Editor’s letter

And welcome to our very special gold issue, which happily coincides with the blaze of glory that is autumn!

There’s a feeling of excitement that goes hand in hand with a change of season, perhaps because it’s a time for new beginnings.

Many of us, including myself, redecorate to cosy up our homes and not always in a big way – flowers, throws, cushions or a new lamp...

Others whip up the season’s best culinary delights and yet others head outside to take in the sight of leaves, turning from summer green to autumnal gold.

And so it is that autumn’s golden tones inspired us to sprinkle gold throughout the issue. There’s ideas for how you can include accents of this precious metal (and its colour equivalents such as honey, mustard, ochre and yellow) in your interiors, table se ings and cra s, not to mention making it a part of your beauty routine – I do quite fancy a gold face mask (p122)!

In my garden (and I’m guessing yours also, however big or small your plot or balcony), there’s a bit of groundwork to be done to achieve a flourishing spring garden and that starts right about now!

If you ever needed inspiration, this carpet of ranunculi and our glorious ‘Spring fever’ feature (p24) will take your breath away. Savvy gardeners are buying their bulbs now, taking advantage of the great savings to be had with our spring bulbs offer (p170).

On a separate topic, I’m thrilled for you to try ‘The best of bistro’ (p84), where the taste tricks chefs use are revealed. Enjoy! PS, my personal fave is the wickedly good but ever so easy chocolate cake!