‘that golden thread, and a zest for life’

David Barker’s skills as a horseman were equalled by his proficiency when carrying the horn, Alastair Jackson explains in the latest of his series about great huntsmen he knew personally

Two views of the same country

Can you hunt hounds and race-ride? How compatible are the two sports – and can you fit both in? Tessa Waugh finds out

● In the arena of storytelling, there’s power ...

When I was a child, we had a tortoise called Winnie who had belonged to my father when he was a boy in the 1950s. He called his pet Winston after Churchill, but this name had to be changed when he dis

Does the abundance of rowan berries really forecast snowy days and a hard winter, muses Tessa Waugh , as a home meet draws people of all ages, stages and pre-dawn routines