Lotte Brundle

2 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Lotte Brundle

Exotic. Secluded. Romantic. These were the words I thought of when I pictured a private island. No longer. Now, only one word springs to mind. Reminiscent of the legendary businesswoman and media personality Gemma Collins, Stansted airport and, of course, the eponymous Joey: Essex. Yes, Osea Island, a private island in the estuary of the River Blackwater, near Maldon in Essex, is for sale.

2 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Lotte Brundle

Tulips stretching towards the sun, newborn lambs shyly mustering their first ‘bleat’, evenings that stay light past 4pm. With spring presenting signs of new life everywhere, what better month than May to get your creative juices flowing? Luckily, London Craft Week is just around the corner, to help you scratch that artistic itch. Be it sculpture, painting or photography, with more than 400 events there is something for everyone, young or old, at the city-wide festival.

3 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Lotte Brundle

Do you dream of a lavish postcode? How about the most expensive, the most coveted and the most enviable of all of London’s elite? If you do, dream no longer, as The Sunday Times, revealed last month that the postcode in question begins with N2. Unsurprisingly, Britain’s most expensive road is in London. To be more precise, it is on Winnington Road, located among the iconic greenery of Hampstead; home to the likes of John Keats, Sigmund Freud, Elizabeth Taylor and Helena Bonham-Carter.

3 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Lotte Brundle

Imagine a world without swagger. An arrogant man would walk confidently and without shame and he would simply… walk. Or without blushing. When your office crush complimented you on a particularly chic outfit, what would you do then? Now, picture a world without courtship. Yes. It is almost too frightful to imagine. Luckily, you don’t have to live like this — you can swagger around courting whoever you fancy while blushing to your heart's content. But only because the First Folio was published.

3 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Lotte Brundle

What do you picture when you think of Hampstead? Perhaps the Heath, with its sprawling woodland and meadows. It’s easy to see how it inspired C. S. Lewis to conjure up the mythical surroundings of his cowardly Mr Tumnus and merciless White Witch in his 1950 children’s novel, The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. Maybe you think of Keats House — the grand regency building and home of the poet from 1818 to 1820.