The urban guide to the countryside -

Well, hello!

I'm Hero, editor of Muddy Bucks & Oxon, here to bring you the quirky, cool and downright unmissable in the area.

Gotta Have It

Our curated A-Z of the grooviest local businesses

Your #Joulesautumnwalks photosDid yours make the cut?
Have you heard the hot gossip?Your favourite blabbermouth reporting for duty - yes ma'am. Here's this week's superflashy newsflash.
Christmas rappingWatch out John Lewis! IKEA's and M&S's Christmas adverts are bonkers and brilliant! Watch, laugh and tell us your favourite.
20 cracking Christmas marketsFeeling the need to shop? Here, let us facilitate that! Read on for your fill of the best local festive fairs.
5 reasons to sort Christmas at Bicester VillageNew openings, live music, pop-ups, gorgeous gifts and fairy lights everywhere you turn - it's festive frolics all the way at BV.

Fri 15 - Sun 17 Nov

Mon 11 - Sun 17 Nov

November 2019

The latest handpicked businesses we think you’ll love

Muddy eats: The Maytime Inn, Asthall

Wine tasting and a slap-up three-course dinner, you say? Muddy’s Anna Brech is in there like swimwear at this gorgeous Cotswolds village gastropub. Like what you see? We’ve got a gorgeous Reader Treat overnight stay for two up for grabs.
- Muddy eats: The Crown, Granborough
  
  Attention sugar fiends! This rural mid Bucks gastro pub does killer desserts. Best-selling crime novelist Sharon Bolton gets stuck in.
- The Chequers, Churchill
  
  The Chequers in Churchill is one of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds' loveliest pubs - now with new owners, an interiors makeover and a brand new Muddy review!
- The poshest curry ever?
  
  Sindhu by Atul Kochhar is a curry restaurant but not as we know it. Muddy reviewer Jessica Jonzen whizzed off to Marlow to eat her way through the menu.
- The UK’s sexiest eaterie?
  
  We couldn't resist the opportunity of a seven-course tasting menu at Meghan Markle's favourite hangout, Cliveden House. Muddy's Rachel got heroically stuck in.

Our honest reviews of the UK’s best schools

Making plans? Find your perfect Pub, Inn, Hotel, Café, Restaurant or Bar across the Muddy counties.

The 37 coolest party palaces

Got a big birthday celebration looming? Or fancy a weekend away with your squad? We’ve sniffed out the 37 dreamiest party palaces across the land, available for exclusive hire. Grab your gang and let’s go!
- Fancy a break this half term?
  
  Need to make a fast getaway? Don’t move a muscle till you’ve checked out my pick of 8 last-minute family breaks in the West Country.
- Jewel in the Crown
  
  Broadway in Worcestershire is arguably the most lovely of the Cotswolds villages - and we know exactly where you should be staying.

Ready to wrap up?

Brrrrrrr! It’s got a bit chilly hasn’t it? Come warm yourself with these 10 stylish woolies and coats from the ever-brilliant hush, starting with this elegant ribbed, frill-necked beauty.
- Forty years of fashion
  
  This season's trends nibble from the Seventies, Eighties, Nineties and Noughties. But how do you to channel the decades but keep your look modern.
- Pyjama time!
  
  It's suddenly dark, cold and wet outside - let's hunker down and cheer ourselves up with some chic new pyjamas (yes, such things do actually exist).

The 10 dreamiest coffee table books of the year

Clear space on your coffee table! Muddy’s books editor Kerry Potter has 10 sexy, shiny visual feasts for your delectation.
- It’s panto time!
  
  It's what you've all been waiting for. Oh no it isn't! Oh yes it is! Oh no.... OK, enough! Here are 12 of the perkiest pantos in Bucks, Oxon and beyond. You ready, Widow Twanky?
- Are you watching the best show on TV?
  
  Because no one else in the Muddy office is, except for Kerry Potter. So she'd like to talk to you about it instead. Ready to become totally obsessed?
- Need a juicy new read?
  
  Muddy's bookworm Kerry Potter has glorious celeb gossip, literary big-hitters and a must-read on relationships this month. Read all about her October picks - and then win the lot!
- What are you doing on Saturday night?
  
  Fancy an evening of books, booze and brilliance? No way - us too! Come join us in Henley this weekend.

Flexible working – a personal view

It’s a contentious issue, that’s for sure! Wanna know what I think?
Kids
- Kingham Hill School, North Oxon
  
  An idyllically placed co-ed, non-selective secondary school with a Christian ethos and strong academic results, set in 100 acres of Cotswolds countryside.
- P-p-p-pick up a pumpkin!
  
  C'mon, it's time to prep for Halloween! Head to one of these local farms and make the kids put the legwork in before they can start carving.

Meet the woman who’s declared war on plastic

We like her style (in every sense). Beth Noy, the founder of Plastic Freedom, runs an online shop collating the coolest plastic-free brands around. She’s got some brilliant- and achievable – advice for us all.
- Muddy meets… The Oxfordshire Gardener
  
  What would you ask an award-winning garden designer? What hand cream he uses, if his own garden ever looks rubbish and who's his favourite green-fingered celeb, obviously!
- Yup, stage school works!
  
  Another year and another surge of nascent stars of the stage and screen graduate from Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. Want to meet them?