We first met Arthur Parkinson when we visited the cottage he shares with his partner, interior decorator James Mackie, in the Cotswolds. “It’s got a Gloucester postcode so I suppose it’s Gloucestershire,” he says, but he prefers to describe it as being near the pretty waterside town of Lechlade-on-Thames. Naturally, the gardens here have been coaxed into a flamboyant floribunda wonder of rambling cottage favourites and lush greenery – a romantic look he’s been championing since training at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew before becoming the protegé of Sarah Raven. In the years since, he’s become the poster boy for gardening glamorously in pots and has written two books, much to the delight of his 108,000 followers.
This April, Arthur’s third book will be published and – taking his other great passion as his subject matter – marks a bit of a departure: Chicken Boy is the story of his lifelong love affair with hens. His own beloved brood live in Nottinghamshire, where Arthur spends half his time – also in a cottage. “I’ve always lived in cottages,” he tells us, “and I hope that will always be the case.”
My most recent home improvement…
Installing some ponytail copper-wire lights, which give a lovely warm golden glow and which I’ve draped over everything – especially mirrors. As soon as dusk descends, on they go, so I can feel like the Peter Pan nymph I quite desperately wish I was. Happily, they don’t use much electricity and, with tons of them about, they do light up the place well.
Installing some ponytail copper-wire lights, which give a lovely warm golden glow and which I’ve draped over everything – especially mirrors. As soon as dusk descends, on they go, so I can feel like the Peter Pan nymph I quite desperately wish I was. Happily, they don’t use much electricity and, with tons of them about, they do light up the place well.
The latest addition to my wardrobe…
A lovely jumper from Magee 1866, in Scotland. I don’t buy many clothes – I’m like a character from The Simpsons in that respect, with a uniform of jeans if it’s a going-out day, or jogging bottoms if it’s a stay-at-home gardening-and-writing day.
A lovely jumper from Magee 1866, in Scotland. I don’t buy many clothes – I’m like a character from The Simpsons in that respect, with a uniform of jeans if it’s a going-out day, or jogging bottoms if it’s a stay-at-home gardening-and-writing day.
