August/September 2020

Discover Britain

Showcasing the best of the British Isles.

Discover Britain1 min read
Welcome!
When I first read Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island some 25 years ago, it had a profound effect on the way I thought about Britain. Written by the American author as he made a lap of honour before returning home, his outsider perspective remind
Discover Britain1 min read
Letters
With great sadness and joy, I received my latest issue of Discover Britain. Sadness, because I had to cancel my planned three-week trip to the UK due to the current pandemic. Great joy, because I can virtually enjoy visiting Great Britain via the won
Discover Britain1 min read
Discover Britain
Group Editor Steve Pill Production Editor Jenny Rowe Creative Director Chloë Collyer Art Editor Clare White Managing Director Sales & Create Steve Ross Group Advertising Manager Natasha Syed Senior Sales Executive Sam Evanson Chairman Paul Dobson Pub
Discover Britain3 min read
Wish You Were Here...
With England’s summer season of flower shows, regattas, festivals and more all largely postponed this year in light of the global lockdown, a new photography book arrives as a timely reminder of our nation’s curious approach to having fun. Trivial Pu
Discover Britain5 min read
NATIONAL Treasures
In 1895, Octavia Hill noted proudly, “We have got our first piece of property”, adding: “I wonder if it will be the last.” Little could she and her two co-founders of the National Trust have foreseen that 125 years on from that first acquisition – fi
Discover Britain6 min read
LITTLE Acorns
The temptation when travelling is to be ambitious and make the most of your vacation time. Aim too high, however, and you can barely scratch the surface of a place. The best advice is often to think small – and no county in England is more compact th
Discover Britain2 min read
My Britain
Thomas Gresham Green started Cornishware almost a hundred years ago. He acquired our first factory in Stoke-on-Trent when he was on his honeymoon – something my husband would do! I often visit the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent for work. I’m always mes
Discover Britain4 min read
Little Britain
While pedants might claim that the tiniest police station proper in the British capital is actually a conventional yet modest building on Pinner’s Waxwell Lane, we’re happy to instead bend the rules a little on this one – not least because while Traf
Discover Britain5 min read
Laughing STOCK
The BBC’s historical comedy series Blackadder was not known for sparing its muses, yet Hugh Laurie’s invincibly stupid Prince Regent came off worse than most. The future King George IV describes himself as “thick as whale omelette”, thus cementing hi
Discover Britain5 min read
Orwell’s ISLAND
One mustn’t take George Orwell at face value. He is feted as one of Britain’s greatest writers of the early 20th century, yet he was actually a worldly writer, born Eric Arthur Blair in India, the son of a British official in the Indian civil service
Discover Britain1 min read
George’s England
• Orwell lived all over London, including at Notting Hill (22 Portobello Road), Islington (27b Canonbury Square) and Hampstead (77 Parliament Hill). His only English Heritage blue plaque is at 50 Lawford Road,›Kentish Town, where he lived for six mon
Discover Britain1 min read
Discover London
Visitor attractions across the British capital will be opening their doors once more as the lockdown is eased this summer, at least for now. Leading the way rather suitably is Hampton Court Palace, which was often used as a country retreat by the not
Discover Britain9 min read
London’s best SHORT WALKS
Belgravia is an affluent district of central London which is enjoying its time in the spotlight following the recent TV adaptation of Julian Fellowes’ novel Belgravia. We begin this guided walk at Sloane Square tube station. Immediately next door is
Discover Britain5 min read
Ada Lovelace
The equation that birthed Ada, Countess Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer, was far from perfect. Her parents, poet Lord George Gordon Byron and his first and only wife Lady Anne Isabella Byron, née Milbanke and nicknamed Annabella, were
Discover Britain3 min read
24 Hours In… ST DAVIDS
With a population of little more than 1,800 people, a centre that one could walk across in less than 10 minutes, and most routes toward it being little more than narrow country lanes, St Davids will come as a shock to visitors whose experience of a “
Discover Britain6 min read
UPSTAIRS, Downstairs
Just imagine for a moment the thrill of arriving at a Rothschild party in the late 19th century. After taking the train out of London through the Chiltern Hills and into the Vale of Aylesbury, guests would transfer to horse-drawn carriage to navigate
Discover Britain3 min read
Monstrous DEPTHS
Loch Ness has drawn tourists, scientists and artists over the centuries, thanks to its expansive landscape, inquisitive wildlife and engaging tales of mystical monsters. The winding roads snaking around the loch appeal to cyclists, and several trails
Discover Britain2 min read
Red Telephone Boxes
It is one of those strange curios of central London that locals can never quite understand. Walk past any of the old red telephone boxes in the city, from Bloomsbury to Covent Garden, and one can almost guarantee to find a happy tourist swinging from
Discover Britain2 min read
5 Places To Visit In Loch Ness
Captured by Edward I in 1296, this prized castle changed hands between the Scots and English on several occasions, before being seized by Robert the Bruce in 1306. From that point onwards Urquhart faced attacks from the MacDonalds, the Lords of the I

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