Discover Britain

Celebrating the best of our nation, every issue of Discover Britain is packed with features from history to travel. Read about the events that changed history, as well as British traditions and their origins, or be inspired for your next trip with great ideas for where to go and what to see. Whether you’re planning a weekend city break or an escape to the countryside, Discover Britain is your essential guide to getting the most out of your stay.

Welcome!

Discover Britain

Brit Edit • Your curated guide to Britain this season

Noticeboard • You correct us on a horticultural hiccup, and share a little bit of animal magic with us

DISCOVER JANE AUSTEN

Austen ODYSSEY • To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of Britain’s most beloved writers, Kerry Parnell maps out the ultimate Jane Austen travel route

Winchester • Literary links meet Anglo-Saxon history and Arthurian legend in this attractive Hampshire city, writes Caroline Butterwick

At home with Jane • Jeremy Flint steps inside the home of Jane Austen to learn more about the writer’s legacy and her impact on literary lovers across the globe

AUSTEN all around • Britain’s beautiful landscapes and grand houses have proved indispensable for directors interpreting Jane Austen’s stories for the screen, here are some of our favourite filming locations…

Lechlade rediscovered • How a sleepy Cotswolds town awoke from its slumber

Strange Britain: Grave concern • Death needn’t be maudlin – humour beyond the grave is widespread in Britain, David Long discovers

What drew me here… • Author Rachel Greenlaw on why she made the move to the Isles of Scilly

Heaven in the Highlands • As the epic North Coast 500 route celebrates its 10th birthday, Sally Coffey picks her top 10 places to visit

My Britain • Dr Katherine Gazzard is Curator of Art (post-1800) at Royal Museums Greenwich, which comprises the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark, and the Queen’s House. Here, she tells us about a new exhibition she has been working on at the National Maritime Museum, which, through a recently discovered 18th-century uniform, tells a never-before-told account of a young man’s Napoleonic ‘Great Escape’

STARS in your EYES • Russell Higham has an out-of-this-world experience on a stargazing adventure in England’s darkest county

More than a splash of colour • Diana Wright meets one of the artists of the folk-art movement that has been brightening up our canals

Magical history tour • In a new series, Diana Wright pinpoints places linked to historic events: this issue it’s the turn of the Norman Conquest

London SPOTLIGHT • This month, our Londonphile raises a glass (complete with fancy umbrella and olive-on-a-stick) to London’s most iconic cocktail bars

CROSSWORD & QUIZ