Sloe Gin Ingredients 450g (1lb) of sloes, give or take 225g (0.5lb) sugar 1 litre (32oz) gin or vodka How to Make Sloe Gin First, wash your sloes and remove any bits of stem, foliage, insects etc. Many people recommend pricking the sloes all over with a fork or needle to let the gin mingle with the juices. Second, put the sloes into a large, sterilised, … Continue reading Simple Sloe Gin Recipe
Dear Readers, This year Christmas will land barely two months after our launch. Nonetheless, we feel obliged as squires and squiresses to offer you some sort of a Christmas Competition and a must-win prize. So, first to The Prize: it’s 20 litres of Devon Red Cider from Sandford Orchards in Crediton. “Bags of fruit and a truly satisfying cider bite delivered in a genuinely quaffable and light balanced … Continue reading Country Squire Christmas Competition
BY VALENTYNA HOLLOWAY If You only knew~ I still hold on to the sunshine You placed in my heart. If You only knew~ The way I linger on bridges, waiting, aching to hear Your approaching footsteps and feel Your hand touch my waist. If You only knew~ How I wait for You as I sip my coffee, in reverent prayer that You will run Your … Continue reading If You Only Knew
EDITORIAL When we came up with the idea of Country Squire Magazine, someone asked what the expected audience might be. Someone in the room was cautious and hoped that maybe we could get five hundred users per day. There was someone a bit braver who mentioned one thousand was possible. “Noooo!” shouted a perennial optimist at the back of the room, “we’ll fill a football … Continue reading Thanks, Dear Readers
VICAR The ladies and gentlemen of this fine publication have given me free rein over Sundays. Instead of attempting to add to the slew of stories in the Sunday newspapers, Country Squire Magazine has decided to reinforce Sunday as a day of rest and, should readers be so inclined, a content catch-up day. Each week I shall be publishing something prayerful on which you can choose, … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN I have promised my wife, who was born in Venezuela, that I’ll retire out there with her. People ask me what the country is like. And this is what I tell them: When you awake out on the ranch – the finca – a waft of sweet mango drifts in from the lines of mango trees on the lawns beside the house. … Continue reading The Venezuelan Paradox
BY ANNA BOWEN 1 You had no idea that the faithful Aga was the pinnacle of middle class aspiration. 2 The Aga was frequently home to both a casserole and a lamb. 3 Christmas morning was an excruciating wait for farm work to be over before you could open presents. 4 It was totally normal to have a flask of frozen semen. 5 Equally you … Continue reading 25 Things You Know If You Grew Up On A Farm
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN David Sole’s Scotland’s 1990 Calcutta Cup defeat of the Auld Enemy before a partisan crowd at Murrayfield Park in Edinburgh was agonising for all Englishmen to watch. Since then, there have been skirmishes won (and a few lost) but none hurt the English so much as that gut-buster of a defeat. I was studying A-Level History at the time and struggled to keep up with … Continue reading What is Scottish?
BY JON ALEXANDER Ever wondered what it’s like in customer services when dealing with awkward customers? The need to remain ever-professional despite extremely testing scenarios and in the face of mounting stupidity? Well here’s a brief description of the “glamorous” side of the job from me – a man that has significant experience. I’ve decided to categorise some of my more troublesome customers over the … Continue reading The Customer is Always Right
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There are some things in life that are obvious. You drop litter – you pick it up. You bump into someone in the street – you apologise. You see someone being bullied – you jump to their aid. Let’s call these actions instances of civilised pragmatism. In general, Brits are a decent and empathetic bunch. We’re civilised and we’re no-nonsense pragmatic. We … Continue reading A Time for Change
MOTHER One of the more amusing details to emerge from the recent Wikileaks / John Podesta email downloads in the US has been a transcript of a private Bill Clinton speech which refers to Britain’s Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn. Podesta is the chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. He previously served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and adviser to … Continue reading Corbyn “Maddest Person in the Room”
BY MIKE TOWERS Whether Hillary Clinton wins or not on Tuesday, it seems evident that the Democratic Party see her now as merely a get-over-the-line candidate. Whether it’s failing health or one of many brewing scandals that does for her, she hardly appears to have the necessary wind in her sails to last more than part of one term as President. This would leave her … Continue reading Rock & Hard Place – The Clintons
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Hearing the high-pitched squeals of some Remainers over recent weeks has been shocking – not just for Leavers but for many Remainers too, who were never die-hard about the referendum in the first place. Suddenly Brits across the land have discovered their inner political animal when, previously, they seemed more bothered about the outcomes of the Six Nations or Strictly. This week’s … Continue reading Premainiacs
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN When Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn holds his rallies, he not only entices the old, battered diehards of Britain’s far-left – those from Militant to the Socialist Workers Party to Left Unity – he also attracts considerable numbers of youthful political virgins, who have never joined a political party before. I have concluded that these people are wandering inadvertently into socialism; swallowing assumptions … Continue reading What Drives Corbyn’s Young Lemmings?
BY VALENTYNA HOLLOWAY Slowly knotting roses into my hair as I sat in the sun when You quietly slid behind me and put Your hand on my waist, startling me, the sharp intake of breath because I could feel You. I turned savouring the feeling of Your hand sliding around my waist. It was the light radiating from You ~ or was it the Sun … Continue reading Along The River
BY JIM BROWNE I have always wondered if sightings of Big Cats in the countryside were real or the result of excitable folk in need of an optician’s appointment mistaking house-moggies for tigers and leopards. I mean, it’s easy enough to make mistakes. On a foggy day, our neighbour in her furry white coat looks like a polar bear. At night, I often mistake the … Continue reading Countryside Big Cats – Fact or Fiction?
BY JAMIE FOSTER Today the High Court handed down its judgment in a challenge to the Government’s right to trigger Article 50 brought by investment manager Gina Miller (pictured). In a case that harks back to the days when powerful nobles used the courts to decide the fates of the people beneath them, Mrs Miller used part of her considerable fortune to challenge the deal … Continue reading Article 50 Challenge – A Fund Manager’s Revenge
First, can we at Country Squire Magazine send out a huge thank-you to our readers for what has been a spectacular and remarkable launch. We sat there on Tuesday and stared at each other in amazement as we hit quadruple viewing figures by lunchtime. Really, that is quite something from a standing start. We did not know what to expect but we have not stopped … Continue reading We Are All Ears
BY JAMIE FOSTER Welcome to Country Squire Magazine, Dear Reader. Our magazine launches today amidst great fanfare. Rural dwellers across these sceptred isles, please raise a glass. This is your new platform which we hope will inform, inspire and entertain you for years to come. Unlike our more established rivals, popping corks at the metropolitan offices of The Field, Countryfile Magazine or Countrylife, we do … Continue reading Country Squire Magazine Launches
BY JAMIE FOSTER Sitting in the South West of England, where the pilgrim fathers set off from in the hope of a new world and the freedom and opportunity it promised, I can only manage a wry smile when I think of where it led them. This land of the free and home of the brave; this country that produced Lincoln, Washington and Reagan. Has … Continue reading Nervous Breakdown USA?
