{"id":31354,"date":"2016-10-23T22:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/lord-and-lady-heseltine%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8bon-gardening-we-shot%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8b350-squirrels%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8b-absolutely-awful-things\/"},"modified":"2016-10-23T22:08:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T15:08:47","slug":"lord-and-lady-heseltine%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8bon-gardening-we-shot%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8b350-squirrels%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8b-absolutely-awful-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/lord-and-lady-heseltine%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8bon-gardening-we-shot%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8b350-squirrels%e2%80%8b-%e2%80%8b-absolutely-awful-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord and Lady Heseltine\u200b \u200bon gardening: 'We shot\u200b \u200b350 squirrels\u200b \u200b\u2013 absolutely awful things'"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nWith 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\u2019re happy to discuss the recent squirrel cull, Brexit is off the agenda. \u2018Are you the Guardian\u2019s gardening correspondent?\u2019 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: \u201cI forget her name, but she is married to \u2026 Alan … Oh, God, the little man who\u2019s slightly in disgrace now, but I imagine that\u2019s why she was given the job.\u201d (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.) \u201cShe didn\u2019t know anything about gardening at all, which was rather a pity, and she kept wanting to bring Michael back to politics. He said: \u2018No, this is the garden, not politics.\u2019 And she didn\u2019t want to talk to me at all.\u201d 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\u2019s forceful interventions in the Brexit debate that I\u2019ve written down on my way here, smile back, and try to think of something intelligent to say about snowdrops.We\u2019re in a living room at Thenford, the family\u2019s grand Northamptonshire home and venue of the remarkable gardens and arboretum that are a large part of their life\u2019s work. Lord Heseltine isn\u2019t here yet. He\u2019s 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\u2019ll be: being out in the garden at Thenford is not like being out in most gardens. \u201cBefore we had the golf buggies and mobile phones it was a nightmare,\u201d Lady Heseltine \u2013 can I call her Anne? I don\u2019t risk it \u2013 says. \u201cYou\u2019d spend half the morning looking for him.\u201d 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…
\n
\nSource : theguardian.com
\nRead more…Lord and Lady Heseltine\u200b \u200bon gardening: ‘We shot\u200b \u200b350 squirrels\u200b \u200b\u2013 absolutely awful things’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With his wife Anne, the former Tory minister has gone from swinging the mace in...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-89I","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31664,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/finding-real-value-in-the-heseltine-estate-letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":31354,"position":0},"title":"Finding real value in the Heseltine estate | Letters","date":"October 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r In his article about Michael and Anne Heseltine\u2019s estate (Thenford) in Northamptonshire (G2, 24 October), Archie Bland admits he\u2019s much more interested in talking about politics \u2013 but on finding his hosts expect, not unnaturally, to talk about gardening (and their new book), he tells us that they have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140258,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/sunday-with-michael-heseltine-we-see-a-lot-of-our-children-and-our-nine-grandchildren\/","url_meta":{"origin":31354,"position":1},"title":"Sunday with Michael Heseltine: \u2018We see a lot of our children and our nine grandchildren\u2019","date":"November 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The politician on reading the papers, exercising three dogs in a golf buggy and listening to bullfinchesUp early? It depends entirely on the programme for the day. When you get to 90, the seven days tend to blur into each other. Some Sundays, I get up early. Others I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":111556,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/the-gold-standard-in-social-housing-design-letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":31354,"position":2},"title":"The gold standard in social housing design | Letters","date":"October 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r After Norwich\u2019s Goldsmith Street was awarded the Stirling prize, readers discuss the ability of councils to build more homes, what constitutes high-quality housing, and the insecurity of being a private tenantIt was gratifying to learn that the RIBA Stirling prize has been awarded for Norwich council\u2019s Goldsmith Street during\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":111664,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/lady-anne-berry-obituary\/","url_meta":{"origin":31354,"position":3},"title":"Lady Anne Berry obituary","date":"October 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Renowned horticulturist who created the spectacular Rosemoor garden in Devon and nurtured the grounds of the Hackfalls Arboretum in New ZealandiIn the world of horticulture, only a few people have managed to create a garden of world renown. Lady Anne Berry, however, played an active part in making two.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96866,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/stilettos-and-a-4000-skirt-melania-trumps-tree-planting-outfit\/","url_meta":{"origin":31354,"position":4},"title":"Stilettos and a $4,000 skirt: Melania Trump\u2019s tree-planting outfit","date":"August 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The US first lady opted for total glamour when asked to dig a hole in the White House garden. But was her outfit remotely appropriate for the task in hand?Melania Trump has been gardening again, planting an Eisenhower-era oak sapling in the White House grounds. It means that her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53031,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/2-raffle-ticket-could-see-you-become-lord-or-lady-of-melling-manor\/","url_meta":{"origin":31354,"position":5},"title":"\u00a32 raffle ticket could see you become lord or lady of Melling Manor","date":"April 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r After falling on hard times, owner Dunstan Lowe has been forced to sell off Georgian property for less than a pint of beerWith entries from as far as China, Russia and even Mauritius, locals in the tiny village of Melling, nestled in the Lancashire countryside, are waiting to see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}