It can lower stress, treat depression and open up a whole new world of outdoor-going opportunities so could you learn to love the cold? We spoke to converts whose lives have been shaped by embracing winter

Whether on Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, or the big day itself, Christmas swims are a festive tradition for many. With cold water ‘wild swimming’ on the rise, many long-running dips have seen numbers sw

● A couple of miles inland from the ...

Cold water swimmer & cancer survivor

D oubled over and holding on for dear ...

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through-lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel