Country Life 29-Dec-2021

YOU can rely on COUNTRY LIFE to have all the news. Here’s everything you need to know about what will happen in 2022. January The booster-jab queue in Stow-on-the-Wold enters Guinness World Records for the longest Auld Lang Syne chain link as people desperately try to keep warm in Storm Caleb. February Record snowfall in the Highlands leads to Scotland’s first skiing World Cup, but the medal ceremony is blighted by an undignified snowball fight between separatists and unionists. March The Hare Appreciation Society protests in Whitehall to demand that the March Hare be re-cast in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as Lepus sensibilis, a model of sobriety: ‘We might have issues, but we’re not mad.’ April Boris Johnson pulls off a brilliant April Fool by entering the House of Commons with a Brylcreemed parting and jacket properly done…

OUR anniversary story begins in 1322, when Thomas, Earl of Lancaster was defeated by the unpopular Edward II at the Battle of Boroughbridge in modern-day North Yorkshire. It was 700 to 4,000 in the royal favour and the rebels, hemmed in by the River Ure, didn’t stand a chance. Lancaster was beheaded and later venerated almost as a martyr; Edward was deposed five years later. Before he had the chance to offend anybody, a nine-month-old baby became Henry VI, 600 years ago. A century later, 42 fully-grown men were the first to circumnavigate the globe aboard Victoria, a Spanish carrack, and when the Palace of Whitehall, built by a much larger Henry (VIII), burnt down in 1698, the only architectural survivor was Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House, which opened 400 years ago…

ROLLING through as flowers bloom, the Plant Fairs Roadshow kicks off among snowdrops at Hole Park, Kent, on February 13, 2022, followed by tulips at Arundel Castle in West Sussex on April 24. Colourful May and June are particularly busy months and first-time venues this year are London’s Myddleton House (May 22), Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex (above, June 6) and Sissinghurst in Kent (September 18). ‘It’s wonderful to get the chance to work alongside some of the very best growers and nursery people in the UK; to pool our resources, collaborate and take our plants on the road so that members of the public can learn more about what we grow here in the UK and also get the chance to take specialist plants home with them,’ comments co-ordinator Colin…

IT may be a famous tearjerker, but, like most Disney adaptations, the 1942 film version of Bambi is far removed from the original story. Published in 1923, Austrian-Jewish writer Felix Salten’s environmental novel was intended for an adult audience and was adapted for both ballet and stage. Now, a new translation by Prof Jack Zipes presents a truer version of the allegorical tale (Bambi is not a prince and I’m afraid Thumper and Flower do not feature at all), with original drawings by award-winning artist Alenka Sottler and an introduction that explores how the book has been received and the life of its author Salten, a hunter who loved animals. The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest is published on January 18 (£20; Princeton University Press).…

THE hedge is Britain’s greatest nature reserve, almost certainly our ancestors’ greatest contribution to wildlife in this country. As I learned recently at Highgrove from The Prince of Wales, who was hosting the National Hedgelaying Society Patron’s Day event, some hedges are more than 1,000 years old. Hedgelaying is an art, but, instead of a painter’s blank canvas, it begins with an unkempt bundle of plants, from prickly blackthorn to supple hazel, all heading in every direction possible. The skill is to turn this living chaos into living order, which both improves the stock-keeping qualities of the fence and causes the hedge to regenerate itself as Nature’s great host. However, not all hedgelaying is the same—there are more than 30 different styles in the UK alone, each distinct to an area and…

THE last Town Mouse of the year is always difficult. That’s because, although it’s printed after Christmas, the copy must go to press beforehand. It’s necessary, therefore, to look beyond the events of the moment—which usually furnish this column with material—and try to capture in advance the mood of the dying days of the year after the excitement of Christmas Day. By that time, the family is usually in full holiday mode, deliciously conscious that no email needs to be read, that there are no deadlines to be met and no homework to be done. This year, the feat of imagination of thinking forward is made yet more complicated by the fact that —at the time of writing—it really isn’t clear what’s going to be happening at Christmas, let alone afterwards.…