Some things are universal—or nearly so–and show up in every culture. Chicken soup is one of them, even if the “chicken” in the soup is some other variety of fowl. Gardens are another. The urge to garden has remained strong through civilization’s many travails, including wars, natural disasters, dislocation and urbanization. The deliberate cultivation … Read more
Italian writer Andrea di Robilant has long been a man in search of the past. He mined a rich vein of family history in Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon, the 2008 biography of his ancestor Lucia Mocenigo, a late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Venetian aristocrat and friend of the French … Read more
We Americans like to put our own stamp on things. Most Chinese food served in the U.S. would be unrecognizable to a person newly arrived from China. The same is true of a good many “English teas” I have enjoyed over the years. The food may be delicious, but the comestibles and the experience are … Read more
Alan Titchmarsh is quintessentially English, from his last name to his loves—gardening, dogs, country life and the Queen. Best known to Americans from the imported gardening makeover series, Ground Force, Titchmarsh is a celebrity in Britain. He hosts the BBC’s round the clock coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show every year, has written numerous garden … Read more
