England

Exclusive guide to the best holiday destinations in England, independent reviews from award-winning travel writers

Oakwood

Ford Farm cheeses. Smoked cheese has never tasted so good.

You can shout about cheese all you want to because let’s face it with so much choice around we all have our favourite types. Some cheese snobs might argue you can’t beat a strong stilton, a runny brie or a creamy camembert, but sorry cheese snobs you most surely can. England can proudly boast a fine cheese-making heritage and you won’t find a better example than Ford Farm cheeses. And in particular its smoked cheese range.

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The French Horn ducks on the spit

THE FRENCH HORN. SONNING-ON-THAMES

There are hotels and restaurants which continually fall over themselves to update their rooms and menus – and many others whose loyal clientèle tells them: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Judging by the packed dining room on a rainy midweek afternoon out of season, The French Horn has wisely decided to adopt the latter course.

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Flemings Mayfair Hotel. London.

Half Moon Street is like many others of its kind in London’s Mayfair; a row of fabulous Georgian town houses lining both sides of it. However, take a stroll through the front entrance of Flemings Mayfair Hotel and you’ll experience something quite different. Something unlike any of its neighbours. Almost as if you’ve suddenly warped into a different dimension.

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Seven Park Place by William Drabble. London

Tucked away in a cul-de-sac in London’s Mayfair, lies a Georgian town house with a hell of a history. The St. James’s Hotel and Club has been the haunt of the rich and famous for over 150 years from Churchill to Sean Connery. But tucked away inside the tucked away hotel is a success story that has taken just 12 months to emerge; Seven Park Place by William Drabble.

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Executive room home

St. James’s Hotel and Club. London

I love a bit of history, and walking up to the front entrance of the St.James’s Hotel and Club (which ironically began as a Travellers Club for diplomats back in 1857), I reminded myself of all the previous owners and former members of this fine piece of luxury Georgian real estate in the heart of London’s Mayfair. Ian Fleming, Winston Churchill and in 1980 Peter De Savary and his show biz investors: Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Tim Rice, Dudley Moore, Liza Minelli and Pete Townsend. Heady days.

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Glamping at Elephant Lodge. Port Lympne Wild Animal Park

It is a little after 5pm and I am surrounded by giraffes. Rothschild Giraffes no less, the tallest land animals on earth. Under the circumstances, you would be forgiven for thinking I am in the Serengeti, or the Maasai Mara perhaps, but you would be wrong, because this is Kent, the garden of England and I am having a ball glamping at Elephant Lodge in the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park

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