Property News · October 23, 2016

Lord and Lady Heseltine​ ​on gardening: 'We shot​ ​350 squirrels​ ​– absolutely awful things'


With his wife Anne, the former Tory minister has gone from swinging the mace in the Commons to running one of the great English gardens. But while they’re happy to discuss the recent squirrel cull, Brexit is off the agenda. ‘Are you the Guardian’s gardening correspondent?’ they ask Archie Bland suspiciouslySome years ago, a journalist went to interview Lord Michael and Lady Anne Heseltine about their garden. The woman in question was a poor choice for the job, Lady Heseltine thinks: “I forget her name, but she is married to … Alan … Oh, God, the little man who’s slightly in disgrace now, but I imagine that’s why she was given the job.” (She means Alan Yentob and his wife Philippa Walker, who, it should be said, has a long and serious list of documentary credits to her name.) “She didn’t know anything about gardening at all, which was rather a pity, and she kept wanting to bring Michael back to politics. He said: ‘No, this is the garden, not politics.’ And she didn’t want to talk to me at all.” She laughs brightly, her message artfully transmitted. I run my hand over the list of questions about the state of the Conservative party and her husband’s forceful interventions in the Brexit debate that I’ve written down on my way here, smile back, and try to think of something intelligent to say about snowdrops.We’re in a living room at Thenford, the family’s grand Northamptonshire home and venue of the remarkable gardens and arboretum that are a large part of their life’s work. Lord Heseltine isn’t here yet. He’s out there somewhere, I guess, lecturing an errant sapling, as he has acknowledged that he occasionally must, or taking issue with a squirrel. Who knows how long he’ll be: being out in the garden at Thenford is not like being out in most gardens. “Before we had the golf buggies and mobile phones it was a nightmare,” Lady Heseltine – can I call her Anne? I don’t risk it – says. “You’d spend half the morning looking for him.” They would alert him from the bell tower, and Michael would occasionally return, a little breathless, only to find that the summons was not on behalf of No 10 but from someone offering to clean the windows. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Lord and Lady Heseltine​ ​on gardening: ‘We shot​ ​350 squirrels​ ​– absolutely awful things’

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