Uplifting stories for difficult times

Needing a weekend escape from their busy lives and stressful careers in London, designer Caroline Holdaway and her photographer partner, Fatimah Namdar, relish the peace and quiet of their eighteenth-century cottage in the Cotswolds. We revisit this story from 2019.

Jane Sacchi recounts the experience of updating a twelfth-century tower in Italy, originally restored by her architect husband Bruno in the Seventies

In this archive story from 2015, we recount how, thirty years on from a life-changing meeting with the man who was to become her husband, the Scottish-born Amelie, Duchesse de Magenta, remained at the helm of the Château de Sully in Burgundy

A mother-and-daughter design duo has taken an unconventional approach to the conversion of a sixteenth-century convent in Tuscany, filling the rooms with objects and artworks of their own making.

Stephen and Jeany Cronk have left London behind and built a welcoming family house in a Provençal village, where they have fulfilled their dream of becoming successful winemakers.

More than a decade after inheriting their Perthshire estate, James and Caroline Inchyra have realised its full potential, turning this bustling family home into the setting for three thriving business ventures

Catherine FitzGerald and her husband Dominic West have rescued her family home, Glin Castle in Ireland, from being sold, and made it into a viable commercial concern.

After a five-year search for a property in Sicily, Jon Moslet and Marco Scire discovered the abandoned Rocca delle Tre Contrade on the east coast, and set about turning it into the welcoming and relaxing holiday home it is today

Searching for a project, author and designer Paul Golding fell in love with a neglected Maltese palazzo, which he has now carefully restored and subtly modernised to enhance its eighteenth-century glories

Jenifer Goulding meets classic-boat enthusiast and creative talent Katie Fontana, whose love of pure craftsmanship and aesthetic simplicity resulted in the bespoke kitchen design company Plain English

At Knepp Castle in Sussex, conservation pioneers Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell have abandoned industrial farming practices and allowed nature to take over their 3,500-acre estate, with remarkable results.

Although he has homes in Milan and Tangier, it is Rohuna, his house in the Moroccan countryside, that epitomizes the diversity of Umberto Pasti’s interests – including gardening, writing and collecting beautiful things

Just across the river from the Dominican Republic holiday home of her childhood, Kyra Montagu has created a very different haven of calm and simplicity, with a focus on spirituality and holistic living in harmony with its Caribbean setting.

Printmaker Cameron Short approaches all of his creative projects with passion and a reverence for the countryside - from his beautiful lino prints depicting rural myths and traditions, to his faithfully restored Georgian home and workshop in west Dorset.