I began to see the beauty in the feathers

AMELIA arrives home from her half-day at work. She has the week’s shopping and quickly squirrels everything away, leaving just her children’s magazines on the kitchen table. Seeing she only has three-

Avian plumage doesn’t simply enable flight–this miracle of Nature provides birds with protection, shape and colour and remains a highly desirable fashion accoutrement for us, too, finds Charles Harris

Red kites, great spotted woodpeckers and pink-footed geese are only a few of the birds doing brilliantly in the British Isles right now. Mark Cocker celebrates their success stories and looks at what might be learnt from them

SVEN-ERIK ARNDT/ARTERRA/UNIVERSAL/GETTY ● There was a mallard duck ...

Using an 18th-century wood engraving technique developed for book illustration, Richard Studer enjoys storytelling through his prints

A “hedgerow” cake, a Kirstie Allsopp masterclass and a commission from Fortnum & Mason were the gamechangers for this whimsical artist from North Wales