Season’s GReetings

Henry VIII is one of the most famous monarchs - in his 38-year reign he married six times, broke with the Catholic Church, and ruled during one of the most politically tumultuous periods in England’s history. When the 18-year-old Henry VIII ascended the throne of England in 1509, he was determined to epitomise the age as a Golden Renaissance Prince. His reign marked the shift from the medieval period to

Most gardeners would happily admit that their garden was born of passion, of an intense desire to create something beautiful that excited interest, brought peace, and calmed the soul. And yet the very word passion is a multi-faceted concept. From the Greek word for suffering, it implies a strong or even a barely controlled emotion – a disorientation of the mind, of the soul.

Last weekend, the small, former Soviet Republic of Georgia—a country of 3.7m people whose territory lies within the tectonic folds between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus Mountains—held parliamentary elections. The result was victory for the ruling “Georgian Dream” party founded by the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili in 2012,

With the 250th birthday of the United States on the horizon in 2026, there’s never been a better time to visit the key sites of America’s War for Independence. It all began in Boston in the early 1760s when colonists there began agitating for better treatment by the British government, soon kickstarting a mass movement across 13 colonies up and down the East Coast to press for complete independence

“Scotland is a land of mountains, glens, and islands, a land of myth and legend”. So wrote Sir Walter Scott and indeed, with its untamed natural beauty, from the deep lochs of the highlands to the vast green meadows of the lowlands, and the rugged Hebridean Isles, Scotland has an almost ethereal quality. Just as the unique terrain captures the imagination, so too do the cairns and ancient stone henges

The great cities of Samarkand and Bukhara flaunt their magnificent Timurid architecture, whilst remote Khiva beguiles the Silk Road traveller. For many travellers, Uzbekistan holds the very heart of the Central Asian Silk Road. Its three main historical centres – Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva – all resonate deeply with the weight of history