Create a space just for you

Hoping to carve out a study, nook or understairs hole just for you this weekend? Here’s how.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT LIGHT Sitting in your own pool of light creates a boundary. This, it says, is my area where I do my things. A floor lamp positioned directly over a chair in a corner of the room creates a reading nook. An Anglepoise directed at a desk sends a subliminal ‘I’m busy’ message.

SIT IN A COMFORTABLE CHAIR Essential, whether an enveloping armchair to curl up in with a book, or a proper office chair. Make sure everyone knows it’s your chair and your chair alone, like Martin’s in Frasier.

HAVE A SIDE TABLE AT THE READY A table beside you is necessary to put your things on. These might include a radio, a vase filled with your favourite flowers and, obviously, a mug of tea.

KEEP A BLANKET HANDY Nothing says: ‘I’m enjoying some down time’ like a throw tucked around your legs or across your shoulders.

WELCOME PETS You might not feel the need for human company, but a pet will always be welcome. A cat purring beside a computer as you type, or a dog lying across your feet as you listen to the radio, provides exactly the amount of interaction and affection required.

Read more of Clare Gogerty’s advice on creating a room of one’s own in our November issue. On sale now.

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More from the November issue…

Judith Shakespeare: heroine who never was

A short biography of an imaginary woman we should all get to know a little better

We’ve been hankering after ‘a room of one’s own’ this month. You can read about how to create the perfect R.O.O.O. in the November issue, but one thing’s for sure, a little spot somewhere in the house that is ‘just yours’, whether to glorify in mess, old books and bits of paper, or to keep like your own tiny palace, is a luxury we all would love.

In her essay ‘A Room of One’s Own’, published in 1929, Virginia Woolf asserted that a woman must have “money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. It never stopped JK Rowling, but to be fair she had the advantage of women’s liberation.

To prove her point that in Elizabethan times it would have been impossible for a woman to have written the works of Shakespeare, no matter what her talent, Woolf introduces us to Judith, Shakespeare’s sister. “We thought his sister’s name was Joan?” we hear you cry, as one. Well, yes, it was. No one is quite clear whether Ginny just wanted to jazz her up a bit or if she’d made a mistake. But nonetheless, Judith Shakespeare is the imaginary sister of William who appears in the essay.

She is a clever girl, with all the gifts of her brother but they come to naught: "She was as adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school.” She hides her reading and study for fear of a telling off from her parents and is forced to become engaged at a young age. To avoid a life of domestic drudgery she runs away to become an actress, is roundly ridiculed by all and sundry, falls pregnant by her employer and takes her own life. “She lives in you and in me,” said Woolf, “and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed.”

The sad story of Judith Shakespeare is one of the most famous parts of Woolf’s essay and has inspired all sorts of writers and artists since. Not least, the band Shakespeare’s Sister who named themselves for Judith, and The Smiths, who recorded a song of the same name.

The inspiration we are taking from poor Judith’s short (imaginary) life is that we owe it to our literary fore-sisters to make the effort to find space for a room of our own. Because we’re worth it. Our regular feature, The Comfort of Things, in the November issue has more on how to create your very own ‘room of one’s own’.

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Simple style | Sandals

Summer hasn’t really arrived until you’ve worn your sandals for at least three days in a row. Those odd days when you optimistically whip them out only to have regrettably chilly toes by evening don’t count. The constant wearing of sandals is a surer indicator of summer than the arrival of the first swallow.

Like autumn boots and winter coats, sandals are a key seasonal item. As such, they benefit from a refresh each year: slipping freshly pedicured feet into a brand new pair will put a bounce in anybody’s step. (Providing they don’t rub, of course.) As with any other item of clothing, however, sandals are subject to the vagaries of fashion. We’ve all padded around in Birkenstocks and clopped about in wooden-soled Hasbeens. And which one of us hasn’t got a pair of gladiators, all leather straps and buckles, tucked away at the back of the wardrobe? Salt-water sandals, originally developed for post-war American children in the 1940s from leather scraps, have been the sandal de choix for the past couple of years, and show no sign of disappearing. Neither, unfortunately, do Crocs.

The popularity of flat sandals (high-heeled versions are also available, but do not concern us here) is due to the simple fact that they suit hot weather. By leaving most of the foot exposed, they keep it cool and dry. Feet confined by leather and without ventilation run the risk of Athlete’s Foot or simply becoming unbearably hot. Which is why sandals have always been with us – a pair discovered in Oregon, America, were estimated to be 10,000 years old, the earliest recorded footwear. It is why they were appreciated by Ancient Greeks of high rank who fashioned sandals from willow leaves that fastened up the leg, and by the Ancient Egyptians whose secured theirs with palm leaves and papyrus.

The only downside to wearing a pair of sandals is the state of the feet within. There is nowhere to hide calloused or grubby feet, and wearing socks with sandals although fashionable, is still best avoided. Fortunately, a cheery nail polish combined with a stylish sandal will distract most eyes away from any foot flaws. Nothing should come between you and summer’s essential shoe.

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Reading mindfully | How to quiet your butterfly mind

Book lover and academic Martyn Evans suggests ways to focus when you read

1 Switch your phone to silent or leave it in a different room.
2 Don’t rush ahead in your mind before you reach the end of a sentence.
3 To help remember what you’ve read, engage in debate and discussion. Book clubs are great for this*

• randombookclub.co.uk brings “the thrill of browsing dusty shelves to your doorstep” by delivering a monthly hand-picked book and access to an online forum of book lovers.
• Feminist book club ‘Our Shared Shelf’ is founded by actor Emma Watson in her role as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and includes book recommendations, essays and a reader forum (goodreads.com).

4 Read with a dictionary and a pencil to hand. Look up words you’re not sure of and underline sentences that catch your attention.
5 If a book isn’t working for you, take a break and come back another time.
6 Switch genres as much as possible and keep your reading material varied.
7 Allow yourself an hour or two to get lost in a good bookshop.

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The art of cosiness

When keeping warm can be this much fun, bring on the darker, chillier days

• Although the temptation to lie in bed can feel insurmountable, a walk or yoga class or gentle jog will fire up your circulation and lift your mood. Make sure you have a good hat, warm socks and gloves – treat your extremities well and you’ll be a lot happier within.
• If the house feels chilly, wake up and bake. Kneading and mixing will quickly banish any chills and fill your home with good smells as well as warmth. 
• Make yourself a spicy soup to take to work in the week.
• And finally, get snuggling. Pets are so good for this but if you don’t have one, curl up with a hot water bottle, soft woollen blanket (or willing human).

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Lavender and peppermint bath soak

If you’re in need of a good night’s sleep, the essential oils in this bath soak will leave you feeling extra relaxed, while the naturally therapeutic salts will soothe muscles and comfort irritated skin. Aaaaah. That’s better...

Makes 700g (enough for a week of baths)
600g Epsom salts*
75g sea salt
160g bicarbonate of soda
20 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops peppermint essential oil

Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl and then tip them into a jar or another airtight container. The salts can be stored for up to three months. When you come to use them, pour about 100g into the bath while the water is running. Use your salts as often as you like. For a
truly luxurious experience, sprinkle a few flower heads into the bath.
* Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) have been used for their therapeutic effect on aching joints and muscles for over a century. Used with potassium- and iodine- rich sea salt, these minerals are absorbed directly into the skin and will also help soothe dermatitis and any inflammation. Avoid using if pregnant.

From The Art of the Natural Home by Rebecca Sullivan (Kyle Books).

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Britain's outdoor games

There is little more English than a game of croquet – flamingos and hedgehogs optional. Or for an outdoor game that allows for standing about with a pastis in one had, Pétanque is your pastime

CROQUET
A cross between bowls, billiards and marquee erection, croquet is the feminist’s friend, being the first outdoor sport to allow women and men to play on an equal footing. It’s also an unusual game in that seemingly no one knows the rules, but because whacking balls through hoops with a mallet is such fun, nobody really cares. It’s a game long associated with the upper classes, and you can turn any old patch of grass into the sweeping lawn of a moneyed Victorian simply by having a friend run forward, urgently wave a piece of paper and call “Miss! News from
London, miss”. Remember, period-detail- lovers, attitudes to animal welfare were rather different in Lewis Carroll’s time and, today, use of live flamingos and hedgehogs is generally frowned upon.

PÉTANQUE
Derived from boules, a game traceable back to coin throwing in ancient Greece; Romans refined the concept to aiming at a target and the modern sport began to take shape. Pétanque itself only arrived in 1907, when rheumatic boules ace, Jules Lenoir, could no longer run and throw. Instead, he suggested this: stand inside a circle with both feet on the ground and toss hollow steel balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball, or cochonnet. In contrast to the rolled, lawn-requiring British bowls, this throwing technique makes it the ideal game if your local open space is a little on the uneven side. Indeed, gravel or hard dirt is the customary playing surface. For extra Francophone authenticity, liberally punctuate play with exclamations of “Bof!”, “Très bon!”, “Merde!”, etc.

Turn to page 71 of August’s The Simple Things for more games, including toe wrestling, ping pong and crazy golf.

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Camping recipe | Smoky Boston beans & armadillo potatoes

No flames are required for this comfortingly simple cowboy supper of foil-wrapped herby spuds and a casserole of sweet, smoky beans – all of which is tucked into the hot, white coals to cook.

Serves 4
4 baking potatoes
30g salted butter
Handful of fresh thyme for the beans
1 tbsp olive oil
400g smoked bacon lardons
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
2tsp English mustard powder
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp black treacle
2 x 400g tins haricot beans in water
Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Natural yogurt, to serve

1 Using a sharp knife, cut slits widthways into each potato, working your way along from end to end – be careful to only cut three-quarters of the way down. Rub each potato generously with butter and carefully stuff sprigs of thyme in between some of the slits.
2 Individually wrap each potato in a double layer of foil and place directly on white coals (when the flames have died), for 30–40 mins, turning every 10 mins.
3 Cook the beans in either a Dutch oven* on an open fire or in a large saucepan on a camping stove. Heat the oil over a medium-high heat and add the lardons, frying for 5 mins until they just start to brown. Add the onion and continue to cook until softened.
4 Add garlic, paprika, cumin and mustard powder; stir thoroughly before stirring through the tomato purée and treacle. Add the beans along with the water from their tins, then half fill one of the tins with extra water and add that to the pan also.
5 Bring the beans to a simmer and allow to cook, stirring often, until the sauce has thickened – around 10–20 mins, depending on how you’re cooking them. Before serving, scatter the parsley over the beans.
6 To test the potatoes, give them a gentle squeeze: if they feel soft, they’re ready. Carefully unwrap each one and serve with a generous helping of beans and a dollop of yogurt.

* A Dutch oven is a lidded cast-iron or earthenware casserole robust enough to cook in the coals.

Turn to page 38 of August's The Simple Things for more of our camping special.

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Play time

There’s fun to be found in the everyday if you look for it

Listen to a funny podcast on your commute or play your favourite music while washing up

Be open to meeting new people. We tend to stick close to those we know, which is often to our disadvantage

Be curious – take up drawing, dancing, growing, anything that expresses your curiosity in a way that’s fun

Mix with happy people and benefit from what experts call ‘emotional contagion’

Act spontaneously - take a day off, do something unexpected, surprise yourself…

What would you add? And have you seen our could-do lists?

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Wisdom: Nell Gifford of Gifford's Circus

Meet Nell Gifford, founder of Gifford's Circus - the nation's most glamorous troupe. Nell's lifetime of learning - from recruiting clowns to dog training to facefuls of custard - has built the travelling show of her dreams

In the fifteen years since Nell Gifford and her husband Toti launched their travelling show out of a bevy of painted vintage wagons that tour the south west each summer, Nell has dazzled in scarlet and gold Ring Master's garb; set hearts racing astride rearing ponies; and left children crying with laughter as another custard pie splats in her face. 

Their new permanent base at Fennels Farm where Nell and Toti live with their seven-year-old twins, son Cecil and daughter Red, is being refurbished to accommodate their burgeoning troupe of 50 clowns, jugglers, acrobats, contortionists and musicians, not to mention the 100 animals already in situ, which include horses, ponies, dogs, chickens, doves and a goose called Brian. 

'Every year feels like the last,' she says, after describing the 16-hour days, non-stop questions and continual trouble-shooting that tis the pre-season lot of a circus boss. 'It's a nightmare, but once you get the bug, you can't live without it.'

Image: Lottie Storey

Nell is not what you might expect from someone who runs a circus. Her voice is low and measured, and she has an air of self-containment that seems at odds with the abundance and jollity of her chosen career. As a girl, she never dreamed of running a circus, or even running away to one, although in her 'threadbare and bohemian' childhood, she did once want to be a monkey trainer, and her favourite game involved gypsies and pretending to live in a caravan. 'Be careful what you wish for,' she says. But this isn't a story of the girl who never grew up. Perhaps rather the girl who was forced to grow up too quickly, when in 1991 catastrophe struck, and a riding accident left her mother Charlotte severely brain damaged. 'When your mum is put in to hospital for life, your home life is over in a day,' says Nell, who has a sister Clover, two years her junior, and two older siblings from her mother's previous marriage, Tom and Emma Bridgewater, the ceramics designer. 'I was 18, not 12, but it was abrupt. The house was sold, I packed up our home, put away my childhood; everything was dissipated.'

So Nell ran away with the circus. Or rather she was offered the chance to spend a year working at a circus in America that was owned by Tom's wife's family. 'I fell in love with the whole way of life,' she says, 'with the animals and the children, and the multilingual travelling village feel. I was more helped than helpful, but i knew that this was what I wanted to do with my life, nothing else was a possibility.'

Image: Lottie Storey

Back in the UK, she took up a place at New College Oxford to read English, and on graduating, started her career selling ice cream for the Chinese State Circus. Over the next few years she worked her way around the industry, putting up tents and driving lorries, donning fishnets and riding elephants. In 1998, Nell met Toti who ran his own landscape contracting business in Cheltenham, they became engaged, and he followed her to Germany for a season at Circus Roncalli, where Nell worked as an assistant horse trainer and groom. It was here that their eyes were opened to what a circus could really be. 'All the English circuses were very unloved,' says Nell. 'Circus Roncalli was like a fantasy baroque travelling circus. It was absolutely beautiful, with twinkling lights, cinnamon cakes, beer and champagne. There was such a sense of occasion when it arrived in town. It showed me how culturally relevant circuses could be.'

In 1999, Nell and Toti, by now married, bought a second-hand tent through a newspaper and an old showman's wagon from a farmer, and began building their vision of the perfect circus, nail by nail. 'We wanted to create a jewel of a show on a village green, that was rowdy and handmade, with horses and a gas-lit feel,' says Nell. 'My mum's old curtains got cut up and made into costumes, we sewed sequins on to old riding clothes.' They held auditions at the Playhouse Theatre in Cheltenham, and hired 20 artists including a local juggler and a contortionist from Birmingham. Money from Toti's landscaping business was ploughed into the circus, they very nearly went bankrupt, and were forced to move into the old showman's wagon, in which they lived until 2005. 'It wasn't the easiest way to start a marriage, without a loo or a shower. It was non-stop hard work and it still is. But we never doubted it would be a success.' When Gifford's Circus launched at the Hay Festival in 2000, their faith and hard work was rewarded with a clamour of positive media coverage, and a sell-out first season.

Image: Lottie Storey

The circus may be a success, but there is a difference between successful and financially stable, says Nell: 'It's taken a long time to make it even slightly secure. It's not the cleverest thing to make something successful but not well off, because you are constantly trying to make things the best without a lot of money.' But year after year Gifford's Circus's old-fashioned and topsy turvy charm has continued to delight thousands of guests, with the help some of the best names in theatre creation including Angela de Castro and River Dance's Molly Molloy. IN 2002, good food was added to the line up with the opening of their mobile restaurant Circus Sauce, which offers a local and sometimes foraged menu, served at candlelit oak tables on Emma Bridgewater Pottery - Nell's sister also designs a range for the Gifford's Circus shop. 

Today the constant challenge of balancing work and private life has been eased by the ability to hire more staff and delegate. If Nell is able to do a spot of gardening during rehearsals, she feels that she has cracked the system. The arrival of Red and Cecil in 2010 saw the twins seamlessly immersed in circus life. 'They just know the world of shows. It's a family business,' says Nell, who nevertheless only wants her children to continue with the circus if it is something they feel passionate about and can do well. But the twins certainly like to perform, and appear in the ring for finales whenever they feel like it, sometimes, Nell suspects, simply as an excuse to get out of bedtime.

'I think Red thinks she is in charge of the circus, whereas Cecil thinks mending lorries is more his department,' she smiles. This arrangement is not dissimilar from her own and Toti's division of labour; Nell is in charge of the overall steering of the business, the scheduling and the press, as well as turning her hand to a bit of animal training, most recently dogs; while Toti is in charge of logistics, the tent and the lorry.

Image: Lottie Storey

Winters are spent at the farm planning the next season, but there is little time off - work on next year starts the moment the tent comes down. But once spring arrives and the weather turns, they are keen to get back on the road. Nell describes the beginning of the season as a bit like a family wedding, 'There are lots of hellos and excitement at who's new and what's happening, but then it settles down and by the end everyone's quite pleased it's over. Some people are sick of each other, some are in love - we've had quite a few people meet and have children over the years.'

While Nell thrives on those days when a performance is 'packed and safe and rocking', it's an exhausting and stressful time, when she's constantly in uncomfortable costumes, and on high alert, unable to unwind. So when the road isn't calling, quiet time at home with Toti and the twins, playing puzzles, is how she switches off. Nell also finds time to learn something new each week, and at the moment takes sewing, fitness and riding lessons. 'I think it's really important to be taught something. It changes the dynamic from always telling people what to do, otherwise my automatic response is to become bossy, and I hate that.'

Setting up a circus may seem an improbably dream to most, but for Nell it has restored her faith in life: 'I think life is a question of what you want to do, not what you can do,' she says. 'Things just went so wrong with mum, that it's only in the last year with the move to this area and the farm that I definitely...' she tails off. 'It's like riches to rags to riches again,' she says. 'I just wake up every morning and think, 'what went right?'

This year's Any Port in a Storm runs until 24 September 2017. For tickets and venue information go to giffordscircus.com.

Not heard of Gifford's Circus? Allow us to introduce you...

Giffords Circus By Ellen Von Unwerth from nathan guillaumey on Vimeo.

This interview was first published in the April 2015 issue of The Simple Things - shop back issues

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From the August issue:

Living | How to camp well

Swap bricks for canvas, early mornings, outdoor life. Body clock reset

Jonathan Cherry shares the details that take camping trips from good to great

FLOWERS FOR THE TABLE
One of the first things Gemma does on arrival at any campsite is set off with the kids to forage wild blooms for the table – picked responsibly, of course – leaving the adults to pitch the tents in peace. Display in a recently finished beverage bottle of your choice.

KUBB (VIKING CHESS)
With a handy carry bag, this game travels everywhere with us from the garden to the beach. Great as a family game with the kids but even better played late in the evening with a beer in hand. Just mind your shins!

HERBS & SPICES
Bex advises taking a ‘store cupboard’ supply of your most used herbs and spices – it’ll save your kitchen being overrun with duplicates on your return and means campfire dishes can be as flavourful away as they would be at home. Her favourites are ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika, herbes de Provence and baharat.

FIREWOK
Matt couldn’t survive a camping trip without the Firewok. Hand crafted by a small business in Bristol, this is our favourite portable fire pit and comes with great cooking accessories (firewok.co.uk).

TINDER
Logs and kindling are readily available at most campsites but we always take our own tinder to ensure dinner happens! For every camping trip, Matt brings a mason jar of cotton wool balls and tumble dryer lint which he collects over the winter – free and a great fire starter.

SWEDISH LOG CANDLE
This is a self-feeding camp fire made from one log. Cross-cut 3⁄4 of the way down and stuff the top 15–20cm with tinder and kindling. Set a small fire on top of the log. Thin sections of the log at the top will start burning, sucking air down and drawing fire into the heart of the log. At this stage, it is possible to boil a kettle or cook on top of the candle.

SOUVENIR HAIKUS
You don’t need to write a diary of your trip in haikus to camp well, but if you fancy writing one or two like Matt’s on these pages (@Matt_633)... A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem of 17 syllables, broken up into 5/7/5. They often focus on nature, and in character are simple and direct.

For example...
How to write haiku:
Count syllables, be direct
Focus on nature

Turn to page 38 of August's The Simple Things for more of our camping special.

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Simple style | Sunglasses

That moment when the sun shines brightly enough to justify wearing a favourite pair of sunglasses is a moment to lift the heart. Snap open the case, slip them on and it’s like saying hello to an old friend.

Of course they offer welcome protection from harmful UV rays but that’s just the start and, to be totally honest, comes quite a long way down the list of priorities when choosing a pair. The right pair of sunglasses provides an instant and easy way to lift your look from normal to almost glamorous. Take a cue from Jackie Kennedy Onassis, whose over-sized pair not only shielded her from public and paparazzi scrutiny but helped to endow her with iconic fashion status. 

Sunglasses also have great concealing powers: whether it’s to hide a lack of make- up, laughter lines or baggy and bloodshot eyes. Wear a pair and you can pretend that you are a wasted rock legend or a jet-lagged film star rather than someone who had a little too much prosecco the night before.

Safe behind the tinted lenses and the cheekbone-flattering frames, you can be anyone you choose, or at least a boosted version of yourself. Bono, that inveterate wearer of tinted, wrap-around shades (Emporio Armani, if you’re curious) knows this only too well: without them, he confesses, he would look like “an ordinary little Irish man”.

Read more on the history of eye protection on page 22 of July’s The Simple Things.

THE CLASSIC
Ally Aviator sunglasses | £10
A little bit Top Gun, a little bit Wag, but the teardrop shape is always cool. 
topshop.com

TWO GREAT TWISTS
Gracie sunglasses | £59
Brushed stainless steel and pink enamel. Lightweight and with 100% UV protection. 
jigsaw-online.com

Rectangular wrap over-sized sunglasses | £9.50
Channel the spirit of Jackie O in these. 
marksandspencer.com

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A could-do list for May

Things you might want to do this month (no pressure!)

• Grow something from seed and watch it flourish
• Skip breakfast one morning and pack a picnic brunch
• Do something old in a new way
• Stop the pacing in your mind by going for a walk
• Take a break from the media
• Use a long weekend to have a ‘do-nothing’ day
• Play an instrument or sing a song
• Write down any good news you hear, see or read this month 

What would you add? Come over and tell us on Facebook or Twitter. 

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A could-do list for April

Things you might want to do this month (no pressure!)

• Choose one thing you’re going to make and not buy this month
• Rediscover qualities you had as a child (like spontaneity or fearlessness)
• Feast on homemade hot cross buns
• Switch everything off and get used to silence
• Make a list of the niggling jobs in your home and get them fixed
• Learn how to do a headstand
• Write down the things you miss most when you’re away from home

What would you add? Come over and tell us on Facebook or Twitter. 

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Simple style: The pinafore dress

The pinafore dress is just right for this time of year when there is still a nip in the air and the threat of chilliness is afoot.

Its bib provides an additional layer, like an external vest, under which garments of varying thickness can be worn. Try it with a T-shirt, a polo neck jumper, a blouse – they all work. Plus you can throw an additional layer of cardigan or jacket over the lot for extra warmth if required. It is what the fashion press would call a ‘transitional garment’, and who are we to argue with that?

Turn to page 22 of March's The Simple Things for more on this classic look.

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Learn something new: Dog agility

Training a dog for most of us never goes much beyond ‘sit’ and ‘stay’, so how wonderful it would be to have a dog that can obediently fly over jumps and dart through tunnels. Dog agility is basically an obstacle course for dogs and a test of the handler’s ability. Agility pros claim most dogs naturally love it and it is a fun and friendly way to keep you and your dog fit.

To see if you can teach an old dog new tricks, try it out first in your garden: it is as simple as setting up some (low) jumps with garden canes and buckets and bringing out a bag of dog treats. Entice your pet over and pretty soon they’ll get the idea and jump without even being asked just to get the tasty treat over the other side.

You don’t even need your own dog – schemes like borrowmydoggy.com will loan you one to exercise. Puppies and young dogs that aren’t fully grown can’t do agility, so it’s a good way to bond and train with older or rescue dogs (top agility dogs peak aged 4–6).

It’s easier than you think to get started – there are hundreds of groups and clubs around the country, not all of which involve competing, if that’s not your thing. But if the bug (as opposed to the dog) bites, then there are plenty of competitions to choose from, at every level. Breed doesn’t matter a jot, but if you do take it seriously, you probably need a border collie – they nearly always win! 

See how it’s done at Crufts (9–12 March at The NEC Birmingham and on Channel 4 and More 4; crufts.org.uk).

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Simple Style: The Smock

Loose, shapeless and button-less, the smock is a garment to pull on over your head and lose yourself in. No one can guess what is going on underneath it, whether it’s a chunky knit, several thermal vests, or a roll of belly fat. And, unlike prissier items of clothing you may have in your wardrobe, it actually gets better looking the more it is worn. This is the uniform of the paint-spattered artist or the sawdust-covered artisan who wears it accessorised with a handful of paintbrushes or a chisel tucked into a pocket. The more it looks like it’s been worn, the more authentic it becomes, reaching peak credibility when the sleeves are frayed and a pocket is ripped and dangling.

It could be our renewed interest in craft and making things that has restored the smock to favour. It is hard-wearing – usually made from cotton drill or canvas – and hard-working, and will cheerfully withstand all that is thrown at it. And, with companies like Toast and Seasalt doing their own takes on its classic shape – boxy with a boat or funnel neck and three-quarter-length sleeves – it has actually become fashionable.

Needless to say, its origins lie with the working man. Eighteenth-century rural workers fashioned loose garments from heavy linen or cotton to toil in the fields. These first smocks are correctly called ‘smock-frocks’ and were calf-length and frequently adorned with smocking: embroidered pleats that gathered the garment at the sleeves and waist. This style was revived in the 70s, when versions with cap sleeves, a yoke and acres of floral material filled shops such as Laura Ashley and Miss Selfridge.

The smock we wear today owes more to 19th century Cornish fishermen, and was stitched by their wives from sailcloth. The artists who descended upon the fishing village of Newlyn at that time were much taken by the working life they saw around them, including smock-wearing fishermen, and recorded them in their paintings. They also took to wearing smocks themselves, and thus the whole bohemian connotations of the garment was born. Patch pockets, now an essential element of the smock, came later. They add to its supreme usefulness: a smock can be worn for countless domestic and creative tasks, from pottering in the gardening, to kneading bread, to spoon whittling. Verily, it is a garment of our times. 

THE CLASSIC

Aroma Top, £49.95
Original looking – only cosier, in soft needlecord. 
seasaltcornwall.co.uk 

 

TWO WITH A TWIST

V-neck smock, £72
Roomy, robust and rural.
carriercompany.co.uk 

Petrichor overshirt, £110
A heavy duty cotton overshirt inspired by the smock. 
finisterre.com 

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Disperse February gloom with songs to make you smile

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Hangover-busting body oil

It’s worth having this uplifting body oil ready for those dreaded hangovers that can take you by surprise at this time of year. After the first obvious step of a bacon sarnie, try taking a hot shower, then applying this soothing tonic

Things you’ll need:
3 tbsp jojoba oil
3 tbsp almond oil
8 drops eucalyptus essential oil
8 drops peppermint essential oil
8 drops lavender essential oil
4 drops tea tree essential oil
4 drops geranium essential oil

1 This is the easiest of recipes. Simply combine all the oils in a glass bottle and shake until they’re mixed and ready. Use this body oil after a refreshing shower and, voilà, hangover no more!

Why this works...
Eucalytpus is invigorating and purifies the body. Peppermint supports digestion, improves focus, boosts energy, helps to clear headaches and eases muscle pain. Soothing lavender has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Tea tree reduces bad odours and can help to stimulate the immune system. Geranium helps skin to stay healthy. Jojoba oil contains vitamin E and has high levels of antibacterial iodine. Almond oil calms irritation and is moisturising. 

Taken from All Natural Beauty by Karin Berndl and Nici Hofer (Hardie Grant). 

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Some are moody – some, poppy: songs with a Nordic soul to make you feel cooler.  

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