The Big Six: From beautiful stone farmhouses to pastel-coloured cottages

Overall ranking: 123rd out of 124 in the Complete University Guide for 2014.

Imagine yourself on a weekend away at a British country-house hotel, and thoughts of afternoon tea on the terrace and reading the papers over a full English breakfast may well spring to mind. But those traditions have now been supplemented by some of the most modern cooking happening anywhere in the country.

'If it is good enough for the Italians, it's good enough for me'

This mass-marketisation of one our most highly-prized foods is now in evidence

Nigella Lawson is to return to our TV screens following her “quickie” divorce to Charles Saatchi with a version of her popular US series The Taste.

If the maxim “know us through our food” still holds water, then not many would care to be on nodding terms with the authors of the Cookbook of Unknown Ladies, given that it’s long on recipes using sheep heads and cow heel and short on things like summer salads or posh burgers. But, then again, we ought to make exceptions, it being 300 years old and all.

My earliest food memory Watching my mum [Linda McCartney] preparing family meals. The kitchen was the social hub of our home, where we'd meet, talk and eat. I'd watch her make a cream of tomato soup, when the tomatoes were at their plumpest. She'd add onions and mushrooms and blend them all together into this gorgeous hearty soup. I can still remember the beautiful smells.

It could be the prospect of hard work, unsociable hours and low pay

A farm with literary connections near Coniston Water has been converted into a self-catering let

Until last week, the best fish dish I have ever eaten was grilled slip sole in seaweed butter at the Sportsman in Seasalter in Kent. This maritime marvel formed the starter in a lunch that has echoed my memory for years, but I discovered that I had missed the pub's most esteemed offering, a tasting menu whose expertise and finesse are legendary among the food-obsessed. So I called the Sportsman to remedy this annoying omission (48 hours warning is required). "It starts at 7pm," I was informed, "and lasts for three and half hours." Good grief! I wasn't sure that I was quite as food-obsessed as all that.

This feast will leave you sated

The cruise: Ananda joins the Sanctuary Retreats collection when the ship sets sail in Burma next year. Bookings are now open for the vessel, which will navigate the Chindwin and Ayeyarwady rivers (sanctuaryretreats.com).

Don’t play with your food! Isn’t that what every child is told when they attempt to mould mashed potato into pea-sized balls, or find the colour result of squashing a strawberry into pistachio icecream? For most budding food lovers that is the beginning and end of experiment. For Ferran Adria, playing with food became a stellar career.