The articles on this page are examples of work I did during the time that I was employed as Deputy Editor of
Move to the Country magazine. I worked there for about a year, since the first issue launched in the summer of 2006. It was an interesting, exciting, often hectic and sometimes frightening year. I was responsible for writing, editing and commissioning 30-35 pages a month (including all picture sourcing and research), subbing, proofing, recruitment, laying out articles, writing advertising copy and of course fully supporting the editor.
Prior to taking on this full-time position, I freelanced for various Aceville nationals including Period Ideas and Grow Your Own.
I've also written regularly for the major regional titles Cambridge Agenda and East since 2005.
"If there's one thing that brings us together as a country, it's a cup of tea. We celebrate with it; we commiserate with it. We use it to perk ourselves up and to calm ourselves down. Tea cements friendships and working relationships, bridges generation gaps and spans the class divide. George Orwell described it as one of the "mainstays of civilisation" and Henry Fielding noted its curious habit of popping up in every significant social event, quipping "love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea". On average, we drink three cups of the stuff a day - no one would deny it's been a national institution for as long as anyone can remember. And, at the moment, it's enjoying a huge renaissance. Perhaps we're more health-conscious, perhaps the simplicity of boiled water and dried leaves is a welcome antidote to the complicated pressures of modern life. Whatever the reason, tills are ringing in villages across the country, as afternoon teas are doing a roaring trade. The Hazelmere Cafe and Bakery in Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria was crowned the Tea Guild's Top Tea Place 2006 and owners Dorothy and Ian Stubley serve long queues most weekends. Small but charming, the Hazelmere has just 50 covers but can easily serve up to 300 afternoon teas a day during the summer. For once, the accusations typically levelled at our country's cuisine don't stick: in nearly four hundred years we haven't forgotten how to make a great brew, but actually seem to be getting better at it. The Tea Council described the cup they enjoyed at Hazelmere as "out of this world".
"Having a picnic in a field on a sunny spring day, as lambs gambol around us, it's easy to imagine that the meat in our sandwiches once a truly joyful creature. And perhaps it was - but we no longer have to leav these things to chance; there are now ways to be certain. If we make a point of buying from organic suppliers, produce markets and local butchers, we're diverting our custom away from unhealthy, unethical mass production. Overcrowding presents a prime breeding ground for disease, and animals on factory farms are fed a cocktail of drugs which remain in their bodies and can be passed on to the people who eat them. This is such a serious hazard to human health that the World Health Organisation has suggested eliminating the practice. Supporting humane farming practices needs to be a conscious decision, but the rewards far outweigh the small effort. Many suppliers are happy for you to ask questions before you buy, but be prepared for the chance that watched the unfettered delight of week-old piglets having their first adventures in the farmyard might just put you off your pork chops. Nestling in clean straw, munching vegetarian feed. their undocked tails wiggling happily as they guzzle their mother's milk, these creatures, as even the most cynical carnivore would have to agree, are the very definition of happy. There was a time when carnivores ate everything with a pulse, and vegetarians were seen as sensitive souls with anaemia. But the gap between the two is beginning to close."
"As with all the best stories, Hidcote's tale began with something of a scandal. In 1907, Gertrude Winthrop, a wealthy divorcee, fled her home in the American south in search of a quiet life in the Cotswolds. She identified the 300 acre farm (including a small hamlet) as a place for herself and her son Lawrence to start afresh, and as somewhere, perhaps, that the 36 year old could finally find himself a wife. Lawrence Johnston started the incredible gardens that we can enjoy, relatively unchanged, today. Born in Paris to an American stock broking family, he was an international man with a thirst for culture. Johnston embraced the British lifestyle, took up citizenship in order to fight in the Boer War, and even graduated from Cambridge. To his mother's chagrin, perhaps, he never married or had a family. Instead, the gardens at Hidcote became his life's work. It certainly presented some challenges. Selected for its prestigious location rather than anything else, the estate's sprawling grounds were something of a burden at first. It was clear that a great deal of work would have to be done. But all this was happening in the peak of the arts and crafts movement and the creative spirit that defined the age wasn't going to be suppressed by minor obstacles. Ambitious from the start, Johnston was interested in transforming the fields around the manor house into an orderly garden, and by 1910 had begun to lay out the key features. The bathing pool garden was one of the first major projects to be completed, and by 1920 even larger creations had begun to take shape."
"Imagine stepping out of bed and feeling warm, smooth tiles beneath your feet. Or, early on a spring morning, taking your tea on a sleek cool patio, listening to the dawn chorus. Stone feels natural underfoot and radiates calm wherever it's laid. Sophisticated yet rustic, terracotta flagstones are guaranteed to capture everyone's imagination and prove an elegant talking point. They're also beautifully practical, of course, and look as enchanting in the kitchen of a new home as they do under the gables of an ancient farmhouse. Joss Thomas has known all this since 1998, when he came across some particularly captivating terracotta, hand-crafted on a mountainside in Andalusia. The stone was so striking, in fact, that it inspired Joss to start his own company, Indigenous. From small beginnings, the range now includes terracotta, slate and stone tiles in a wealth of textures and tones, as well as stone baths, hand basins and glass tiles. There's a strong emphasis on the natural and hand-made, from china black slate sourced from the Snowdonia foothills to warm, honey-toned terracotta baked in the Mediterranean sun."
