-century French château is itself the perfect marriage of bucolic bliss and unapologetic luxury. domainedesetangs.com

PHOTOS: THE BREWERY SUGAR ROOM BY JOASIS PHOTOGRAPHY

Glenapp Castle, Scotland A fairytale Scottish wedding featuring bagpipes, turrets and magical woodlands. glenappcastle.com

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PROMOTION

PEARLS OF WISDOM A timeless alternative to gemstones

W

ith three decades’ experience and a lustrous string of clients from Kristin Scott Thomas to Princess Anne, Chrissie Douglas of Coleman Douglas Pearls illustrates the traditional significance of pearls for brides, their aesthetic purchase and the science of matching colour to skin tone and gown. ‘Pearls are enduringly elegant, sophisticated and timeless, a marker of occasions such as a wedding,’ she says.

GET THE GLOW As a beautiful product of nature deriving from sustainable sources, Coleman Douglas Pearls lift and enhance their custodian’s beauty rather than distract onlookers from it (as diamonds often do). They are the ultimate visual effect, lifting the skin’s tone and sustaining a natural glow – the best facelift going.

SOMETHING OLD The tradition of wearing pearls on your wedding day began in the Middle Ages (when pearls were a symbol of virtue) and from the Hindu tradition where it is written that Krishna drew a pearl from the depths of the sea to adorn his daughter Pandaia on her wedding day, for wisdom.

PARADIGM-OND Engagement tokens of jewellery (mainly pendants or rings) traditionally comprised of various precious stones or pearls. This medley was the ultimate symbol of power and wealth; the diamond engagement ring culture only began in 1947 following strategic marketing campaigns.

FROM TOP: Akoya pearl necklace with diamond leaf centrepiece, £6,224; Freshwater Baroque shape pearl optional drops on petite grey pearl stud, £595; Diamond leaf and South Sea pearl earrings, £7,966; Strand mixed cultured freshwater grey pearl bracelet, £593

PEARL PAIRING At Coleman Douglas Pearls’ Beauchamp Place studio they select the optimum overtone of pearl colour for each client’s skin tone; even ‘white pearls’ pack a huge variety of overtones which will make the difference between looking good and looking mesmerising. Its latest collection, Think Pink, mixes peachy pink, dove grey and cream white pearls– the easiest colour combinations for most complexions.

DRESSIQUETTE Brides with a high or boat neck collar dress should opt for earrings with movement, whether hair is up or down.

Pearl studs or short pearl drops with a pendant or a grand choker work best for gowns with a low or plunging neckline. If the dress is rich in embroidery the same subtle earring combination is best, along with a central pendant necklace or statement earrings with movement (not both). Their tiara pearls are an elegant accent for any bridal gown and can be unset and re-worked post-wedding as a bracelet – an iridescent memory to treasure. pearls.co.uk

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ZIMMERMANN Ninety-Six Ric Rac dress, £2,550. zimmermann wear.com

YAS Yasmessi maxi dress, £439.99. zalando.co.uk

PHILLIPA LEPLEY Vienna Dotted Darcy gown, £POA. phillipalepley.com

HERMIONE DE PAULA Florence gown, £POA. hermionedepaula.com

EMILIA WICKSTEAD Renee gown, £10,000. emiliawickstead.com

THE GOWN

Whether you’re a traditionalist, a modernist, or simply a hopeless romantic, say ‘I do’ in style TEMPERLEY BRIDAL Fitted Toledo dress, £2,995. temperleylondon.com

CAROLINE CASTIGLIANO Santa Barbara gown, £POA. carolinecastigliano.com

GABRIELA HEARST Tituba gown, £2,695. net-a-porter.com

NEEDLE & THREAD Tiered Gloss bridal gown, £775. needleand thread.com

CAROLINA HERRERA Irina gown, £POA. thewedding-club.co.uk

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THE JEWELS

Rip up the rule book and wear pieces that make your heart sing

1 Georgina Boyce Diamond ring, £POA. georginaboyce.com 2 Bentley & Skinner A pearl and diamond tiara worn by the Countess of Annesley to the coronation of King George VI, £59,500. bentley-skinner.co.uk 3 Coleman Douglas Pearls Freshwater pearl choker, £1,632. pearls.co.uk 4 David Morris Colombian emerald and diamond ring, £POA. davidmorris.com 5 Boodles Pavilion Ashoka diamond bracelet, £POA. boodles.com 6 Adler Diamond ring, £POA. adler.ch 7 Garrard Beatrice diamond tiara, £POA. garrard.com 8 Gee Woods Circe ring, £3,995. geewoods.com 9 Amrapali Emerald and diamond ring, £POA. amrapalijewels.com 10 Hirsh London Suspense diamond necklace, £8,000. hirshlondon.com 11 Catherine Best Midnight Dreams ring, £POA. catherinebest.com 12 Cartier Diamond earrings. £26,700. cartier.co.uk 13 Simon Wright Diamond cluster ring, £POA. sw-jewellery.com June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 83

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Something Old...

Timeless bridal jewellery Art director URSULA LAKE Photographer MATTHEW SHAVE

Left: Three row marquise Illusion style bracelet; diamond full eternity ring; three row marquise Illusion style tassle necklace; brilliant diamond Elizabeth bracelet, all David Morris Right: Diamond and platinum ring; diamond and platinum Straight Line bracelet; diamond and platinum Traffic bracelet; diamond and platinum Lily Cluster bracelet, all Harry Winston c.1830 Common Prayer book from a selection of vintage books at Asprey

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Something New...

Left: White gold and diamond Crown rings and bangle, both Annoushka Right: White gold, diamond and pearl Lacrima necklace and bracelet, both Bucherer Notebook, Smythson.

Anello classic rollerball pen by H Moser & Cie at William & Son

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Something Borrowed...

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Left: Tanzanite, diamond and white gold earrings; white gold and diamond necklace; white gold, sapphire and diamond ring, all Adler Right: White gold and diamond Novastella necklace and bangles; platinum and diamond Lumiere ring; white gold and diamond Bombe ring, all William & Son

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White gold, sapphire, pavĂŠd sapphires and white diamond Red Carpet ring; tanzanite, amethyst, diamond and white gold Temptations necklace, both Chopard

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Something Blue...

Sapphire, diamond and platinum Mermaid’s Tale ring; sapphire, diamond and platinum Vintage design ring; sapphire, diamond and platinum Blues and Royals bracelet, all Boodles TEAM Nails: Cherrie Snow using NARS Cosmetics Hand models: Hannah and Debbie at Hired Hands STOCKISTS: PAGE 140

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Get the Glow

BACK TO NATURE

For brides after that ethereal glow without invasive treatments, Dr Sebagh offers lymphatic drainage that both relaxes the face through rhythmic massage and releases toxins from the skin, directing them towards the adjacent lymph nodes. This intensely therapeutic treatment using healing essential oils can be tailored to specific skin complaints such as scarring or swelling. Leave plenty of time before the big day. £190. drsebagh.com

STAY BALANCED Weddings can be a stressful time for couples and families – holistic health coach Tori Boughey of TBalance to the rescue.

With the goal of improving mental and physical wellbeing, Tori uses a combination of nutrition, positive thought processes and environment.

Your fairy godmother for when life feels off-kilter. tbalance.co.uk

THE BODY

Yeotown has curated the ultimate holistic lifestyle retreat around nutrition, exercise and mental wellbeing, leveraging the healing powers of nature in a bucolic Devonshire setting.

From hiking along cliffs to practising yoga and meditation, Yeotown offers more than a pause by also giving guests invaluable ‘takeaways’ to integrate into their daily lives. Retreats from £1,950. yeotown.com

Save a spot on the wedding plan for self-care and thank us later

Bathe in Bath Take your mum, friends or just yourself for some R&R at The Gainsborough Bath Spa. Tapping into the thermal springs and the area’s healing heritage, it combines natural minerals with aromatherapy. thegainsboroughbathspa.co.uk

Fresh Faced ‘Skin whisperer’ Nataliya Robinson excels in spot management by combining highperforming botanicals from her Quantum Botanika range with cutting-edge technology and Chinese medicine to treat a variety of modern skin complaints at her Chelsea clinic.

Treatments from £190. nataliyarobinson.co.uk

DIET F R EE Yolo Retreats in the Cotswolds is a preferable alternative to months of hard graft in the gym.

Combining nourishing dishes with a personalised fitness plan, its weekend programmes are a great way to escape to the country and hone those stomach muscles at the same time. yoloretreats.co.uk 92 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2019

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PROMOTION

BRITISH BRIDAL COUTURE

Caroline Castigliano, bespoke wedding dress designer, wants brides to feel their most confident when walking down the aisle

F

inding the perfect dress is a task of tremendous importance to any newly engaged bride. Therefore, who you choose to design it is also a significant decision.

Caroline Castigliano has been realising brides’ dreams for 28 years and cares about your dress as much as (if not, more than) you do, making her opulent Knightsbridge store the ultimate bridal destination, and bridesto-be fly in from all over the world to enlist the services of Caroline.

Everything about a Castigliano gown is bespoke, from the signature hidden corset that has made Caroline famous over the years, which defines and balances your figure to perfection, to the exquisite detailing and craftsmanship. Every gown is truly unique to the wearer and is handcrafted here in the UK. When visiting Caroline Castigliano, one of her expertly trained team will guide you through the collection so you fully understand the signature style and see the effortlessly understated glamour of each gown. Each fabric is carefully chosen and the beading and trims are designed to complement the dress.

Once you have made your decision you will meet the head of fittings, who takes a set of full-body measurements and the journey of lovingly creating your gown begins.

Brides place enormous trust in those that produce their wedding gown – an item that is immortalised in photographs and memories – so entrust this task with the best in the business. With Caroline Castigliano you are in safe hands.

Caroline Castigliano 154 Brompton Road, London, SW3 1HX; 020 7590 9120; carolinecastigliano.com

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JUST HITCHED

Stuck for ideas? Whether you want a traditional country do in the Cotswolds or a far-flung beachside bash, these stylish showstopper weddings will get you started

ONE OXFORDSHIRE WINTER

Olivia and Anthony von Christierson, at home in Oxfordshire TUSCAN EXTRAVAGANZA

Chloe and Archie Hunter, Villa Gambaraia, Tuscany Wedding planner: Lillingston The bride wore: Berta Florist: Wildabout Music: Juke Joints and Beat from ALR Music Caterer: Galateo Ricevimenti Photographer: TALI photography

PHOTOS: © BENJAMIN WHEELER; © EMMA SIMON WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

The bride wore: Galvan Florist: Tattie Rose Marquee: LPM Bohemia Music: Three and a Half Men and Soul Jets from ALR Music Caterer: Made by Bob Photographer: Benjamin Wheeler

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The English Country Garden

Sarah and Peter Bedingfield Shutt, Hereford Cathedral

Christmas Carols in London

Emma Reeve and Simon Higson, The Savile Club, London

PHOTOS: © BENJAMIN WHEELER; © EMMA SIMON WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

The bride wore: Jenny Packham Florist: The Herefordshire Flower Studio Caterer: Produce grown at Peter’s home and prepared by the family Carriage: AC Cobra (groom’s own) and Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud (called Harold) from Hereford Wedding Cars Photographer: Wesley Nel

The bride wore: Jenny Packham Florist: Fox Glove & Glory Floral headpiece: Clea Broad Decoration: Bubblegum Balloon Carriage: Karma Kabs Stationery: Mount Street Printers

Thai the Knot

Christina Santichatsak-Mills and William Stone, Thanya Beach Koh Ngai, Thailand The bride wore: Oat Couture, Bangkok Wedding planner: Wedding Bliss Thailand Caterer: Thanya Beach Restaurant Florist: I Am Flower Music: Pichy of Quay Records Photographer: Hipster Wedding Asia June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 95

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THE HONEYMOON Alternative adventures for couples who can’t sit still

Island Safari Explore the Galápagos Islands without being confined to a boat with Metropolitan Touring’s Island-2-Island ‘safari’. Stay at the Finch Bay Galápagos Hotel and Scalesia Lodge – and hike the active Sierra Negra volcano, or swim with whitetip reef sharks and sea lions from Finch Bay’s private yacht.

On mainland Ecuador, peddle through Cloud Forest’s canopy at ecoconscious Mashpi Lodge.

BOOK IT: From £4,250, including flights. originaltravel.co.uk

Chilean Epic Beginning in the Atacama Desert, take a 13-night adventure down through Chile. Stay at the five-star Awasi lodge in San Pedro, that’s built into the desert landscape, from which you can explore the Valley of the Moon, geyser fields at El Tatio, and spot flamingos in the Altiplano lakes. Two nights at the Ritz Carlton in lively Santiago with its thriving culinary scene and emerging art movement precede a journey south to the Torres del Paine National Park, where the Singular Patagonia will take newlyweds on a private speedboat to the hauntingly beautiful glaciers and sea lion colonies (with few tourists in sight).

Stay just outside the park at the remote Awasi Patagonia with jaw-dropping views across deep blue lakes from stand-alone cabins. Finish with a few gourmet nights at Vina Vik in Central Valley, just outside Santiago, where you can ride and cycle through Chile’s finest vineyards.

BOOK IT: From £11,200 based on two sharing, including flights. scottdunn.com

Animal Magic Ski East Scale Japan and absorb its mesmeric culture with Powder Byrne’s ten-night itinerary, from the Niseko slopes to the vibrant cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.

With four resorts, Niseko caters to all levels of skier with some of the driest, lightest powder in the world. Walk off any ski legs in former imperialist capital, Kyoto, teeming with iconic pavilions and temples, before catching the bullet train to Tokyo to explore the Tsukiji fish market and the Yoyogi Park.

BOOK IT: £3,750, excluding flights. powderbyrne.com

Begin with a classic Big Five game safari at Singita’s private 350,000-acre reserve on Tanzania’s Serengeti plains.

Stay in the Sabora Tented Camp, an eccentric spin on a 1920s explorer camp. From one breathtaking setting to another, honeymooners can combine this trip with a week at Rwanda’s Singita Kwitonda Lodge on the edge of the Volcanoes National Park, where an estimated 320 mountain gorillas find sanctuary in the cloud forests.

Explore the Afro Montane forests of the Nyungwe National Park or venture into the vibrant capital, Kigali.

BOOK IT: Suites from US$1,500. singita.com

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SHOE S & ACC ES S O R I ES 74 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 6HH 0207 704 0012

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BRIDAL

THE MINIMOON A few days away helps to process the big day

Hell Bay Hotel, Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly, scattered off the Cornish coast, have a balmy microclimate and waters reminiscent of Caribbean lagoons come summer time. Hunker down at New England-style Hell Bay Hotel on Bryher island with its deserted beaches and poetic sunsets.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £135. hellbay.co.uk

Grandes Alpes Private Hotel, Courchevel 1850 Nothing spells out romance like cuddling up fireside at this alpine retreat nestled in Courchevel 1850’s snowy peaks. It has a state-of-the-art spa, ski-in/ ski-out access and eight Michelin-starred restaurants to ski for.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £854 B&B. grandesalpes.com

Jávri Lodge, Ivalo, Finland A chic, hauntingly remote hideaway and former peace negotiating hotspot for the Finnish President, Jávri Lodge is wild luxury at its best, enveloped in thick forest and donning Finnish saunas and floor-to-ceiling windows to behold that midnight sun.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £932 half board. javri.fi; finnair.com

Villa Al Jafar, Sicily If optimum privacy and minimal ‘bother’ is on the minimoon agenda, a private villa is the one. Thinking Traveller has a few up its sleeve but this lavish mini castle, with its ancient walled gardens and Mediterranean vista, is a firm favourite.

BOOK IT: From £2,710 per week. thethinkingtraveller.com

Lutetia, Paris For some Left Bank Parisian romance, ‘Grand Hotel’ Lutetia is the epitome of new-meets-old Paris, drenched in Art Deco and Nouveau features with a contemporary finish and wonderfully clichéd views of the Eiffel Tower.

BOOK IT: Doubles from €850 B&B. hotellutetia.com

Blue Palace, Crete Blue Palace’s sweeping views across the kaleidoscopic blue Aegean Sea and Crete’s Spinalonga island prove you can forgo the long haul and jet lag for an ethereal, five-star setting and diving paradise. Much more refreshing.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £203 B&B. marriott.com

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E XC E P T I O N A L T R AV E L

To request our latest couples brochure, please contact amelia.vevers@scottdunn.com or call us on 0208 682 5000 To make your holiday truly exceptional we will arrange all the little extras for you, from private guides to local cookery classes.

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THE DETAILS

Social Pantry

The little things add up to the big picture

FLORIST

Petal & Grace Nikki Pierce is the floristry artist you need to make your wedding bloom. petalandgrace.com Sayeh & Galton Will travel wherever the wedding belles take them. sayehgaltonflowers.com

CATERER

Petal & Grace Smythson

Social Pantry Their canapés will jostle with the flowers for artistic veneration. socialpantry.co.uk The Admirable Crichton Party veterans with a Royal Warrant to boot. admirable-crichton.co.uk

STATIONERY

Benjamin Wheeler photography

Kinship Press The Howarth sisters are painting the wedding scene in vivid watercolour. kinship-press.com Smythson One for the traditionalists swooning over fancy French italics. smythson.com

PHOTOGRAPHER

Phoebe Goddard Capturing uncontrived moments and subliminal details. pgphotographylondon.co.uk Benjamin Wheeler His photos fall somewhere between National Geographic and a glossy shoot. benjaminthomaswheeler.com

CAKE

Sophie Cabot Responsible for Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s red velvet wedding cake. sophiecabot.com Baked by Steph Layered modern art, macaroons and cookie cakes. bakedbysteph.co.uk

The Soul Jets A ‘nine-headed Soul and Funk monster’. alrmusic.co.uk The Gypsy Queens Having performed at Elton John’s glitzy bashes, they’re well-versed in mood control. gypsyqueens.com

TIPPLE

The Soul Jets

Pol Roger Supplier to all three recent Royal Weddings. justerinis.com Nyetimber This sparkling wine tastes just as good, if not better, than its French rivals. nyetimber.com

Pol Roger

PHOTOS: © JO SHORT; BENJAMIN WHEELER

BAND

The Royal Wedding cake by Sophie Cabot

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Simply Amazing artwork

by Tim Noble

Dr Jean-Louis Sebagh London Clinic 25 Wimpole Street London W1G 8GL

Paris Clinic 64 Rue de Longchamp 75116 Paris drsebagh.com/clinic

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2 3 M AY — 2 JUNE 2019 READERS THINKERS DREAMERS 01497 822 629 H AY F E S T I VA L . O R G @ H AY F E S T I VA L

Imagine the world

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The SPA SPECIAL | Edited by Daisy Finer

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SPA SPECIAL

106

EDITOR’S LETTER

Four Seasons Megève

Revı̄vō Wellness Resort

I

112 Stanglwirt, Austria

116 ON THE COVER: The Modern Bustier, Arabella London SS19. arabellalondon.co.uk CONTRIBUTORS: Carole Annett, Zoe Butt, Lucy Cleland, Caiti Grove, Camilla Hewitt, Anna Pasternak

n the depths of winter, it can be very hard to imagine that summer will eventually come.

It’s the same when we hit a low point. You know it will pass, but it can feel like it will drag on forever. Perhaps you’re lacking in energy, feeling physically flat, emotionally drained, in need of some time alone, trying to heal an ailment or indeed your heart. Perhaps you want to lose some weight or build strength or maybe, like most of us, you need to step out of your busy life and just be – receive, even.

Whether you seek to purify or rebuild, lie on a beach or get your blood pressure checked, there’s a spa out there that can help kick-start your recovery, that can offer more than just a holiday, and can act as a bridge between grey times and brighter skies. For this month’s spa special we’ve explored some wonderful fly and flop escapes (p106), everywhere from the Maldives to Thailand (gosh it’s been tough), and if you’re travelling with children we’ve got that covered too – even babes in arms (p116). We’ve found some lovely weekend escapes (p112), perfect for mothers and daughters, girlfriends or couples, and we’ve also found some hard-tackling wellbeing centres – from the holistic to the more medi-focused – for those seeking solutions (p108). We hope you find somewhere you love, and we’ll be back in January 2020 with more juicy suggestions. Yes, that too will be with us before we know it. But let’s not wish time away, let’s enjoy every second while we can.

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“

I was only 8 years old when I decided to devote my life to children. Thanks to my energy, they’ll always have unforgettable stories to tell you.

Korine, Kids Club Supervisor

Meet our Artisans #BeachcomberExperience #Mauritius www.beachcomber.com

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SPA SPECIAL

CATCH SOME RAYS RETREATS FOR THE VITAMIN D-DEFICIENT

ZURI ZANZIBAR AFRICA

The epitome of eco-chic luxury, Zanzibar’s latest arrival is exactly what you want in a dreamy fly-and-flop hideaway.

Thatched African-style bungalows – all wicker, hammocks and mosquito nets – are spread generously throughout spiceladen gardens that lead down to a white, silky-soft beach. The Maua Wellness spa is small but packs a punch. A wide range of treatments encompasses everything from gentlemen’s facials to holistic wellbeing or blissful full body packages.

Opt for the Zanzi Spice Journey: a full body polish, wrap and massage with all-natural products including cinnamon and orange from the gardens. It leaves you feeling utterly revived, ready to enjoy the open-air Peponi bar (with lamps made from upcycled bottles), library, yoga deck, open-air gym and infinity pool. All this while knowing that the ethos supports local initiatives and is consciously energysaving. Feast on freshly-caught lobsters and king prawns cooked on the barbecue on your own private beachfront cabana, and don’t miss unwinding on the jacuzzi deck, coconut in hand, as you catch the last of the African sun sinking below the sea while traditional dhow sailing boats drift across the horizon.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £331 per night. zurizanzibar.com

REVĪVŌ WELLNESS RESORT BALI

A new and beautifully sleek retreat in Bali that aims to soothe and revive with an impressive mix of holistic treatments, vegan and vegetarian food. Aliwalu, the chef (as well as health coach and author), focuses on allowing the body to detox naturally while gradually needing smaller quantities.

For breakfast expect a feast of green and colourful juices, enjoyed through bamboo straws, and delicious detox dishes, all glutenfree, such as banana porridge with cinnamon, cacao nibs and almond milk, or avocado on toast. There’s plenty of exercise to choose from including tai chi, HIIT, dance, every

type of yoga, pilates, TRX and Muay Thai, or you can simply head to the gym and carry on with your normal workout. Gustu oversees the fitness programmes – if you can, get him to give you a stretch down that includes reiki moves on pressure points. The spa is where the therapeutic magic happens: shake off the jetlag and prep skin for the sun with the Lulur Indulgence – a body scrub followed by a body wrap in banana leaves, Balinese massage and Vichy shower – a powerful antiageing and hydrating treatment all in one.

This is a new star on the scene, with proper immersive journeys for spa junkies, detox divas and gym bunnies alike.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £759. revivoresorts.com

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CHEVAL BLANC RANDHELI MALDIVES

Glide in on the smartest of seaplanes and prepare for glamorous, turbo-charged perfection: expansive, open-plan thatched villas designed by Belgian architect Jean-Michel Gathy with direct access to the ocean, private lobster dinners on the beach and the most majestic of true blue natural settings. Revel in your own private water world: swimming, sailing, diving, dolphins. Personal ‘ambassadeurs’ anticipate your every need and soon feel essential. It’s no surprise that a hotel under the umbrella of LVMH would consider every detail, from French linens to fragrant candles.

When you feel like moving, Lara the Aussie fitness instructor will motivate even the laziest with fat-busting PT sessions. Afterwards, escape to the Guerlain spa – on its own island. Book treatments ahead and decide what you fancy: massages galore, from Thai to hot stone and shiatsu, aesthetic facials, slimming treatments, hammam, reflexology and an unusually large choice of haircare rituals. Yoga and meditation are integral and ensure that, however clouded your head, you’ll leave with a sense of calm that resonates long after your stay. Unfaultable, bar maybe the price.

BOOK IT: Villas from £1,530 per night. chevalblanc.com

TRISARA HOTEL THAILAND

In this wilderness of palms, lemongrass and jasmine, wellness isn’t just about a massage and a snooze after breakfast. Okay, it’s a little about that but the team are determined to get you moving.

On the Extreme Wellness Experience guests are given a Fitbit (a razzy one with a screen) and an aim of 100,000 steps over eight days – quite doable given the peak-roofed suites with private pools, 45-metre pool and restaurants arranged over 40,000 acres of tropical gardens. There are plenty of fun ways to get your heart racing: sunrise yoga, beach bootcamp, kayaking, paddle boarding and Thai kickboxing. Once you’ve been put through your paces there are plenty of ways to recover: at the Jara spa, therapists who trained at Bangkok's Wat Po Temple specialise in Thai thermal massage, oil-based facials, scrubs, reiki and craniosacral rebalancing. They offer urbanites (read: sedentary) a chance to reboot their energy and reset their exercise habits. It’s the carrot and stick in equal measure. The former is blissful compensation for skipping ropes at dawn and long stints in downward-facing dog. When you’re slathered in jojoba lotion, you know you’ve earned it.

BOOK IT: Junior suite for one week, including flights, breakfast and transfers, from £3,365 per person. trisara.com; inspiringtravelcompany.co.uk June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 107

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SPA SPECIAL

SPA SOS

THESE EFFECTIVE QUICK SOLUTIONS WILL HAVE YOU FEELING A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF IN NO TIME

GRAND RESORT BAD RAGAZ SWITZERLAND

It’s the mineral-rich thermal waters, known locally as ‘blue gold’ for their healing benefits, that keep guests returning to this pretty Alpine spa town.

The resort is a complex of three hotels, each with access to the spa, including a minimalist tower of spa suites, with floor-to-ceiling views over the snowcapped Swiss Alps, and the assistance of a personal butler 24/7. Most are here with their health in mind, as the resort’s medical centre houses 80 expert staff, offering everything from dermatology to dentistry, and even minor surgery.

It’s a hypochondriac’s dream – albeit a pricey one. Soak it all in at the ‘thermal water world’, where gorgeous pools, big and small, indoor and out, are heated at varying temperatures that melt away aches and pains. Service here is exemplary, individually tailored and friendly, with a professional ‘hugger’ on hand to wrap guests in heated towels.

Indulge in La Prairie beauty treatments, wellbeing baths and a full menu of massages as well as eating at the Michelinstarred restaurant, IGNIV. Surrounded by mountains, green pastures and alpine air, depart with a renewed sense of vitality.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £454 B&B. resortragaz.ch

CHENOT PALACE AZERBAIJAN

Programmes at this vast lakeside refuge wrapped in dense forest stress that only in its absence is health taken seriously by western culture (70 per cent of diseases are down to lifestyle). The three-day active detox begins with a medical consultation and bio-energetic check-up, detecting any weak or vulnerable organs with a frequency machine and fine-tuning your programme to any medical, emotional or aesthetic concerns. Old-fashioned TLC and medical insight are synthesised. Hours of energising massages, hydro-aromatherapy, phyto-mud

and hydro-jet treatments have visible effects after just three days: a ‘deflated’, clearer complexion and improved posture. An abundance of state-of-the-art technology serves to jump-start (not achieve) the ‘dream bod’ ambition, from cellulite-rattling cryotherapy to gravity-free running machines that target fat. Both the physical and mental effects are astounding. By day three, the body feels lighter and cleaner, but it is the intense clarity of thought, alien to the modern digital slave, that is truly remarkable.

BOOK IT: Three-day Active Detox programme from £1,365 per person. chenotpalacegabala.com

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DAS RONACHER AUSTRIA

At last, a spa with soul that understands the emotional side of detox. Intuitive staff encourage you to heed your body screaming ‘I need rest!’ and ditch the programmed morning alpine walk.

This fourth-generation, family-run spa in sunny southern Austria is centred around centuries-old healing thermal waters, which pump four litres a second through the four mineral-rich swimming pools. Treatments are all about the water: you drink, loll, swim and exercise in it. Style purists might baulk at the dated decor, but overlook this, as you will find real heart. There’s a strong spiritual vibe fed by the sacred church in the grounds and a little pilgrimage inside feels like a gift. Therapists are empathetic and skilled, while yoga is intensive and shiatsu world class. The alkaline menu is perfection: phenomenal salads and soups. Relaxation areas abound with water beds, hay- and rose-scented walls and silent areas.

This is the place to come if you are worn out. The clientele are genteel regulars – no rich Russians screeching into mobile phones or selfie-obsessed poseurs. A blessed relief. Top tip? Buy their homemade risotto mix in the shop.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £1 5 8 , half board. ronacher.com

GRÄFLICHER PARK GERMANY

East or West? That is the question, for you can go in either direction at Gräflicher Park, a spa estate a little like Goodwood in Sussex, if a tad less polished. Privately owned, it has been in the same aristocratic family for 230 years, since Count Caspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff first built it as a fashionable spa destination. It is located in the healing spa town of Bad Driburg and the Wald region (glorious woodlands to walk in), with its mineral-packed mud and fresh spring water that also feature in treatments. Catering predominantly to a local German market (who tend to go East to the exceptional Ayurvedic centre headed up by Vaidya Kumaran Rajsekhar), the traditional Mayr Cure is also on offer. Presided over by the intensely passionate Dr Hietkamp, a third generation vegan who’s bang up to date with the latest theories and oversees your occasionally gruelling Mayr therapy (health through fasting, learning to chew properly and regulating the digestion process) with kindness. It may not have all the bells and whistles of other Mayr clinics but the price reflects this and you still come away (in our case) half a stone lighter and with an iron will to cut down on meat.

BOOK IT: Seven-night FX Mayr Cure £855, plus accommodation from £107 per night, single occupation. graeflicher-park.de June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 109

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SPA SPECIAL

HOTEL IRMA ITALY

Tucked up in north-east Italy, South Tyrol was annexed from the Austro-Hungarian empire as a sweetener for Italy to join the allies in WWI. Nowadays most South Tyrolians speak German and eat sauerkraut for lunch but clink Aperol spritzes when the sun dips below the rolling Dolomite mountains. In this valley, where Pink Lady apple trees line the roads, Latinate romance fits nicely with Viking efficiency. In the family for 100 years, this hotel feels intimate, with Roman Holiday-style charm. After breakfast, the active and hardy hike into the mountains.

Those left behind book in for reflexology or don dressing gowns to sit on the veranda in the lunchtime sunshine before meandering back to the hotel’s spa. A phone-free utopia of cream cotton and antique oak beams, guests sail as close to sleep as is possible without drifting off to nod. At 6pm the dress code switches to a strictly non-towel affair. Guests gather in the bar for an aperitif before descending to the twinkly restaurant looking onto the rose garden for fresh pasta and German-style marinated meats. Prost to this wonderful hotel, or should we say ‘saluti’?

BOOK IT: Doubles from £159 per night, including breakfast and dinner. hotel-irma.com; suedtirol.info/en

WALDHOTEL SWITZERLAND

Like a spritz of expensive perfume, Audrey Hepburn’s name always adds glamour and so it is with Bürgenstock, where she once had a home. A family of luxurious hotels and residences perched high above Lake Lucerne, the resort has recently emerged from a facelift thanks to Qatari investment. There are two historic hotels, the Palace and Bürgenstock, while Waldhotel is new and the one to know about.

Designed by Italian architect Matteo Thun, the elegant modern structure resembles a giant game of Jenga, with conker-hued slats criss-crossing against the sky. Inside, the minimalist style continues, and rightly so when the views are pure Heidi. Gin-clear waters, bleached wood, nubbled stone walls and double-bed loungers entice you to linger. So too do the salt grotto, sauna, hammam and icelab. A pool meanders into mountain air via push-button doors and Kneipp therapy pipes turn water into fizzing massage jets at a touch. Beauty treatments blend science and nature while white-coated therapists dig deep into unexcavated muscle and emotion. You can exercise frenetically via treadmills or mindfully via Tai Chi. Think Swiss mountain rescue for untangling the brain and restoring joie de vivre.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £458. buergenstock.ch 110 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2019

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FOR THE VERY BEST OF COUNTRY & TOWN

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SPA SPECIAL

LONG WEEKENDS

CLOSE ENOUGH FOR A FLYING VISIT BUT SUFFICIENTLY FAR AWAY TO SWITCH OFF COMPLETELY

ANDRONIS CONCEPT SANTORINI

From the nutritionally-balanced meals at the caldera-facing restaurant to the soothing Kallos spa, the entire focus at this slick island newcomer is wellness.

Those who are serious about tackling issues (weight loss, detoxing etc) should make an appointment with the in-house therapist for a bespoke meal and treatment plan. Do try the Merveille Arctique ritual, which begins with a coconut and grape salt scrub and a wrap and ends with a hot oil and cold ball massage – the contrasting temperature does wonders for softening muscles and gets blood pumping. There’s also aerial yoga under a slatted bamboo roof with views of white yachts bobbing in the blue; there are heart-soaring sunset hikes that include meditation stops; and a pummelling Thai massage in a cool, dark cave that doubles up as a cinema at night.

Sign up for a lesson in cooking fava and tomato fritters using vegetables picked from the garden, play tennis or simply laze. However strict your health regime, be sure to break all the rules for at least one night for dinner at Lycabettus, the restaurant at sister hotel Andronis Luxury Suites in Oia. The food is sublime and the setting dreamily romantic.

BOOK IT: Suites from £215 per night. andronisconcept.com

FOUR SEASONS MEGÈVE

This is the first hotel in Megève to offer direct access to the Mont d’Arbois slopes – and it also happens to have the largest spa in the Alps, with six treatment rooms – including one VIP room for couples, complete with bath and sensory shower, relaxation area, sauna and hammam.

A host of treatments is on offer to soothe tired limbs from hours spent out on the slopes, using products including La Prairie and Bamford. The indoor pool offers more relaxation for ski legs; you can bask in the balneotherapy area and watch the sun

go down over the mountains – huge floor-toceiling windows offer views over the peaks of Côte 2000 and Rochebrune. Join in a Woga class (water yoga) if you’ve not already done Snoga (snow yoga) on the slopes. And if you’re not there to ski, the pool also has counter-current swim jets and in summer, the doors are opened wide to let the outside in. There’s also a 24-hour fitness centre (personal trainers available), as well as a hair salon and barber. Watch out for special weight loss and detox programmes as well as visiting yoga gurus.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £7 3 0 per night. fourseasons.com/megeve

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THE RETREAT AT BLUE LAGOON ICELAND

Iceland’s first super-modern luxury spa hotel was destined to make a splash. And gosh it’s worth the wait. Carved into volcanic rock and surrounded by the milky, geothermal waters of the Blue Lagoon, this stunning newbie combines Nordic Zen with more than a hint of James Bond cool: clean lines, local natural textures, stunning terraces and views to an otherworldly landscape beyond. Inside the spa, a sanctuary of three interconnected chambers, awaits – offering a cleansing, three-step ritual based on the plants and minerals found in the lagoon (renowned for its healing waters, and used to treat skin conditions such as psoriasis). The Retreat’s extraordinary ‘in-water’ treatment takes place alfresco in the lagoon itself. Cocooned in the arms of a therapist, your body is wrapped and marinated in layers of silica, algae and minerals before an underwater massage using the pressure of your own body weight and, finally, a guided float around the lagoon. A surreal experience, this is about as close to returning to the womb as you’ll ever get.

BOOK IT: Suites from £1,029 B&B (retreat.bluelagoon.com). Return flights from London Heathrow to Reykjavik from £180 (icelandair.com)

F ZEEN RETREAT GREECE

The magic is that you can rise at dawn, swim in the ouzo-clear ocean, watch the world wake up, amble to breakfast (smoothies, eggs, yoghurt and honey) and then head to yoga in the hilltop shala, to the consummately executed spa, to the open-air gym or just flop and drop by your private pool in one of the clean-lined new suites. The gardens are a wildflower dream and the interiors are sleek and modern. They’ve got all the colours and textures right, from the napkins down to the staff uniforms, which are so chic they’re also for sale in the boutique shop. The spa offers treatments by Irish brand Voya (which majors in hand-harvested organic seaweed) and the Greek company BioAroma. Although you’ll find wraps, scrubs, eye therapies, cellulite busters, manis and pedis, once you’ve fallen for the massages you won’t veer off course. The therapists are exceptionally intuitive and know how to unravel stress-riddled shoulders. Hire a car and explore the island, where there are blissful beaches aplenty and simple tavernas. Return for moussaka and an outdoor movie night in the amphitheatre. A properly spoiling holiday that can be as healthy or as cocktail-laden as you like.

BOOK IT: From £155 per night B&B. fzeenretreat.com June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 113

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SPA SPECIAL

WHO YOU GONNA CALL? FOR LONG-LASTING RESULTS, THE EXPERTS KNOW BEST

RITZ-CARLTON KOH SAMUI THAILAND

Sitting on the north-eastern tip of the island, this former coconut plantation offers all the elements of a peaceful island hideaway. There are two pretty and private beaches and the 175 guest suites and villas are dotted around the hillside, each with sea view, infinity plunge pool and deck. Golf buggies whisk you off to the Spa Village – a series of bungalows set around a tranquil pool – where yoga classes and treatments abound.

Traditional healing practices such as Campur Campur (Malay massage using a prakop steam pouch), Thai massage and Tok-Sen (tapping along the body’s energy lines with a piece of tamarind wood) are highly recommended, as is the Thai Aquatic Freedom (a body treatment similar to Watsu, where a practitioner moves you around in the water). Some therapies begin with a Thai herbal scrub followed by a Songkran shower – where a pot of water is poured over the body – and natural ingredients, such as coconut oil, papaya, rice, honey and yoghurt, leave you glowing. Otherwise, there’s an excellent Muay Thai boxing ring, fully equipped gym and plenty of water sports, should you feel like being active. Either way, you’ll leave feeling rejuvenated and refreshed.

BOOK IT: Villas from £917 B&B. ritzcarlton.com

LE GRAND BELLEVUE GSTAAD

Forget the gym at this chic little number in giddy Gstaad, where bracing early morning swims in the glassy mountain lakes of the Bernese Oberland are taken to a soundtrack of cow bells. But don’t get too comfortable, by noon you’ll be picking a path across vertiginous verges on a trail run (just don’t look down) towards a heroes’ lunch in a remote chalet hooked onto the mountainside, before foraging your way back to the village to feast on porcini and sweet wild strawberries that you picked yourself. A vigorous sports massage will put

paid to the day, before you retreat to the thermal oasis for heat therapy. Hide out in the hay sauna, detox under infra-red and gulp humid Himalayan salt air in the grotto.

If the mountain passes are too vertical for your taste, grab an electric bike to take the edge off. Your prize for being so daring and brilliant? A sensational helicopter ride to do yoga on top of the world, where your salutations will pull the salmon sun up and over the mountain as you gaze back down over birds of prey swooping on the thermals.

BOOK IT: The Wild Wellness Experience from £2,422 for four nights for two people. bellevue-gstaad.ch

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THE BODY HOLIDAY ST LUCIA

A sporty spa to satisfy everybody from the fitnesscurious to the fanatic. There’s no pressure to participate. It’s your body holiday and if your body demands rest – or rum – you’ll get it, moving between swimming pools, bars, restaurants and the manicured beach with such seamless all-inclusive ease, you’ll feel as though you live here. Repeat visits are the norm: one Texan guest was on his ninth. Spa treatments take place on the hilltop, the only enforced exercise being the walk up to it. Think Austrian sanatorium meets Indian ashram. Chavutti massage outdoors in a pagoda tent surrounded by water will take some beating.

Buffet meals cater to the gourmand rather than the gourmet, from fry-ups to fresh wraps, but with some notable nods to the best of British: cream tea is divine. Here it’s understood that wellness isn’t only about chia seeds and gruelling fitness regimes, but also involves throwing shapes on the dance floor and drinking piña coladas in the sea. And why not, when tomorrow the pain can be so expertly massaged away? Provided you’ve got grit enough for the climb.

BOOK IT: From £392 per night all-inclusive, including activities and a daily treatment. thebodyholiday.com

ANGSANA BALACLAVA MAURITIUS

At first sight, Angsana is the archetypal tropical island romantic getaway. From double hammocks to joined-at-the-hip loungers, everything comes in pairs. Loved-up couples snorkel or scuba, swim with dolphins or just smooch up to watch the sun flop carelessly into the Indian Ocean. Wrangle a beachfront suite with wrap-around pool, Jacuzzi and hammam. Then, while your beloved snoozes, slope off to visit Ayurvedic physician Dr Sree, freshly arrived from Kerala to head up the small spa. He can spot a dodgy dosha a mile off and prescribes a clever mash-up of classic Ayurvedic bodywork with Watsu or strong Javanese massage.

Beg for a private session with Khalid, who twists yoga therapy with qigong – subtle yet powerful.

Dosha-specific meals are cunningly disguised and served alongside the standard menu. Yes, there’s kichadi lurking there, but also beef teriyaki, justjumped-out-of-the-ocean fish and, somewhat bizarrely, chicken soup. It needs some tweaking but the idea is smart. The hotel has a few rough edges but Dr Sree is the real deal and, while his little spa doesn’t have the scope and scale of, say, Shanti Maurice, it is both charming and effective.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £195 B&B; wellness programmes from £500 for three nights. angsana.com June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 115

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SPA SPECIAL

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT CAN’T FIND A BABYSITTER? TAKE THE LITTLE ONES WITH YOU ON A CHILD-FRIENDLY RETREAT

NANA PRINCESS CRETE

The new beachfront Nana Princess resort on the north coast of Crete is just a 20-minute drive from the airport, so you can get on with the business of relaxation immediately. Not only does it have a cool, calm and subtly stylish spa but each hotel room has its own private, temperature-adjustable pool with sea views, plus a luxurious shower with built-in chromotherapy. The Royal Wellness Club embraces the latest in hydrotherapy tech with the SPA System

by Starpool. The only one of its kind in Greece, it combines steam, colour therapy, aromatherapy baths, tropical storm showers, cool mists and an ice room in an hour-long experience created in collaboration with doctors.

Your therapist will recommend one of the four different pathways through the spa system, which have been designed to relax, purify, tone or revitalise, depending on your needs (€30/£26 per person). The spa also offers treatments using the gorgeously pure Germaine de Capuccini products, such as a Minoan carob body scrub, Sea Gold body wrap and hammam-style treatments that take place on a heated water-effect bed.

A clever new find.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £135. nanaprincess.gr

HOLY MAMA IBIZA

Holy Mama founder Claudia Spahr has been mothering mothers in beautiful locations around the world for over six years. Run mainly in Ibiza, her child-friendly retreats allow overstretched mamas to return to themselves through yoga, relaxation, nature and – most importantly – reliable, heartcentered childcare. Community is the pulse of the retreats, with villa accommodation creating an inclusive village feel, supported by a dedicated team of carers and chefs poised to meet your every need. (In Ibiza, expect clean whitewashed villas with pools and play space aplenty.) In the morning,

mamas enjoy daily core-based yoga and a peaceful brunch while their little ones are looked after; afternoons are spent playing by the pool, driving to the beach or visiting the ancient churches before early dinner all together. Special evening workshops (babysitters on hand) allow for personal reflection and sisterly circle time.

Should you wish to dive deeper than the complimentary holistic treatment, therapists are available. Alongside the tangibly loving and capable nannies, the highlight has to be the abundant food, which radiates goodness.

You’ll both come back glowing.

BOOK IT: From £1,121 for seven nights. holymama.info

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STANGLWIRT AUSTRIA

Take a short flight to Salzburg, Munich or Innsbruck and drive through fields of wild flower meadows straight into Sound-of-Music mountains. Hide away at this intimate familyowned hotel with a fully-fledged spa and an ethos that includes all the family. Children will splash happily in the numerous pools – indoor and outdoor, hot tubs and a mega waterworld. Watch the little ones unfurl: swimming for England and jumping in haylofts at the kids’ club, where they can also chase long-eared rabbits and feast on ice cream cups as big as their heads. Activities for the older ones include night walks with torches to the bathing lake. Interiors are smart but with fairytale whimsy (two-bedroom suites are ideal for families), and meals are an extravaganza of buffets and barbecues. There are saunas, steam rooms and everything from yoga and pilates classes to ‘bum training’. The spa excels with everything from Lomi Lomi massages to Alpine wraps, honey exfoliant peels, rose petal baths and serious micro-dermabrasion facials.

This place walks the tightrope between old fashioned family get-up and a slick template for eco-tourism to come. It’s a winning combo.

BOOK IT: Doubles from ¤228. stanglwirt.com

VILA VITA PARC PORTUGAL

This white-washed palatial resort on the clifftops in Alporchinhos has always hit the spot as one of the top all-rounders in the Algarve and they’ve upped the ante with a spanking new Sisley spa. The serene interiors – all natural stone, aquamarine tiles and creamy walls – set the scene. There are 14 treatment rooms plus a fitness studio (try the aerial yoga) with a fabulous coastal vista. The therapies are all about getting results, using Sisley’s delicious botanical oils – book the Slimming and Firming Energising Phyto Aromatic Body Treatment to hit your wobbly bits. To further shed the pounds, there’s a Hypoxi studio, a whopping eight swimming pools and all the usual resort activities. The golden-sand beach is on hand for all-out R&R. The seven restaurants continue the mind-boggling choice, from the candlelit wine cellar to the Whale Restaurant (designed

by David Archer of Chiltern Firehouse fame) to the two Michelin-starred Ocean – all washed down with the hotel’s very own (excellent) wine.

Afterwards, wind your way through the tropical paradise to one of 162 rooms and villas. Each is sea-inspired with local crafts, contemporary furnishings and original artworks. For the best ocean views, book a suite in the Residence.

BOOK IT: Doubles from £184. vilavitaparc.com June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 117

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A magical outdoor tale for all the family

Life is suddenly turned upside down and everything becomes curiouser and curiouser…

20 July – 25 August

0844 871 8819 (calls cost 7p per minute plus network extras)

theatreonkew.co.uk

LONDON CHILDREN’S BALLET

Ballet Shoes Based on Noel Streatfeild’s timeless novel

4-7 JULY

4 July Première Gala Tickets from £45 020 8969 1555 londonchildrensballet.com 5-7 July Tickets £14 - £65* 020 7863 8222 peacocktheatre.com

*£3 transaction fee applies for phone and online bookings.

No charge in person at Ticket Office. Photo © Pedro Ferrer.

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17/04/2019 14:14

LIVING INTERIORS DESIGN

THE INSIDER

TA DAH! PHOTO: ©PIERRICK VERNY

Illusionary lighting Creator Marie-Lise Féry steals the show with the Pop Up lamp, an aerial bubble balanced like an acrobat from a pole. ¤1,076. magic-circus.fr; paint by Farrow & Ball. farrow-ball.com

June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 119

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THE INSIDER Farrow & Ball Wallpaper, £91 for 10m. farrow-ball.com

Timorous Beasties Bee Blotch cushion, £54. rume.co.uk

Sass & Belle Jewellery dish, £13. sassandbelle.co.uk

Susie Watson Mug, £19.50. susiewatsondesigns.co.uk

T R E N D

Atrafloor Fabre insect floor, £59 p/m. atrafloor.com

BEE’S KNEES There’s a buzz surrounding the humble bumble

Thomas Goode Jewelled napkin rings, £75 each. thomasgoode.com

Papier Bumble bee note cards, from £26 for 20. papier.com Poppy Treffry Tea cosy, £36. poppytreffry.co.uk

Robert Kime Parterre wallpaper, £149 per roll. robertkime.com

Pritesh Lad Vithal Jesse desk, £30,000. stjamesinteriors.com

Covet Paris Manuka side table, £4,672. pamono.co.uk

120 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2019

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READER EVENT

HEART OF THE HOME

Life Kitchens designs spaces for real life

I

t’s probably safe to say that you have never looked forward to spending a Saturday afternoon in a kitchen showroom, let alone intentionally lingered. But there’s one kitchen company that’s going against the grain of traditional retailing.

Life Kitchens is the young gun shaking up the market. Its Waterloo showroom feels more like a swish and sprawling apartment than a sterile retailer. Housed under the railway arches, its vaulted brick ceiling and breakout spaces feel – dare we say – cool. With a pink ‘gin’ room and well stocked bar, it invites you to kick off your shoes, pull up a chair and order a latte (or an espresso martini).

It’s just the sort of place you’d want to throw a party, which is why Country & Town House has partnered with Life Kitchens to celebrate its first birthday. And you are invited for champagne, canapés and demonstrations from Sub-Zero & Wolf’s executive chef Elliot Johnson-Paul.

Of course, there will be a DJ and goody bags but Life Kitchens has an unusual party trick up its sleeve – 4D virtual reality theatre demonstrations. Much

JOIN US TO CELEBRATE THEIR FIRST BIRTHDAY ON 20 JUNE AT 7PM RSVP to: lifekitchens@country andtownhouse.co.uk Life Kitchens, Railway Arch 213, Newnham Terrace, Hercules Road, London SE1 7DR 020 3972 0150 life-kitchens.co.uk

more immersive than leafing through a catalogue, if you’re in the market for a new kitchen, it’s the ultimate try before you buy. It is the only kitchen company with this technology – and when it’s one of the biggest investments you make, it’s important to know exactly what you are getting.

Founder Oli Stephenson knows a thing or two about kitchen design; he is the fifth generation of a major supplier to the UK kitchen furniture market. These are kitchens that are made ‘for living’ and are designed to consider the individual’s way of life.

Substance and style are not mutually exclusive – not only do their kitchens make perfect sense for how you live your life, they look great too. There’s something to suit all tastes, from the super-fresh Refined collection, which contrasts pastel shades with striking industrial hardware, to the classic shaker-style Decadent range, perfect for country kitchens.

TERMS & CONDITIONS: By emailing lifekitchens@countryandtownhouse.co.uk you automatically consent for us to contact you for marketing purposes.

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THE INSIDER

PURE AND SIMPLE Naturalmat makes organic chemical-free mattresses and beds, from cribs to superkings, in its workshop by the River Exe in Devon.

Billy four poster, from £1,440; double-sized mattress, from £985. naturalmat.co.uk

I N T E R I O R S

DESIGN NOTES This season’s picks.

By Carole Annett

DESIGNS AFOOT Element 7’s Cirque oak and limestone patterned floor works as well in a city setting as a country house. Choose matching or colour contrasting inlays, £850 per sq/m. element7.co.uk

WELL CONNECTED Well known in the States and Asia and now with a UK base, Fort Street Studio creates rugs for the likes of Carden Cunietti and Fiona Barratt-Campbell. Glimmering Dawn, from $458 per sq/ft. fortstreetstudio.com

BIG SOFTIE

I like this cheetah’s imperious gaze. Savannah velvet cushion, £22.50 at India Jane. indiajane.co.uk

SOLID STANDING

Anna Standish has joined forces with English furniture-maker Davidson for a collection that offers a colourful, modern twist on tables and chairs. Malibu coffee table, £5,872. davidsonlondon.com

REWIND

Parisian furniture company Red Edition gives a fresh feel to retro designs. Wicker armchair, from £2,350. houseology.com 122 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2019

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A COCKATOO OR TWO Lambourn peachy cotton from the Library collection at Blendworth, £45 a metre. blendworth.co.uk

SHELL OU T

HUE CHOOSE

Charles Edwards’ lights can come in any shade. Lantern in Farrow & Ball Bancha, £3,756. charlesedwards.com

AT A STRETCH

GET THE LOOK

So much detail in this little brass wall light, including rope styling and handwoven rattan shade. Argo flexi wall light, from £1,800. soane.co.uk

Louise Bradley’s elegant aesthetic is clear in her Essence furniture.

Ravello side table, £3,995. louisebradley.co.uk

SWEET DRIP Sieger Design creativity plus Dornbracht brassware technology equals candy coloured taps. Choose from pink, citrus, mint and blue.

Meta slim brassware, £513 plus VAT. dornbracht. com

1 Shell chandelier, £105. poodleandblonde.com 2 Albert crystal candle holders, £890 a pair. katharinepooley.com 3 Coral odyssey velvet cushion, £95. thecuriousdepartment.com 4 Porcelain shell serving platter and bowl (not pictured), £55. sophieconran.com 5 Arisaig table lamp, £195. oka.com 6 Nickel shell dish, £79. joannawood.com

SCENT AWAY

Transport yourself to Italy with Acqua di Parma’s Luce di Colonia diffuser, £60. harrods.com

SPRING IS IN THE CHAIR Sweet and joyful. Ying armchair by Hugues Chevalier upholstered in Sakura by Jean Paul Gaultier for Lelièvre, €3,700. hugueschevalier.com

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THE INSIDER F O C U S

GET SORTED

The key to storage planning is to first consider how much you have to fit in

1 A clever walk-through wardrobe with classic Edwardian panelling

by The Heritage Wardrobe Company. theheritagewardrobecompany. com 2 Everything in its place with Poliform’s Senzafine walk-in closet featuring oak melamine. poliform.it 3 Oak dressing room with Luna hinged doors and co-ordinating island by Neatsmith. neatsmith.co.uk 4 A Clive Christian bespoke dressing room cabinet featuring burr walnut, recessed lighting and ample space for shoes. clivechristianfurniture.com 124 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | June 2019

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THE INSIDER

D E S I G N

LIT T L E BL ACK BOOK

Q & A

RYAN PRINCE

ETHICAL HOMEWARE Wearth London. wearthlondon.com

The founder of UNCLE gets his sweat on in the garden Coffee and sauna combine at Glow Bar

Ryan Prince

Hotel for us in Southwark and is an absolute genius in my books.

What do you collect? Phillips photography catalogues. I take a break in the office and thumb through old ones.

PLATES Golden Biscotti. goldenbiscotti. bigcartel.com

What’s beside your bed?

Recent find An infrared sauna for the

Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I read it every year as a reminder to be grateful for what I have.

garden. I’m feeling quite Scandi about it.

I also just discovered Glow Bar in Marylebone, where you can take a sauna and have a coffee.

Most extravagant thing you’ve bought

A narrow boat which is parked in the canal in front of the house.

House warming present

Flowers from Rob Van Helden.

Unsung design hero Not really ‘unsung’, but Ed Tuttle is undoubtedly one of my favourite architects.

What should never have seen the light of day? Every pair

of trousers I wore in the ’90s.

In hindsight, they looked more like sweatpants.

Last piece of art you bought

A wonderful landscape photograph by Darren Almond.

How can we live more self-sufficiently? Carbon Leonard Cohen

neutrality is the only answer. Drive less, follow a plant-based diet, don’t accept single-use plastics and put solar panels on your roof.

PHOTOS: REX FEATURES

RUGS The Rug Company. therugcompany.com CANDLES Jo Loves. joloves.com

Where do you find inspiration?

Our most recent hotel project was inspired by fashion brand The Row’s Melrose Place store in Los Angeles. Their Instagram account is definitely one worth following.

CUTLERY Christofle. harrods.com

What are you working on? We’ve

What gadget could you not live without?

The Citymapper app. It’s absolutely genius.

I could never throw away... A collection of email messages that my father sends every year on my birthday.

Whose home would you like to nose around? Leonard Cohen’s. I hear he used

to leave poems lying around all over the place. His son even found one in the freezer.

Which designer do you have your eye on? Dayna Lee. She designed the Bankside

GLASSWARE Nason Moretti. nasonmoretti.it

Inspiration from The Row

created a brand called UNCLE which challenges the notion that renting is a sign of failure. We have lots of tag lines, but my favourite is, ‘Feudal times are over. We take the “lord” attitude out of being a landlord.’ n

TILES Gio Ponti inspired. artemest.com

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EAT DRINK ESCAPE

FOOD & TRAVEL

C H I L E

LATIN LAKE DISTRICT

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Opening the doors to its first South American lodge, andBeyond swaps safaris for the Chilean lake district. By Anastasia Bernhardt

Conguillío National Park, Chile

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andBeyond’s first South American property is framed by monkey puzzle trees, glacial lakes and active volcanoes

W

hen my dad first signed up for online dating – keen gardener that he is – he marketed himself as a ‘man for all seasons’. Ladies, watch out. Miraculously, it worked, and although we won’t let him forget his dating bio, my step-mum continues to weather spring, summer, autumn and winter by his side.

And while most men can claim to be fairly consistent throughout the year (sorry dad, you need a better USP), there are few holiday destinations that can say the same.

Either you aim for peak season and face inflated prices for clogged up attractions, or you brave the low season to endure inclement weather and ‘closed’ signs swinging at every turn.

Just as the internet helped my step-mum bag her yearround man, I too have found you a location that will give as much bang for its buck in January as in August. Welcome to the Chilean lake district, a verdant landscape fuelled by The region’s volcanoes are best viewed from above

rich volcanic soil, 1,000-year-old ‘living fossil’ monkey puzzle forests, glacial lakes and belching volcanoes. Add lakeside beaches, temperate rainforests housing endemic species, a growing reputation for adventure sports and volcanoes you can ski down (the Alps have never looked so dull) and you’ve got a holiday that works for all the family.

It’s spring when we arrive (September to December).

We see calves so new that their umbilical cords are still attached, googly-eyed baby goats and wobbly-legged lambs. Ñandú (a relative of the ostrich) career around hairpin bends as hawks wait intently by the roadside for fresh roadkill. And all of this was spotted in the space of a 20-minute transfer to the hotel.

First built by Swiss owners, andBeyond Vira Vira reopened under the management of andBeyond as the group’s first South American lodge in September. Bestknown for its knock-out African safaris, andBeyond’s choice of Chile’s Araucanía region for its next venture speaks volumes of the area’s current pulling power. And with a direct flight to Santiago introduced by British Airways (and nearby Pucón just over an hour’s flight from the Capital), it has never been easier to access this part of the world.

AndBeyond Vira Vira takes on the company’s all-inclusive and environmentally progressive ethos and applies it to a different landscape. All-inclusive is a bit misleading: forget sprawling resorts with evening ‘entertainment’ – this is the modern way. Nothing is mean or designed to make the guest pay to upgrade: the three-course lunch (four at dinner) comes paired with a variety of superb Chilean wines.

Uruguayan chef Alberto Damián Fernández Dupouy would describe his style simply as ‘fresh’ but there’s a lot

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FOOD & TRAVEL

The bar is just the place to warm up after skiing down a volcano

more to it than that. Farmto-table is his gospel. He left London’s Le Gavroche for the chance to work with a fully stocked kitchen garden, of which he makes full use – an airy velouté of root vegetables to start, then Magallanes lamb (of Patagonian fame) with just-cut asparagus, scattered with garden leaves from the greenhouses.

There is an on-site quesería where they make six types of cheese. If you ask Marisol (the cheesemaker) nicely, she will show you around and slip an extra taster of the three-yearaged Parmesan your way. It’s worth learning your por favors and graçiases for this purpose.

Upon arrival, our guide sat us down over a map of the region to plot our stay. Ride horses with a Chilean huaso? Saddle up.

Snow-shoe up a volcano? No biggie. Bake bread in a firepit with the indigenous Mapuche? Fire it up.

Even better, it’s all included in your room price. The only activities that incur an extra cost are those that are run by external tour providers because niche expertise is required – say, if you wanted to go helifishing or climb eyebrow-singeingly close to the crater of volcano Villarrica (those with weak legs can arrange to view it by helicopter). Needless to say, for snowsports, plan for winter (May to September).

If you’re lucky you might see the palm-sized monito del monte (monkey of the mountain, though technically a marsupial), which is endemic to the area and infinitely sweet (Google it). Or, even more heart-thumpingly thrilling, the handsized paw prints of a puma. Our charming guide Nicolas had a degree in environmental biology and could tell which animals had passed our way by tiny changes to the environment.

Your itinerary can be as packed or as relaxed as you desire – there is a spa, hot springs, al fresco bath tubs and daily yoga classes in the lakeside studio. Nature is never far from your fingertips. Over breakfast, watch puffed up black-faced ibis patrol the lakeside for insects, or the powerful Rio Pucón run past the foot of the bed as nosy horses peer into the room.

The hotel’s eco credentials go far beyond the usual token gestures.

The site is 100 per cent fuelled by hydropower and they have shunned plastic bottles in favour of glass bottles and metal canisters, refilled daily from source at the on-site water bottling plant. Could it get any more feel good? A percentage of profits goes towards local conservation projects, such as reforestation and water catchment projects in the local Quelhue communities. So, really, if you think about it, booking that trip of a lifetime is practically a selfless act...

ÑANDÚ (A RELATIVE OF THE OSTRICH) CAREER AROUND HAIRPIN BENDS AS HAWKS WAIT INTENTLY BY THE ROADSIDE FOR FRESH ROADKILL

Snowmobile down an active volcano Don’t miss the Patagonian lamb with just-cut garden veg

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Q & A

THE BUCKET LIST

Sir Ranulph Fiennes would rather pass on the goat’s eyes. By Holly Rubenstein

Where do you always eat well? Definitely not in Arabia, where you have to show politeness and eat the goat’s and sheep’s eyes. It’s probably a popular answer, but I’d have to say Italian food. It’s the most tasty and not too bad for you.

Where reminds you of your childhood? I moved to South Africa when I was a baby and remember the early days on the coast under Table Mountain. It was a wonderful place to be brought up and so beautiful.

I’d advise anyone heading to South Africa on holiday to go along the Garden Route – going east from Cape Town, along the coast past towns like George. You’ll see spectacular mossy mountains with trickling waterfalls coming down them. It’s just a fairyland.

TOP OF YOUR BUCKET LIST?

Fond memories of growing up beneath Table Mountain

I’d like to cross Antarctica unsupported, during the winter. It’s forbidden because there’s no rescue facility in the entire continent, so we’d have to take lots of stuff with us like an operating theatre for an appendix operation.

I understand the risk, but if we were to ever get sponsorship, I’d love to do that.

PHOTOS: BILL PRENTICE; GETTY IMAGES

Sir Ranulph’s dream is to cross Antarctica unsupported

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The fearless explorer advises against travelling solo in Antarctica

The White Horse is a gem in the scenic Exmoor National Park

Best hotel you’ve stayed in?

It’s on Exmoor – a place called The White Horse. There’s a fabulous Welsh chef there.

Country or town house? Definitely country house. I like being where you can’t hear traffic or airplanes. The remoter, the better!

Hidden gem? Shisr in the Nejd desert, which is between the jungles of Dhofar and the rest of Arabia in Oman’s empty quarter. We spent eight expeditions looking for it and it’s now one of the biggest excavation works in Arabia and a fascinating place.

Painful memories of a dangerous Antarctic expedition

Tell us about an expedition that wasn’t so successful? I was doing what I’ve always wanted not

Where have you learned something about yourself? The first unsupported crossing of the continent of Antarctica.

We’re talking 18,000 miles, dragging food and fuel in -50°c with no outside help whatsoever – there’s no Tesco along the way! Things were extremely unpleasant physically, with gangrene and frostbite and your teeth falling out because you’re biting into frozen food.

On that expedition, I hated my team mate, and he hated me, until we’d get in the tent, get the cooker on and become friends again.

to do – travelling solo in the Antarctic. One of my sledges fell through the ice and it had everything on it. It was -48˚c, dark and there was a strong wind. I had to put my hand into the water to pull out the sledge.

By the time I got it out, my hand had lost all feeling; I knew I had frost bite. Back home, I had mummified finger ends – it was agony. We bought a Black & Decker bench and a fretsaw, and rather than waiting three months for surgery, I amputated my five finger tips. My wife brought me cups of tea while I did it.

The Isle of Rum off the west coast of northern Scotland

Sir Ranulph narrowly escaped imprisonment in Egypt

What is your idea of holiday hell? Anywhere

Favourite destination? The Isle of Rum in Scotland. In the 1970s we used to go on holidays there – we’d go in a little rubber boat to the islands and it was totally wild, with lots of red deer herds and little stone huts where pilgrims lived.

where there is a likelihood of foreigners being put in the nick for political blackmail purposes, which nearly happened to me in Egypt in the 1960s.

Muscat’s spectacular Grand Mosque

PHOTOS: BILL PRENTICE; GETTY IMAGES

FAVOURITE CITY? THAT WOULD PROBABLY BE MUSCAT IN OMAN, AND SECOND WOULD BE PARTS OF LONDON, PARTICULARLY AROUND THE SERPENTINE, WHERE I LIKE TO RUN. Mad, Bad And Dangerous To Know by Ranulph Fiennes – revised and updated – is available in hardcover (Hodder & Stoughton, £25) June 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 131

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FOOD & TRAVEL

TEN REASONS WHY I LOVE...

LIVING THE HIGH LIFE

36 HOURS IN MONTE-CARLO

In the mid-19th century, the House of Grimaldi was desperate for cash. Charles III turned to gambling entrepreneur François Blanc to create roulette heaven in Monaco. First came the Casino, and then the Hôtel de Paris. Europe’s elite came flocking, and still do. People watch at the Café de Paris in the Place du Casino, where new luxury shopping complex One Monte-Carlo has just opened, then admire the superyachts in the harbour and the views from Jardin Exotique. Finish with cocktails in the American Bar, rub that horse’s knee and try your luck in Charles Garnier’s glorious Casino.

T R A V E L

HÔTEL DE PARIS, MONTE-CARLO

1

It’s the sugar plum among the frothy confection of grande dame hotels that are liberally sprinkled across the capitals and resorts of Europe.

2

A just-unveiled $280m renovation has left it looking stunning – historic, but fresh and cool too.

N E W S

THE HOTEL WIZARD Fiona Duncan tries her luck in Monte-Carlo

3

The lobby’s equestrian statue of Louis XIV, the horse’s right knee shiny from the thousands of hands that have rubbed it for luck at the Casino de Monte-Carlo’s gaming tables…

4

… and the hidden tunnel to the Casino, so guests can still gamble when the Grand Prix has turned the Place into a racetrack.

5

The scented gardens, where tables for lunch during the Grand Prix cost £500 a head.

6

The Louis XV, three Michelinstarred domain (since 1987) of culinary wizard Alain Ducasse.

MONACO MAGIC

Three more hotels in the city state of excess Hermitage (1) The Hôtel de Paris’ discreet sibling, for jetsetters who prefer to stay under the radar. From £327. hotelhermitagemontecarlo.com. Columbus (2) An excellent mid-range choice.

From £150. columbushotels.com. Hôtel de France No frills but a great location next to the daily food market. From £102. hoteldefrance.mc

ON TH E T R AV EL R A DA R

The American Bar, dripping with leggy, couture-clad beauties and thrumming with live music.

8

The enormous and utterly fabulous new rooftop suites, Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III.

9 10

A cryotherapy session in the Thermes Marins spa.

The memories of Churchill, a regular, who kept a parakeet in his suite, as well as Onassis and Callas, Sinatra, Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth and Errol Flynn, who celebrated his wedding in the Salle Empire, with a cake that weighed 77lbs.

Doubles from £416. +377 98064151. hoteldeparismontecarlo.com

DRAMATIC OPERATICS A once-in-a-lifetime performance from Opera Australia with UluruKata Tjuta National Park and Bruce Munro’s Field of Light Uluru as the stunning backdrop. 2 Nov. ayersrockresort.com.au

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

LLAMA LOVE Fancy llama trekking in the Surrey Hills? You can do just that at the Merry Harriers, and you can stay in one of five new luxury Shepherd’s Huts there too. merry harriers.com

7

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FOOD & TRAVEL Come for the glitz, stay for the gastronomy

THE ESSENTIALS

STAY A charming blend of French flair and local style greets visitors to the five-star Sofitel Macau, located on the picturesque waterfront. It sits slap bang in the middle of the charming UNESCO listed historical quarter. sofitelmacau.com

T H E

W E E K E N D E R

MACAU

Fancy a jump? The world’s highest bungee from the top of the Macau Tower

Gilly Pickup discovers there’s a lot more to it than its casinos

SEE Prepare to be amazed at The House of Dancing Water, the world’s largest water show. The attraction cost a mind blowing US$250m to create. The extravaganza is a non-stop whirl of daring high-dive acrobatics, aerial stunts and water jets blasting up to 18 metres high in sync with the music. thehouseofdancingwater.com

T BOOK IT

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; MIKE PICKUP

Sofitel Macau, from £93 per night for a superior double room. £391 per night for a mansion suite. sofitel macau.com

Macau is also renowned for its beautiful gardens

here is no denying former Portuguese trading post Macau is awash with glitz, glamour and enormous casinos – its Venetian Casino, which comes complete with 21 restaurants, is the world’s biggest.

However, this buzzing Vegas of the East, the only place in China where gambling is legal, also has a passion for good food and to that end was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. Recognised as one of the world’s culinary destinations following an influx of internationally renowned restaurant brands and celebrity chefs, foodies are spoilt for choice with 18 Michelin-starred restaurants.

Macau combines local heritage and culture with world-class annual

events including the Arts Festival and Dragon Boat Races in May, a firework fiesta in September, International Music Festival in October and the Light Festival in December. One of the most notable events is the festival of speed otherwise known as the Grand Prix which is held every November. Still going strong since 1953, the Guia Circuit sees the best Formula 3, motorcycle and WTCC racers compete on what is considered one of the most challenging street circuits in the world.

Talking of challenges, adrenaline junkies are in their element at the 338-metre Macau Tower which offers the world’s highest bungee jump. If that sounds too scary, there’s the opportunity to have a go on the SkyWalk which circles the outside of the Tower’s perimeter (don’t worry, you wear a harness!).

Those who can bear to look down will enjoy panoramic city views. n

BUY Macau is a duty free zone, and terrific for shopping. Lacquer boxes, Ming pottery, sculptures, jasmine tea, designer labels, perfume, jewellery – it’s a dream for shopaholics.

EAT No one should go home without paying a visit to Lord Stow’s Bakery, home to the Portuguese Egg Tart. Englishman ‘Lord’ Andrew Stow put his own spin on the flaky Portuguese egg custard centred tarts when he first started to make them in 1989. lordstow.com

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Enjoy a truly British experience with the Hattingley team over a glass or two of our award-winning sparkling wines

#MadHatTiNGleY

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FOOD & TRAVEL COCKTAIL CULTURE

Order classic Liquorette cocktails (or create your own) online and the freshly-made concoctions will arrive within the hour, garnishes and recyclable shakers included – just add friends. From £9. liquorette.co.uk

PALETTE TO PLATE Cooking is not chemistry but an art, and some chefs have taken this maxim one step further by creating menus inspired by London’s latest exhibitions. Aqua nueva’s head chef Yahir Gonzalez has cooked an ode to Spanish impressionist Sorolla (aquanueva.co.uk), while visitors to Tate Britain can get their fill of Van Gogh at the restaurant too (tate.org.uk). The dishes are almost too beautiful to eat… almost.

A GOOD GR IL LING DRINK The Brit Spritz.

35ml Kamm & Sons British Aperitif + 15ml elderflower cordial + 50ml sparkling wine + 50ml soda water over ice. £36. kammand sons.com

N E W S

EMBRACE Meat alternatives for barbecue season. Heck burgers, from £2.50. heckfood. co.uk

GASTRO GOSSIP Extreme high tea.

By Clementina Jackson HIGH TEA

Plant-based restaurant Farmacy has powered up High Tea with CBD-infused cocktails and chocolates, plus a pot of hemp leaf tea for that extra feel-good factor. Just the ticket to weed out life’s stresses. £42 per person. farmacylondon.com

BACK THE FAVOURITES Top hats off to Royal Ascot for securing its most illustrious chef line-up ever, boasting a whopping eight Michelin stars collectively. Ollie Dabbous of HIDE joins Simon Rogan, Phil Howard, Eric Lanlard, James Tanner and Raymond Blanc in the kitchens of the legendary sporting event. royalascot.co.uk

PHOTOS: NICOLE HAINS

INSPO Outdoor Cooking

by Gill Meller (Bloomsbury, £16.99)

BACK TO SCHOOL

It’s new cookery school season! Learn trade secrets from Michel Roux Jr at Sauce by The Langham (langhamhotels. com) or from Paul Ainsworth at Mahé in Cornwall (paulainsworth.co.uk), and embrace Basque cuisine at Mimo’s new home in Borough Market (london.mimofood.com).

DOLLOP Make sure your condiment game is strong. Eaten Alive’s hot sauces, £4.99. eatenalive.co.uk

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FOOD & TRAVEL R E C I P E

BAP’S AWAY

FOODIE TA L ES

He’s got the looks and he cooks: model and chef Isaac Carew shares his favourite zingy burger recipe

D

METHOD Mix the spring onions with the coriander. Add the raw king prawns to the herb mix and transfer to a chopping board. Roughly chop the prawns with the herb mix until you get a fine mince-like paste.

Season with salt, cover and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Divide the chilled mixture into two equal parts. Cover your hands in olive oil and shape two burger patties. Heat a glug of oil in a large non-stick pan over a medium-high heat. Add the burgers and cook for 2–3 minutes each side, until golden but slightly pink.

In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise with the lime zest and juice. Add a pinch of salt and mix.

Remove the patties from the heat.

Slice the buns in half and toast until golden. Cover both sides of the brioche buns with a healthy dollop of the mayo.

Sandwich the burgers in the buns topped with a handful of rocket and the chilli.

Taken from The Dirty Dishes by Isaac Carew (Bluebird, £20)

HERBY PRAWN BURGER WITH LIME MAYO INGREDIENTS Serves 2 » 2 spring onions, finely sliced » ½ bunch of coriander, leaves chopped » 240g raw king prawns » sea salt » olive oil » 100g mayonnaise » zest of 1 lime » juice of ½ lime » 2 brioche buns » 100g rocket » 1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced

DREAMS OF SHARING BURGERS WITH BARACK What’s your food philosophy? Use great produce and enjoy yourself.

What was the fi rst dish you learned to cook? I think it was a cream and cider pork chops dish by either Jamie Oliver or Nigel Slater.

Most vivid childhood food memory?

Eating the most gorgeous chocolate cake, sitting on a stool by the pass watching my dad cook.

Biggest mistake you’ve made in the kitchen? Does almost setting a kitchen on fire count? While adding a bottle of port to a pan of lobster shells.

Most memorable meal out? Acajou in Paris with my family – the food was totally mind-blowing.

When was the last time you sent something back to the kitchen and why? To be honest, I send things back all the time. I try to be as discreet as possible and I always have a good reason, but I won’t call out anyone in particular.

When you’re not in the kitchen, where are you? Most likely shooting food at home, recipe developing, or shooting a modelling campaign somewhere.

What’s in your fridge right now?

I’m currently in LA so it’s pretty bare – just some apples, kimchi and parmesan last time I looked.

Least favourite ingredient? I can’t stand dill.

Who would you most like to take out for dinner and where would you take them? Barack Obama.

I’d take him somewhere simple and understated but with incredible burgers and shakes.

PHOTOS: SUSAN BELL; BARTEK SZMIGULSKI

id I mention that I love burgers?

You rarely see prawn burgers on menus but they make a great alternative to the classics.

You simply mince the raw prawns by hand, then add the herbs. You’ve got loads of flavours in there, plus the richness of the prawns – then the lime comes through and smacks you in the face.

This is a fresh and zingy one: think Mexico meets Japan meets a good old American-style burger.

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FOOD & TRAVEL COUNTRY

R E S T A U R A N T

R E V I E W S

FORK & FIELD

Clementina Jackson discovers a proper Sunday pub in the Cotswolds

THE POTTING SHED, Wiltshire

Crudwell may date back to the Domesday Book, but this Cotswolds village feels full of life thanks to the hip and thoroughly modern hotel and pub that lie at its heart. This place is all about unpretentious country hospitality, but with a dash of Soho Farmhouse glam that draws city dwellers. And so too did it draw me – that, and the promise of an unbeatable pub lunch – and it didn’t disappoint. On a Sunday it is everything you pray for when visiting a ‘traditional’ country pub – crackling fires, laughing locals (in suspiciously clean boots), all the papers and cosy nooks to hole up in. The menu goes beyond the posh roast with double Gloucester soufflé, pork and pistachio terrine and fresh Chiperones so popular they’re finished by midday. Mains from £12. thepottingshedpub.com

M A R K ET BEST AM-TO-PM EATING AT MARKET HALL VICTORIA

BREAKFAST: MONTY’S DELI The purveyors of the best Reuben sandwich in London serve up lipsmackingly satisfying latkes (shredded potato and onion cakes) with salt beef and fried eggs for a naughty breakfast.

A great alternative to a fry up if you’re in need of something substantial. This is New York City-style Jewish soul food.

TOWN

KUTIR, SW3

When the desire next strikes to hold a dinner party at home, call up Kutir instead. No washing up, more impressive food (no offence) and the kind of beautifully curated interiors that you were aiming for in your own abode. Michelinstarred Rohit Ghai’s brilliant new Indian is the perfect mix of luxe and homely, a converted Chelsea townhouse where you ring the doorbell to enter a lightly-spiced rabbit hole embellished with Cole & Son wallpaper, before settling into the conservatory for supper. The set menus take you on an exhilarating tour of unchartered Indian flavours – the quail naan with masala scrambled egg and truffle is a highlight – via perfectly executed classics such as duck korma and guinea fowl biryani. Over-order the exceptionally buttery paratha to avoid squabbles. Expedition set menu from £55 per person. kutir.co.uk

LUNCH: BAOZIINN Take your full lunch hour for a moodboosting feast of freshly-made dumplings, brightly coloured with spinach, turmeric and beetroot dyes and stuffed with prawn, pork and flavoursome veggies. Your usual sandwich quite literally pales in comparison.

THIS MONTH I’M...

1 Gorging in Jersey. Nothing could beat the food and views at The Atlantic Hotel. theatlantichotel.com 2 Having a literal bubble at Salon Wine Store’s new wine and vinyl night called Strictly Bangers. salonbrixton. co.uk 3 Saluting the start of summer with beachside rosé and lobsters on the Isle of Wight. thehutcolwell.co.uk

DINNER: GOPAL’S CORNER The maddeningly tasty Malaysian Tamil dishes popularised by the great Roti King in Euston have arrived at this less hectic corner of central London. But the word has spread fast, so get there at 6pm to avoid the queue and feast on the legendary chicken kari with flaky roti. markethalls.co.uk

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FOOD & TRAVEL

C H E F ’ S

N O T E S

SHAUN RANKIN Growing asparagus is a real labour of love, so treat it with respect

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ur growers, fishermen, farmers, foragers and, let’s not forget, English wine producers, are doing such an amazing job. Without these fantastic, dedicated and hardworking people, chefs would be stood in the kitchen twiddling their thumbs.

My search for fresh seasonal produce takes me all over the UK, visiting the unsung heroes of our isles. These are the people who get up at the crack of dawn, and, in some cases, all through the night, to make sure we have the best British ingredients available to us in our kitchens every day.

This month it’s all about the beautiful UK asparagus season.

There are so many things you can do with this versatile little gem. But did you know how it’s

Shaun showcases asparagus in a variety of dishes

grown and how long it takes? It can take up to five years for a grower to gain their first crop, which is grown in sand as it’s part of the seaweed family. It takes a lot of dedication, time and a huge amount of investment to gain any return. That’s why, as chefs, we treat it with the respect it deserves.

At my restaurant Ormer Mayfair in London, I work closely with Head Chef Kerth Gumbs to really make the most out of the short asparagus season.

We try to showcase the ingredient in as many dishes as possible while we can, one recent example being a fabulous dish created by Kerth that pairs glazed rabbit with asparagus and truffle – a beautifully RIGHT: Hattingley Valley light combination of English sparkling wine partners spring flavours. We perfectly with asparagus refresh our menus every three weeks allowing us to champion the finest and freshest seasonal ingredients – and our guests seem to love it.

I’m off down South to meet the guys behind Hattingley Valley sparkling wine in Hampshire because I’m thinking that freshly cooked asparagus with a cold glass of Hattingley’s English sparkling would make fabulous combination Shaun’s restaurant Ormer in Mayfair – I’ll let you know how I get on... n

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

Having worked all over the world, the Yorkshire-born chef, Shaun Rankin, gained his first Michelin star in 2005 at Bohemia in the Channel Islands. After nine years at the helm he opened his own restaurant, Ormer in 2014, and again gained Michelinstarred status just four months after opening. He is delighted to be returning to his Yorkshire roots to oversee the fine dining restaurant at the new luxury hotel and wellness retreat, Grantley Hall, scheduled to open in summer 2019.

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FOOD & DRINK

D R I N K

A DR IN K W ITH...

HAPPY HOUR

Alice Lascelles is sipping from the sunshine state Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay 2016

Californian wines are back with a bang

If you love white Burgundy, this Chardonnay from Sandhi in Santa Barbara will blow your socks off.

Mouthwatering citrus, apricots and tart, tropical fruit notes blend seamlessly with a luxuriant creaminess. A stunning wine to drink now or – if you can bear to wait – lay down for the future. £34. robersonwine.com

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f you’re a similar vintage to me, you were probably weaned on Californian plonk – sweet, oaky, fruity bombs that invariably had a messy ending. Can I convince you to give it another shot? There are some fantastic wines coming out of the state: restrained, elegant and expressive. From cool young guns making new-wave Chardonnay to Bordeaux-style cuvées.

Gallica Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Softly-spoken winemaker Rosemary Cakebread brings a light touch.

This wine’s ripe cassis and fine spice, underpinned by fresh earthiness, has won it many admirers in the trade. Serious, stylish and, yes, rather expensive – but absolutely worth it. £188. hedonism.co.uk

El Dorado Gamay Noir 2017,

INSTAGRAM @ALICELASCELLES; PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

A hipster fave, Arnot-Roberts makes visceral natural wines that are the antithesis of over-oaked wines from the bad old days. This single-vineyard red is fresh and crunchy, with masses of the red berry perfume that makes gamay so charming.

Best served on the cool side. £33. robersonwine.com

IN OR OU T?

What are you drinking? A bottle of Bricco Boschis Barolo – I’m an oldworld girl.

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Who are you drinking it with?

Someone I can debate with or who can teach me something.

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Martini: shaken or stirred? A Gibson Martini, shaken, with a silverskin pickled onion.

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Favourite food and drink match? An icy beer at the beach with some ready salted crisps.

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If you could buy a drink for one person, who would it be? [The late chef] Anthony Bourdain. I bet he could teach me the world.

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The wine is corked – do you tell your host? Absolutely.

Is there a drink you think is really overrated? I’m a Scot and I can’t drink whisky – it’s my hell.

STAYING IN

MUYU VETIVER HIGHBALL

25ml Muyu Vetiver Gris liqueur + 150ml San Pellegrino Pompelmo in a highball glass, over lots of ice. Garnish with a grapefruit slice. Muyu Vetiver Gris Liqueur, £28.75. thewhiskyexchange.com

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Last great cocktail you had? An iced bull shot at Dukes Bar in St James’s.

It’s a Bloody Mary made with beef consommé and it’s fantastic.

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GOING OUT

BUBBLEDOGS, W1

Nerd out over the selection of grower champagnes – hand-picked by Sandia Chang (pictured) – while nibbling on hot dogs topped with fried onions and foie gras.

What would you drink if it was your last night on earth? Vintage Krug, Gibsons, and lots and lots of Jägerbombs.

Gizzi’s new book, Slow: Food Worth Taking Time Over, is out now (£25, Harper Collins)

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vintage style at old-world prices decorative lighting from pooky.com

STOCKISTS ADLER adler.ch

GYUNEL COUTURE gyunel.com

ANNOUSHKA annoushka.com

HARRY WINSTON harrywinston.com

ASPREY asprey.com

ISABEL MARANT @ boutique1.com

BOODLES boodles.com

MAGDA BUTRYM @ boutique1.com

BUCHERER bucherer.com

PHILLIPS & CHEERS phillipsandcheers.com

CHOPARD chopard.com

SAYEH & GALTON sayehgaltonflowers.com

DAVID MORRIS davidmorris.com

SIMONE ROCHA @ matchesfashion.com

DOLCE & GABBANA dolcegabbana.com

TEMPERLEY LONDON temperleylondon.com

ELIE SAAB eliesaab.com

countryandtownhouse.co.uk

EMILIA WICKSTEAD emiliawickstead.com GARRARD garrard.com

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WILLIAM & SON williamandson.com ZIMMERMANN zimmermann.com

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EDITED BY A N NA T Y Z ACK

HOUSE OF THE MONTH Sell it to us in a sentence… A stunning Lutyens house set in grounds of 63 acres, but just 40 miles from central London.

Does it have any juicy history? It was built

by Sir Edwin Lutyens and further extended by him in 1909. It is believed that Lutyens began his honeymoon at Warren Mere.

Best place to unwind? The drawing room is flooded with light most of the day, and has a lovely calm feel with plenty of space for relaxing.

PROPERTY

Warren Mere, Thursley, Godalming, Surrey Price: £4.5m 9 bedrooms 9 bathrooms 14,795 sq/ft

Who would like living here? A large family with young children, who likes to entertain.

Do we need to hire a gardener? The gardens are beautiful, so unless you are very hands on, you would probably want to hire a gardener.

Where can we send the kids to school?

There are so many options around Guildford. The most popular are St Catherine’s, Aldro School, Charterhouse, Priors Field, Cranleigh School, St Hilary’s, The Royal Grammar School, Guildford High School and Hurtwood House. Further afield are Wellington College, St John’s School in Leatherhead, Reigate Grammar School, Eton, Harrow and Bedales School.

Perks of the location? It is close to good amenities and has easy access to the A3 for getting up to London.

There are lovely walks nearby, and you can access Thursley Common from the end of the lane.

The current owner says… ‘We have lived at Warren Mere for 17 years and my boys have loved growing up here. It is the most magical setting for children to live, with so much to keep them entertained.’

01483 617916. knightfrank.co.uk n

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Fancy Hyde Park on your doorstep?

WHEN IN MARYLEBONE Proper coffee AOK Kitchen on Dorset Street makes a great flat white and healthy food. aokkitchen. co.uk Brunch with friends Fischers is an informal neighbourhood café and Viennese konditorei. fischers.co.uk

M O V E

T O

MARYLEBONE

Cocktails The Chiltern Firehouse, naturally. It’s celebrating its fifth year. chilternfire house.com

Technopreneurs are flocking north of the park for its great connections, says Anna Tyzack

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Clara Paget

nviably positioned between Hyde Park, Regent’s Park and Mayfair, it was only a matter of time before Marylebone was ‘discovered’.

This is where the new generation of buyers want to put down roots – even though their parents would never have considered living ‘north of the park’.

‘There’s so much going on here in terms of restaurants, shops and transport links, plus all the green space you could want,’ explains Simon Tollit of Tedworth Property. ‘Californians love it; European tech investors love it.’

So-called after the church of St Mary and the river or ‘bourne’ beside it, much of Marylebone was constructed in the 18th century by two landowning families, the Portmans and the Howard de Waldens, who appreciated good quality architecture. The estates are still the area’s two major landlords.

By the end of the 20th century, however, Marylebone had become a poor relation to Mayfair, and the two estates set about improving its fortunes. Less than two decades on, Marylebone is now considered to be one of the most desirable places to live in prime central London, says Alex Bourne, director of Beauchamp Estates. ‘You benefit from living in the centre of a great city and one of the best high streets in London, all in a wonderful urban village – it really is the best of all worlds,’ he says.

The gentrification began slowly in the 1990s, with the arrival of independent businesses such as Daunt Books, which occupies premises

on Marylebone High Street – built in 1910 for antiquarian booksellers Francis Edwards.

By the time Chiltern Firehouse opened in 2013, the whole area was alive with wine shops, cafés and boutiques. There are also now several luxury hotels, including the Marylebone Hotel and the Langham.

‘Howard de Walden and the Portman Estate are a key factor in the area’s charm,’ says Paul Christian of Marsh & Parsons. ‘Their careful curation of beautiful independent shops and restaurants has made this a special corner.’

Many of those buying in Marylebone are wealthy international graduates and tech professionals working at Google, Facebook and Snapchat in King’s Cross and Fitzrovia, according to Martin Bikhit, of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Kay & Co: ‘This new generation is lured by the café culture, quality restaurants and the open spaces of Regent’s Park and Hyde Park.’

Buyers also appreciate the excellent connections: to the City and Canary Wharf from Baker Street and Bond Street, to Heathrow from Paddington, and to Paris by Eurostar from St Pancras. ‘All within a ten-minute cab ride,’ says James Hyman of Cluttons.

Girl’s lunch La Brasseria Milanese is a modern (and dog-friendly) Italian restaurant in the heart of Marylebone. labrasseria.com Date night Chef Simon Rogan’s Roganic serves wowfactor food from his own farm in Cumbria. roganic.uk

Shopping spree On Marylebone High Street don’t miss Cire Trudon (trudon.com), a candle emporium on Chiltern Street, or clothing boutiques Kj’s Laundry (kjslaundry.com) and Mouki Mou (moukimou.com).

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; REX FEATURES

L E T ’ S

St Mary’s, Bryanston Square

Curry night For delicious South Indian food and an underground cocktail bar head to Ooty. ooty.co.uk

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PROPERTY

FOR SA L E

RAINSFORD STREET, £1.55M A new three-bed mews house towards Paddington. It has been meticulously finished and there is free parking outside.

Always a bonus in central London. lurotbrand.co.uk

The area has lots of fantastic restaurants, like AOK Kitchen

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; REX FEATURES

The area has increasing family appeal, due to its proximity to parks, roomy townhouses with gardens and private schools that include Wetherby Prep and Senior schools, Francis Holland, Queen’s College and Hyde Park School. There are also outstanding state options and two international schools.

‘There is a charming village feel, with a farmers’ market at the weekend,’ explains Lucie Hirst of property finders Colombo Hirst.

Marylebone’s varied property offering ensures it suits buyers at every stage of life, adds Alessandra de Paiva Raposo of DPR Property. ‘The area is home to grand townhouses, some of which have been converted into lateral apartments,’ she says. ‘And there are also a number of mews houses and new builds.’

The smaller properties are perfect for those downsizing from larger houses in St Johns Wood and Hampstead to somewhere more central.

Then there are country dwellers in search of a pied-à-terre, says Hyman. ‘It’s so easy to get out into the country from here,’ he explains.

Prices have, unsurprisingly, escalated dramatically over the past few years. The average price is around £1,600 per sq/ft: a studio flat costs from around £400,000 and prices for fourbedroom properties start at around £2 million.

Wetherby is one of many excellent schools in the area

Earlier this year Marc Schneiderman of Arlington Residential secured more than £7 million for a property in Harley House, a gated mansion block 150 yards from Regent’s Park, suggesting that wealthy buyers are confident in the area. ‘The sale was a record price for the building and we had competitive bidding from three buyers,’ he explains. The record sale for Marylebone on the Land Registry over the past 12 months was £12 million for an apartment.

Prices are still up to a third lower than in Mayfair and Knightsbridge, according to research by Cluttons. ‘Prices are chunkier than they once were, but Marylebone still looks good value, particularly given it is developing into a truly prime area,’ Tollit observes. The most prestigious addresses are east of Baker Street.

Property finder Philip Eastwood of The Buying Solution recommends Dorset Street and Manchester Street for a calm residential vibe. The garden squares are always coveted: Montagu Square (where John Lennon and Yoko Ono once lived) and Bryanston Square, formerly home to Wallis Simpson.

For those on a lower budget, meanwhile, the streets west of Baker Street, towards Edgware Road, offer the best value in the area, according to Tollit – from just under £800,000 for a two-bedroom property in a purpose-built block.

In some ways, Marylebone has been a victim of its own success, he continues. ‘The prices are becoming quite punchy for an area that isn’t Mayfair or Belgravia,’ he says. ‘But then Marylebone seems to offer what the next generation of buyers are looking for – we call it the Chiltern Firehouse effect.’ n

CHILTERN PLACE, £4.25M This cutting-edge development has a gym and residents’ club lounge, plus 24-hour security, full concierge services and valet parking. The last remaining apartment has two bedrooms. savills.com RESIDENCES AT THE MANSION, FROM £4.95M A collection of 23 high-end apartments by Clivedale London.

Partners include Fortnum & Mason and Bamford. Plus access to a chauffeur-driven Bentley. themansionw1.com

BRYANSTON SQUARE, £4M A three-bed apartment in the historic garden square that was once home to Wallis Simpson. Accommodation includes a 30ft-wide reception and access to a residents-only garden. kayandco.com

REGENT’S CRESCENT, FROM £2.9M Built by King George IV, Regent’s Crescent is an exclusive development behind the original Nash façade. 67 Grade 1-listed apartments promise the highest standards of modern luxury. knightfrank.com

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PROPERTY

HOM ES SW EET HOM ES

Don’t back out of bold decor

THE STARTER HOME

H O U S E

S E C R E T S

Molyneux Street, Marylebone, £4.995m A newly renovated family house on Molyneux Street behind an impressive white stucco fronted façade. The house is particularly wide and features 3,141 sq/ft of accommodation including three reception rooms, kitchen and dining room, four bedroom suites and a lower ground floor flat, which would be perfect for a nanny. thackerays.net

NINA CAMPBELL The interior decorator is a Chelsea girl at heart Where was your first home?

On Molyneux Street in Marylebone. It wasn’t dissimilar from the house I grew up in.

Why did you move?

I just couldn’t get used to living north of the park. We sold it rather well and bought a flat just off Sloane Square.

THE SECOND HOME

Favourite interior design cheat?

You can use mirrors and colour cleverly to change the feel of a room. I lacquered my ceilings to make them appear taller.

Where do you live now?

I’ve spent the rest of my life moving around Chelsea.

I bought an enormous lateral flat in Notting Hill a few years ago but I came roaring back to Chelsea – to an old artist’s studio off Gilston Road, that I call ‘the hut’.

What sold it to you? It was rather odd, which worked as I didn’t want to live in a standard terrace house any more. I wanted a little monster to transform into a haven.

First time buyer? Get the bones of the house right, then paint it white

What do you look for when you’re house hunting? Something ugly, so

I can do something with it. Floor plans are my pornography. I wouldn’t mind something industrial in the right area.

What does every new home need? A laundry room. Every house needs one, no matter the size. If you’re digging a basement always go one foot higher than the standard ceiling height, so it won’t seem like a cellar.

Do you have a second home? No. I can’t be bothered. If I want a second home, I rent it.

A rental pad on Lake Como Via Besana is a holiday house on Lake Como decorated in soft whites and yellows, with traditional terracotta floor tiles and simple, tasteful furnishings.

There’s also a peaceful garden with beautiful views of the lake. There are good local restaurants and shops nearby, and Milan is a one-hour drive away. onefinestay.com THE FOREVER HOME

Biggest mistake people make when decorating? Panicking at the last minute and

Whose house would you most like to see inside? I would have liked to have seen Marella

Nina’s first home was in Marylebone

Agnelli’s [widow of Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli] house. She had such style.

Your advice to a first-time buyer? Get the bones of the house right: the electrics, the lighting, the spaces and the storage. Then paint it white and fill it with brown furniture if you’re short of money – everything else will follow. n

Tite Street, Chelsea, £5.75m An elegant red brick mid-terrace house with four bedrooms, which has been rebuilt throughout by the current owners.

There are elegant reception rooms, a library and a new basement with utility room, gym and sauna. The house has access to Tedworth Gardens and is a short walk from Sloane Square Tube. johndwood.co.uk

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

bottling out of bold decor. By the time you’ve got furniture in and pictures on the wall, bright colours seem much less imposing.

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PROPERTY

F I V E

O F

T H E

B E S T

STUNNING GARDENS

Anna Tyzack picks the most impressive houses for green-fingered buyers OXFORDSHIRE

Badgemore Grange, near Henley-on-Thames, is a gracious country house with generous ceiling heights and an impressive hall with herringbone wood block flooring, a fine carved staircase and French doors to the garden.

There are three spacious reception rooms, a kitchen with Aga and walk-in larder, plus six bedrooms. The gardens are divided into private areas by walling, mature hedging and lightly cut paths, plus there are magnificent trees, including cedar of Lebanon and Wellingtonia, as well as formal planting and herbaceous borders. The Coachman’s Cottage is an ideal annex for a nanny. £6.495m. savills.com

LANCASHIRE

This country estate dates back to 1750 and has recently been refurbished to include five large bedrooms, opulent reception rooms and glazed walkways from the main house to the library and palm house. To the south are formal gardens with York stone terraces, a walled garden, rose garden and a wisteria walk leading to a summer house, plus a secret garden leading to the Beech walk, orchard and yew maze. Beautifully maintained lawns sweep away from the house, bordered by white estate fencing with paddocks and parkland beyond. There is also a kitchen garden with a potting shed and greenhouse, plus a tennis court with an all-weather surface. £3.95m. struttandparker.co.uk

SURREY A substantial and much-loved family home with six bedrooms, just outside Chiddingfold.

The house has large, light reception rooms, a substantial kitchen and generous bathrooms.

The gardens are impressive and open for the National Garden Scheme: 2.5 acres of lawns and established plants and trees, plus a wellstocked kitchen garden, colourful cutting garden and orchard with apples, quince, damson, plum and mulberry trees. There is also a pool, tennis court, stables, listed barn, a Gabriel Ash greenhouse and 7.5 acres of paddocks. £POA. knightfrank.com

LONDON Bracken Knoll is an enormous country-style home on the private and gated Courtenay Avenue, directly opposite Kenwood House. The half-acre gardens include a beautiful and mature front garden plus a rear garden with lawns, York stone borders and oak trees. Beyond is an unspoiled wilderness, akin to a private nature reserve. The house has a double height hall, vast reception rooms, seven bedrooms and staff accommodation, but planning consent will soon be reinstated to build a new 13,488 sq/ft over four floors behind a retained façade to include a substantial leisure complex with swimming pool and cinema. £8.65m. arlingtonresidential.com

KENT Watergate House in Fordwich is a Grade II* listed property enclosed by ancient walls that form a hortus conclusus, completely concealed from the street. Within them is a country-house garden in miniature with defined areas of formal, spring, woodland, vegetable and secret garden, with watergates that open onto the river. The present owner (a medal winner at RHS Chelsea) opens the garden regularly for the National Garden Scheme. The house, which was the original manor of Fordwich and then the rectory, is spacious, with six reception rooms and seven bedrooms. £2.5m. struttandparker.com

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A charming townhouse in the heart of Mayfair.

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Farm Street, Mayfair W1J An exceptional townhouse of grand proportions, boasting character and a great entertaining space. The property is located on one of Mayfair's most sought after addresses, and is well located for transport links including Green Park Underground Station (0.4 miles).

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A unique townhouse with Jacobean and Medieval architecture Imposing marble floored hallway Accommodation across four floors Approximately 4,564 sq ft (424 sq m)

Simon Burgoyne looks forward to helping you. simon.burgoyne@knightfrank.com 020 3589 0899 07467 915293

Guide price

£10,500,000

Freehold knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.

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An exceptional family house with 3,700 sq ft of space.

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Edenhurst Avenue, Fulham SW6 Set within the quiet 'Hurlingham' area, close to the amenities of Parsons Green and Putney Bridge tube station, this beautiful house offers superb living space over four floors and a 34 ft west-facing garden. Approximately 3,770 sq ft.

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James Davies looks forward to helping you. james.davies@knightfrank.com 0203 544 0635

An exquisite period facade with two storey bay windows Off street parking Cinema on the lower floor Approximately 3,770 sq ft

Guide price

£3,850,000

Freehold knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.

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A flat with beautiful river views.

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Riverlight Quay, Nine Elms SW11 A bright and spacious open-plan two bedroom apartment located within a sought-after Riverlight development benefiting from the regeneration of Nine Elms area.

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Matt Smith looks forward to helping you. matt.smith@knightfrank.com 020 3866 2930

Beautiful and spacious balcony Secure parking Concierge service Approximately 867 sq ft

Guide price

£1,395,000 knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.

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Homes for sale in Belgravia.

Eaton Place, London SW1

Chester Row, London SW1

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Newly refurbished to a high standard apartment with the benefit of its own front door. EPC: E. Guide price £2,350,000

Kinnerton Street, London SW1

1 A second floor apartment benefits from a lift and would make an ideal London pied-a-terre. EPC: C. Guide price £1,950,000

Eaton Place, London SW1

The flat is beautifully presented throughout benefitting from a huge amount of natural light and arranged on the fourth floor. EPC: C. 1

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Guide price £2,495,000

Chester Square, London SW1

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A three bedroom flat with a lift and a separate basement room which could be used as additional accommodation. EPC: D. Guide price £7,950,000

Eaton Square, London SW1

1 A well-presented penthouse apartment in one of London's most prestigious addresses. EPC: D.

A Grade II listed house situated in this exclusive garden square.

Guide price £7,950,000

Guide price £6,800,000

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Call the Belgravia Sales team on 020 3641 5908, we'd love to help you. knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.

All potential tenants should be advised that, as well as rent, an administration fee of £288 and referencing fees of £48 per person will apply when renting a property. There will also be a £48 charge to register your deposit with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme if applicable. (All fees shown are inclusive of VAT.) Please ask us for more information about other fees that will apply or visit www.knightfrank.co.uk/tenantfees. Knight Frank is a member of the ARLA Client Money Protection Scheme and our redress scheme for consumers is Property Redress Scheme.

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M A G N A C A R T A P A R K .MCAOGMN A C A R T A P A R K . C O M 01784 335 841

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01344 295 375

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Classic Period Property Toddington, Bedfordshire M1 (J12): 1 mile, Harlington Train Station: 2.2 miles A significant Grade II listed house with an elegant interior including many original period features and over 4,000 sq ft of living accommodation. 6 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, outdoor heated swimming pool, double garage, mature and private walled gardens.

About 0.39 acres | Guide ÂŁ1.5 million Nick Ingle Savills Harpenden 01582 803 696 ningle@savills.com

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N S PE Y M O DA – 5P 7 0AM

Luxury living in Pangbourne THREE AND FOUR BEDROOM SHOW HOMES NOW AVAIL ABLE TO VIEW A rare opportunity to own a new Millgate home in Pangbourne Beautiful interior design by Alexander James Interiors Stunning gardens by Chelsea award-winning landscape designers Breedon Place, home to just thirty-five 3, 4 & 5 bedroom detached and semi-detached homes set in an elevated position on Pangbourne Hill.

Prices from £845,000 – £1,675,000

breedonplace-pangbourne.co.uk

0118 4300 040 | breedon.place@haslams.net @MillgateUK

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@MillgateHomesUK

@Millgate_

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Melbury Road, W14 £3,100,000 Arranged over two floors within a prestigious Grade II listed building, this exceptional apartment benefits from two double bedrooms, a master suite featuring a walk-in wardrobe and en suite bathroom, plus an impressive reception room with high ceilings and dual-aspect windows. Leasehold. EPC=D • In close proximity to Holland Park • Porter and lift • Private garage Holland Park sales: 020 8033 9024 sales.hol@marshandparsons.co.uk

www.marshandparsons.co.uk

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Tuesday 14th May 2019, 2–7pm. Admission Free Chelsea Old Town Hall, King’s Road, London SW3 5EE Meet leading independent estate agents, who can provide objective, balanced advice and show you some of the finest property to buy, rent or invest, in and outside the capital, from pied-à-terre’s to country estates.

For more information, contact Milly at The London Office on 020 7839 0888 or visit www.londonandcountryproperty.co.uk

MA01100 TLO Country & Town House Full Page Advert 2019.indd 1 The London Property Show.indd 1

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Fryerning Essex Wickham Bishops, Witham CM8 Fryerning Essex

Guide Price £3,850,000 Guide Price £3,850,000 Guide price £875,000 striking five double bedroom, reception Grade II AAstriking five double bedroom, fourfour reception Grade II A delightful Grade II Listed family residence providing listed period property thought to date back 500 years. four floors of outstanding, free flowing space as listed period property thought toliving date back 500 years.

This charming residence isformal originally thought to beto 3 be 3 well as fabulous landscaped gardens.

Steeped in This charming residence is originally thought cottages, now providing a was fantastic flowflow ofJacobean interesting history, this unique property modelled in cottages, now providing a fantastic of interesting style with reference to Trumpton Hall previously owned and extensive family living space over two two floors.

ThebyThe and extensive family living space over floors.

Lord Byron’s family.

Positioned within a select residential 7.5 acre plot comprises formal grounds mixed 7.5 acre plot comprises formal grounds mixed location in highly regarded Wickham Bishops, the excellent sympathetically with paddocks (benefitting from a sympathetically with paddocks (benefitting from a amenities Withamaccess), are also ponds close by.

Exempt. lake. secondof separate andEPC a substantial second separate access), ponds and a substantial lake.

Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, double garage Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, double garage and detached one bedroom annexe. Equestrian and detached one bedroom annexe. Equestrian potential.

EPC Exempt potential. EPC Exempt Country && Village ce 01245 Country VillageOffi Office 01245397475 397475

Country & Village Office 01245 397475

Fryerning Essex Little Baddow, Chelmsford CM3 Guide Price £3,850,000

Guide priceEssex £975,000 Fryerning A striking five double bedroom, four reception Grade II This quintessential, Grade II listed 15th century Hall Guide Price £3,850,000 listed period property thought to date back 500 years.

House is situated on an idyllic and elevated plot

This charming residence is originally thought to be 3

overlooking rolling countryside to reception the front and a A striking five double bedroom, four Grade II cottages, now providing a fantastic flow of interesting beautifully craftedthought manmade lake toback the rear.

The listedand period property to date 500 years. extensive familyof living space overwell twopresented floors. The property comprises spacious, This charming residence isfour originally thought to be 3 7.5 acre plot comprises formal grounds mixed bedrooms with two large reception rooms on the cottages, now providing apaddocks fantastic(benefitting flow of interesting sympathetically with from a ground floor. Externally the property benefits and extensive family living space over two floors.from The second separate ponds a plot substantial being situated onaccess), a generous andand rural of circalake.

3.5 7.5 acre plot comprises formal grounds mixed Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, double garage acres (STLS) that also offers two versatile outbuildings, sympathetically with paddocks (benefitting from a and detached one bedroom annexe.and Equestrian currently being used as a workshop cart lodge, potential.

EPCaccess), Exempt second separate ponds andthe a substantial however, STPP, these could offer potential forlake.

Numerous outbuildings, tennis doubleEPC garage ancillary accommodation at court, the property.

Exempt. and detached one bedroom annexe. Equestrian Country &&Village Country VillageOffice Office01245 01245397475 397475 potential.

EPC Exempt

Country Village Office 01245 397475 Sales •&Lettings • Mortgages Beresford.indd 157 Sales • Lettings • Mortgages

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REAA

8 Kotahi Avenue, Hamilton, New Zealand $1,710,000 NZD Past Traditions Entwine... ... with modern living. In an age of mass production, it's exciting to find something refreshingly different. Not only does this private property have the hallmark of originality, it has location and views. Situated down an exclusive - almost hidden - central city lane, it enjoys the select company of other fine homes. Sitting proudly on a sunny, manicured 1272sqm site, this stately residence overlooks leafy tree-tops and the Waikato River. The craftsman's art is manifest here, the detailing superb, but the home's not stuck in a time-warp. www.8kotahi.nz Kerry Hopper Residential Sales Consultant (64) 21 984 173 kerry.hopper@lugtons.co.nz www.kerryhopper.nz | www.lugtons.co.nz

2149 River Road, Hamilton, New Zealand $3,800,000 - $4,250,000 NZD Unrivalled Riverside Estate Occupying a blissfully peaceful 9030m² riverside site, this demand River Road North property delivers the creme-de-la-creme of lifestyle living. The main homestead & boatshed quietly nestle in the park-like oasis, each intuitively crafted to seamlessly interact with the beautiful, established environs. The 505m² country home has recently undergone substantial renovations, now delivering modern functionality whilst still retaining its timeless elegance & charm. The private landscaped environment of resort quality, takes recreation to the next level with an array of outstanding facilities. The property offers resort-like features including the heated salt water pool & spa, play ground and flood-lit Astro turf tennis court. Cocooned in the landscaped gardens overlooking the tennis court is the boatshed, a 180m² fully selfcontained ancillary that enjoys a tranquil niche setting of its own.

Kerry Hopper Residential Sales Consultant (64) 21 984 173 kerry.hopper@lugtons.co.nz www.kerryhopper.nz | www.lugtons.co.nz

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Hill Valley Farm

Lifestyle, Privacy and Eco Sensitive Less than 30 minutes from Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia A lifestyle property with plenty of room for all your family and their friends!

AUD $3,300,000 (Approx: £1,725,000 or US$2,230,000)

This magnificent rural property of 175 acres is located in a very private north facing valley less than 30 minutes from Coffs Harbour New South Wales or 6 hours from Sydney. Hill Valley Farm gives you and your family the opportunity of a secluded rural lifestyle with no neighbours, no noise and an income.

Built to the highest standard, the main residence is a superbly constructed, architect designed Eco-residence built all on the one level. Surrounded by established native and sub-tropical gardens with mountain views and an incredible sandstone escarpment backdrop.

Overlooking an enormous lake, each of the 4 cottages comes with kitchen, laundry, timber floors and large covered deck.

The property also includes large equipment shed with concrete floor, kitchenette and bathroom. Included in the sale are a tractor with implements, mulcher, excavator, log splitter machine, Polaris Ranger, Polaris quad bike, Kazuma 4X4, Hammerhead 250cc and all equipment and tools.

There is a 61 Megalitre license, another two dams, 200 established macadamia trees, huge steel shed plus macadamia machinery.

WIWO includes - All farm plant and equipment, farm animals plus all cottages fully furnished including linen and appliances.

There is also a very private 100 acre property with 4 bedroom home adjoining this property for sale for AUD$900,000.

Key features include: • Substantial master bedroom with large walk in wardrobe and ensuite bathroom • Spacious office, two double bedrooms, stylish bathroom and adjoining rumpus room or additional living space • Huge open plan living area with stunning angled ceilings and hardwood flooring • Wonderfully planned kitchen has high quality appliances throughout and overlooks the undercover entertaining area • Separate guest wing with two large bedrooms, bathroom and all weather entertaining area • Four superbly constructed, solar powered, self-contained fully furnished two bedroom cottages • Huge rainwater storage plus off the grid solar system Peter Stone

Managing Director Real Estate of Distinction 1 / 4 First Avenue Sawtell, NSW 2452 Australia Mobile: +61.413.111.621 Office TEL: +61.2.6658.4700 Peter@reod.com.au www.reod.com.au

For further information on this fabulous property please review on the link here; http://sawtell.reod.com.au/19776355

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hamptons.co.uk

Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

An impressive six bedroom country house with accommodation over three storeys, and beautiful views across the Misbourne Valley. EPC: C

£3,250,000 Freehold • • • • • •

Built in 2008 High specification with great attention to detail Master bedroom suite with a balcony Surrounded by gardens and dry stone wall terracing Bespoke kitchen with granite work surfaces 25 miles from Central London

Hamptons Gerrards Cross Sales. 01753 415 257 | gerrardsx@hamptons-int.com

2327 HAM Country Hamptons.indd 1 & Townhouse Magazine 2pp Advert June 2019 v2.indd 1

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Celebrating 150 years of shared moments

01753 415 257 | sales@hamptons-int.com | hamptons150.co.uk

2327 HAM Country Hamptons.indd 2 & Townhouse Magazine 2pp Advert June 2019 v2.indd 2

16/04/2019 10:02 12:26 29/04/2019

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