Leigh Lawson has embraced acting and poetry with the same determination that sustained Marie Lloyd, the music-hall queen whose memorabilia he collects, as Carla Passino discovers

When I entered the world of snowdrops over 30 years ago, I quickly came into contact with some formidable female galanthophiles. They often wore hats and they nearly always had a silver snowdrop brooc

It took Sarah Biddulph a while to work up to tackling the long borders at Rodmarton Manor. Not just because of their sheer size, but also because they are the centrepiece of an Arts & Crafts garden th

I WOKE up after a vivid dream of Eleanor. I’d had quite a few recently. Eleanor was my half-sister. She was older than me – the daughter of Dad’s first wife, Dorrie. My mum only found out he had a fir

WOULD you look at the man!” Maggie said. She wasn’t much to look at herself, being as black as sin from the coal dust. She’d just finished a shift at the colliery screens, picking lumps of coal out of

THE Janus Inn’s sign swung ominously in the gathering wind as Mairi and her bundle stood outside. Waiting for the coachman to appear, she looked towards the stout, ancient building, glad of the carous