Jerome Starkey
The Times of London
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Past articles by Jerome:
Sisters go to war over fate of family estate’s dead pheasants
As she marched across her country estate clutching a loudhailer, Tacky MacGregor had a surprising message for her older sister’s guests, who were taking potshots at pheasants.“Came Shoot burns pheasants!” she bellowed between long siren-like wails from the loudhailer. “This is a peaceful protest. Gu → Read More
Shooting lobby snubs bid to save birds of prey
Britain’s biggest bird-shooting organisations have boycotted a group set up to save endangered birds of prey. Five organisations representing Britain’s biggest shooting estates stunned... → Read More
Time running out to save lost walks
When Chris Smith first read about Virginia Woolf’s favourite walk something struck him as odd. According to her diaries, the writer would leave Monk’s House, which she shared with her husband... → Read More
New Forest rivers straightened by Victorians get their natural curves back
For centuries it was seen as improving the land as man stamped his will on nature by straightening streams to drain the bogs for the sake of lusher pasture. Now conservationists in the New Forest... → Read More
Farmers allowed to pump more water
Farmers can pump more water out of rivers to irrigate their crops and quench thirsty livestock after an “emergency drought summit” with Michael Gove, the environment secretary. The Environment Agency said that it was working with farmers to allow “flexible abstraction licensing” amid fears that foo → Read More
Farmers plead for help as heatwave hits crops
Farmers have demanded that the government introduce “emergency measures” to safeguard food production from drought. The National Farmers Union called a “drought summit” today with Michael Gove, the environment secretary, amid warnings that the driest start to a summer since 1961 will mean that meat, → Read More
French put the boot in with £420 Wellingtons
They are the quintessential piece of British country footwear, beloved by royals and ramblers and ideal for muddy music festivals. They even played a part in Britain’s victories in the First World War and the Battle of Waterloo.Yet the French have stolen a march in the world of Wellington boots by m → Read More
Summer heatwave puts extra sizzle into chillies
Chillies that ripened during the hot, dry weather will be much spicier than normal, farmers have warned.Salvatore Genovese, one of Britain’s leading chilli farmers, said peppers that grew in extreme conditions could be up to 20 per cent hotter to taste. His farm in Bedfordshire grows a million chill → Read More
Praying for rain: when a heatwave becomes a cruel fight for survival
The crops emerged from the gloom as a fleet of combine harvesters began their task of reaping in the darkest hours of the night. It was two hours before dawn when the machines roared into life in... → Read More
Don’t panic, but British sharks are getting bigger
By the standards of great whites they are the minnows of the shark world and certainly no man-eaters, but the sharks which roam the seas off British beaches are getting bigger, year by year. → Read More
Record number of horses abandoned
As the fire brigade hauled an injured horse out of an algae-covered swamp this week, another team of rescuers was rounding up three foals that had been dumped by the roadside. The horse had been... → Read More
Cheap car washes fund modern slavery, MPs are told
If a car wash costs you less than £6 you could be funding modern slavery, MPs were told yesterday as experts warned that exploited workers were suffering from trench foot and chemical burns. There... → Read More
Swimmer drowns on hottest day of the year
Britain sweltered on the hottest day of the year yesterday, with a high of 30C recorded in central London. It was the warmest day since April 19, when temperatures reached 29.1C. A woman drowned... → Read More
Leeds isn’t in the north, says academic — it’s in London
Vowel sounds, coal seams and a fondness for shandy have all been used to try to describe the imaginary line that divides the north from the south. Now a suggestion aired on Radio 4 that Manchester... → Read More
It’s flaming June! Week of sunshine is forecast
Put on your shorts and slap on the suncream: there is a week of hot sunny weather ahead. Clear skies will mean that temperatures reach the mid twenties across England, Wales and Northern Ireland this weekend, with only a few wisps of high cloud drifting through the northwest of Scotland.Next week → Read More
Lamarsh villagers unite to save Constable’s pub
A pub that has stood for 700 years in the heart of Constable country has reopened, after it was saved from developers by its local community.More than 400 people raised £500,000 to buy the Lamarsh Lion, in the Stour valley in Essex. It is known as the painters’ pub because of its links to John Cons → Read More
Isle of Purbeck revealed to be UK’s little square of loveliness
Half a dozen sika deer bounded down the hill, past the badgers’ sett and through a thicket where the hedgehogs live, towards the stream that feeds Poole harbour, where otters and voles have made... → Read More
Pollution killing off roadside wildflowers
To tell a lady’s bedstraw from a lady’s slipper and to watch red clover blush alongside virgin turf were among the many pleasures that the travel writer Robert Byron hoped his unborn son might have. → Read More
A balanced diet includes meat, Michael Gove insists
Michael Gove has rallied to the side of livestock farmers in the battle between meat eaters and vegans.At a conference on the future of British farming, the environment secretary insisted that “a truly balanced diet includes meat”. Highlighting the benefits of offal, such as calves’ liver and kidne → Read More
Ban 4x4s from Lake District, UN urged
To Alfred Wainwright, the greatest connoisseur of walking in the Lake District, a small patch of land just north of Coniston Water was perhaps “the loveliest in Lakeland”.Today that same square mile, once owned by Beatrix Potter, is at the centre of a complaint to the United Nations over claims that → Read More