On Wednesday met up with Susan Jenkins, curator of Apsley House, that remarkable home of the Duke of Wellington, also known as No 1 London: it is a wonderful rich confection, curiously masculine and full of wonderful paintings. It is probably the best Regency interior you can visit in London. The family still have apartments there.
As we prepare to move our offices I find myself glancing at old volumes before they are packed away; there is so much to distract anyone with any curiosity.
I used to dream of being a book dealer, but I would have spent all my time reading and not sold much I expect. I am saddened by how many of the cranky old bookshops I loved as a boy have disappeared. What do people do on wet afternoons in town these days: get wet and spend too much money I expect. Thank goodness for our man on the Cambridge market stall. I got a great H.E.Bates last week, read it all by midnight!
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If heaven is on earth, it might be in this home with a converted chapel that is now a swimming pool5 Wood Barton Town House is part of an exclusive 80-acre development in Devon that also comes with fishing rights on the River Avon and four bedrooms.
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An Italian-inspired recipe for lemon-butter pasta shells with spring greens, ricotta and pangrattatoSpring greens are just about to come into their own, so our Kitchen Garden columnist reveals exactly what to do with them.
