Octavia Pollock takes a look at the magnificent Welsh coastal landscape of The Gower Peninsula, whose tales are as eye-opening as its beauty.
Adare Manor is no-expense-spared labour of love created by a billionaire owner — and it makes a wonderful weekend away, as Octavia Pollock discovered.
'Once, the BBC was filming here and the penguins would take apart the equipment and run away with it, always the most expensive bits.'
‘They know we’d never take them anywhere dangerous. They trust us so much.'
‘The louder people cheer, the faster they go. It gets faster and faster all week – or my nerves get worse!’
‘In my left-leaning youth, they would attend meetings, but my comrades voted to remove them. That was when I realised my time there was up – the chickens were very concerned about the Albanian question!’
Adrian Graham is passionate about his pets, which can live for up to 250 years and grow to the size of a rather tall man.
If you're looking to get into shooting, a series of lessons is the place to start —as Octavia Pollock has been finding out at the Cowdray Estate's Hownhall shooting school.
Octavia Pollock had never so much as held a gun before she decided to try clay pigeon shooting — she headed down to the Cowdray Estate's Hownhall Shooting School to give it a go.
Affectionate and loving he may be, but small-clawed otter Rudi has a purpose.
Octavia Pollock visits Camilla Naprous of The Devil’s Horsemen to find out more about the horses they train for film.
On estates such as Balmoral, The Queen’s home in Aberdeenshire, tough and shaggy Highland ponies are vital members of the stalking team when it comes to bringing deer off the hill. Octavia Pollock found out more.
Matthew Parris, the MP-turned-journalist/political commentator, keeps pet llamas at his home in Derbyshire. He spoke to Octavia Pollock.
Watching a polo match will give anyone who loves riding an urge to try it for themselves — Octavia Pollock went to the Cowdray Estate to give it a go.
Elephants may look prehistoric but they’re sophisticated, says the Duke of Bedford. He spoke to Octavia Pollock.
Pietra dura – the art of creating images by cutting stones and fitting them into a jigsaw of shapes – flowered under the Florentine Medicis, but there’s only one man in Britain creating these precious-stone mosaics today: Thomas Greenaway.
Once the first set of books required in any home library, encyclopedias have long since been superseded by the internet. But rather extraordinarily there is still a market for them, as Octavia Pollock finds out.
Every year, millions of people across Britain will chuckle their way through a pantomime featuring a man playing the main female role, and usually a girl playing the lead male role. How it came to be so is a fascinating tale.
Octavia Pollock takes a trip to Cheltenham to experience the best that this equestrian retreat has to offer.
