In the latest of his occasional series on greatest huntsmen he knew personally, Alastair Jackson recounts the life of the popular Sidney Bailey, who hunted the VWH for four decades

From a milliner inspired by topiary to a model-turned-ecological gardener and a couple who swapped jobs in telecommunications for growing vegetables, Sir David Beckham’s rural heroes tell Julie Harding why craft and the countryside are key

No horse to look after, a multi-generational community, great exercise and it costs peanuts. Tessa Waugh extols the joy of hunting with the “jelly dogs”

Above: Fast food: lunch only briefly interrupts driven ...

Unfairly maligned as a sneaky troublemaker, the quicksilver ferret is a characterful, curious and highly intelligent creature–with fascinating regal and cultural trappings to boot, writes Octavia Pollock

Bob Cooper of Macclesfield, Cheshire remembers: From an early age, I have always loved reading and writing. My best subject at school was English to the detriment of maths, and I managed to become top