Get into the festive spirit with a trip to one of England’s most historic cities

Swerve the big-name gardens and put these dynamic alternatives on your must-visit list this year. Chosen by our garden writer Camilla Phelps, they offer plenty of fresh inspiration to bring back to your own plot

Spanning the 1920s to 1970s, Into Abstraction: Modern British Art and the Landscape, at Firstsite in Colchester, examines the evolution of abstract art during periods of sweeping social and political

One Bath location that Jane Austen wrote about – criticising the houses as being too small – is New King Street. Come to number 19, in which several rooms recreate interiors in a typical 18th-century

WITH ITS EXQUISITE LIBRARIES, ECLECTIC BOOKSHOPS AND COSY, STORIED PUBS, THIS CHARMING UNIVERSITY CITY IS IDEAL FOR A LITERARY-THEMED VISIT IN WINTER

A once-in-a-lifetime exhibition celebrating a costume house specialising in period costume for film, television and theatre continues at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London. Costume Couture: Sixty