Country Life

Tinkering around

IVE us the tools and we will finish the job,’ said Winston Churchill to the US Senate in 1941. It was an emotive appeal and one that must have resonated with any British man who had ever wielded a hammer or a screwdriver. There is pride invested in tools—pride in their very possession and pride in the way they are maintained. Or, at least, there should be. There is an assumption that 21st-century man must be familiar with the rudimentary workings of IT. In my case, this is quite misplaced, but give me a hammer and a saw, a spade and a fork, a trowel and a pair of secateurs and I will handle them with confidence and pride

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