Number One London: In The Garden at Eyford House

On Sunday, May 22nd, Eyford House in Upper Slaughter, Glouscestershire will play host to a giant plant sale featuring 25,000 plants on sale, local produce, a country-shopping village, sculpture garden, Light Cavalry Military Band and three garden experts - Val Bourne, Mary Keane and Roddy Llewellyn - will be on hand to answer gardening questions and offer advice. The event will benefit the ABF The Soldiers' Charity and the Countryside Alliance at Eyford.

The property, a classical Cotswolds home in idyllic grounds is where legend has it, poet John Milton was inspired to write Paradise Lost and takes the crown as England’s Favourite House, according to Country Life magazine.

Charlotte Heber Percy, whose family lives at Eyford House, commented: “We are so lucky to live in this heavenly setting and love to share it with the public. The plant sale is something we are all passionate about: everyone on the committee supports country sports and the rural way of life, and we also support our brave armed forces, so this plant sale is the ideal way for us to boost both causes while providing a fun day out.”

Novelist Jilly Cooper will officially open the plant sale with a ribbon cutting and eight local hunts ( the Cotswold, North Cotswold, Heythrop, Old Berks, Beaufort, Warwickshire, Berkeley and VWH hunts) have joined together to tend 25,000 plants to sell on the day. The event will make the most of what Country Life magazine has called the “pastoral idyll” of Eyford’s parklands. The plant sale will include a shopping village with a range of gardeners’ accessories as well as outdoor clothing and gifts for the countryside enthusiast and there will be live chickens and ducks.

Jilly Cooper, who lives locally, will be signing the paperback edition of her latest blockbuster, Jump! Another local author, Duff Hart-Davis, the distinguished biographer, naturalist and journalist, will be signing copies of his latest two books, Among the Deer: In the Woods and On the Hill: A Stalker Looks Back and The War That Never Was: The True Story of the Men who Fought Britain's Most Secret Battle.

Mrs Prest (Mrs. Heber Percy's daughter), who lives at Eyford with husband Rupert and three children, said: “I am absolutely thrilled. “I always adored the house and I loved to come and stay here with my grandmother when I was a child. Each day, I pinch myself at how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful, peaceful house.”