This peaceful small hotel and popular restaurant in a romantic Jacobean former dower house, surrounded by country gardens, continues to delight readers.

On the edge of Salisbury Plain not far from Stonehenge, this thatched 19th-century beer house is run as a friendly village local and Michelin-starred pub-with-rooms by chef/proprietors Guy and Brittany Manning.

Approach this 18th-century mansion, exulting in 500 acres of parkland and gardens, down a mile-long avenue of lime and beech trees: what awaits is ‘very grand and lovely’.

‘At the heart of a quintessentially Cotswold village’, this Georgian rectory turned laid-back but stylish hotel proved ‘enough to make a pair of Londoners consider giving up city life’.

From the moment your car is valet-parked and luggage whisked to your room, you know this honeyed Cotswold manor house will deliver cosseting luxury – and star-spangled dining (Relais & Châteaux).

By the footpath skirting the Avon, this popular bar/restaurant-with-rooms occupies a Grade II listed building in a ‘delightful' town.

There is a great sense of fun at this 17th-century village pub, now run as a bar-and-restaurant-with rooms by Jackie Cosens and Adrian Jenkins – she the life and soul front-of-house, he the chef.