There may be a chill in the air but Erin Choa is welcoming the special warmth of autumn

SARAH DITUM

THE sun is blazing down from a cloudless blue sky as I arrive at The Myrtles, a historic plantation in the town of St Francisville, Louisiana, around 30 miles north of the city of Baton Rouge. On such

Clear quartz, cold to the touch, but burning to the skin, hinted at great healing and scrying powers, especially when fashioned into a sphere. The Antiques Roadshow jewellery specialist Geoffrey Munn has a talisman of his own

1 SALUTING MAGPIES This centuries-old practice is still common across the British isles in rural and urban communities alike. The magpie is commonly associated with death – perhaps because, legend say

In a John Behan bronze, collector Jacqueline O’Donovan, a child of the Irish diaspora, can sense the desperation of a starving people forced to flee their land