Mail on Sunday

After All That Salmonella in Eggs Row, Isn't It Funny We Ended Up Here ...In a Former Chicken Farm ; Farmers Look Out, the Former Health Minister Edwina Currie Wants to Sell Her Huge Barn Conversion in Surrey and Head Back to Her Political Roots in Derbyshire

After fumbling around in her Surrey kitchen, Edwina Currie finds the local footpath leaflet she has been looking for. It describes the sights and sounds of Nutfield, and more intriguingly reveals that Edwina's Pounds 800,000 barn conversion was built by one H. M. Mackusick Esq of Hen Haw Farm popularly known as Mr Make-you-sick. One wonders how safe Mr Mackusick's eggs were.

Hothouse ; It's Time to Sell, Predicts

Shelley If only every homeowner dithering over when to move house had the vision of astrologer Shelley Von Strunckel. For last month, when the stars were correctly aligned, the Hollywood-born stargazer decided it was time to put her stunning Marylebone, Central London, mews house up for sale. It's now on the market for Pounds 1.9million, just two years after she bought it for Pounds 1.11million.

How the Eco Home with an Ivy Roof Can Heat Itself

Imagine a four-bedroom house with absolutely no heating, apart from a single wood-burner in the living room. Most people would feel cold just thinking about it. Yet Jerry and Kay Harrall's spacious home is never freezing or damp and the family doesn't shiver through the winter in extra jumpers and thermal vests.

We Made a 420 Per Cent Profit On Our Pounds 5m House ; (...And That's Enough Cash to Buy Homes Forus and Our Children)

The Notting Hill home, bought flat-by-flat over 28 years, that has now sold for a record price I am a coalminer's daughter from the Canadian Rockies, so who would have thought that one day I would sell my Notting Hill house for roughly the same value as my entire home town? And that because of this sale I can now buy homes for my two children, as well as a downsized house in Holland Park for my television-producer husband Peter Swain and myself.

Get Ready for a Cull of the 'Yvettes' ; After the Fiasco Over Hips, a Worrying Future for Inspectors Left Behind

From August 1, there is not going to be a single four-bedroom house for sale anywhere in the country. Instead, stand by to read estate agents' advertisements for farmhouses and stockbroker villas, surrounded by green acres, but with only one bedroom and 18 reception rooms. This is the prediction of Nick Salmon, of the anti-Home Information Pack pressure group Splinta, following the Government HIPs debacle last week.

At the Schoolgates

Every week in this column, schools expert LISA FREEDMAN finds out what's for sale in London's best school catchment areas Wilson's School Parents frequently move house to improve their chances of getting into a good school, but rarely does a good school decide to move nearer to them. Wilson's School was founded in Camberwell in 1615,where it remained until 1975.Then the need for more space and an unwillingness to be turned into a comprehensive forced a relocation.

Buy a Little,Rent the Rest ; Shared Ownership Was Once for Those On Low Incomes. But Now Young Professionals Struggling to Get On the Ladder Are Turning to Private Firms for Help

Shared ownership in residential property began as a mechanism to help buyers on lower incomes get a stake on the property ladder. But now it is expanding and struggling young professionals are the target. No prizes for guessing why. Average house prices in London have risen 17.5 per cent in the past two years, compared with an increase in incomes of only 6.5 per cent, according to Hometrack.

On Sale,Area by Area

Hanover Gate NW1,Pounds 550,000 Three-bedroom apartment on the lower ground floor of a portered mansion block. Reception room, kitchen, bathroom, communal gardens. Next to Regents Park and close to St John's Wood.

So Sleepy in Dorset ; Why I Live Where I Live

Actress Hermione Norris, 39, is best known for her television roles in ITV's drama Cold Feet and BBC's spy drama Spooks, and is currently appearing in the new Stephen Fry drama on ITV, Kingdom. She lives in North Kensington with her TV executive husband Simon Wheeler, 32, and their two-year-old son Wilf. She is expecting their second child. They have a second home near Lyme Regis in Dorset. I have been going on holiday in Dorset for the past 15 years. I think the west part of Dorset has the m...

Grocer's Son Who Became Lord of the Pounds 6m Manor ; Keith Skeel Couldn't Even Get a Mortgage On His First Home. Now He's Selling His Magnificent Pile in the Country Together with the Antiques He's Dealt in and Collected Over 35 Years

There can't be many stallholders selling bricabrac at Bermondsey market who have ended up owning a stately pile in the country. Yet that has been the career path of Keith Skeel, 63, a spectacularly successful antiques dealer who, in a 35-year career, has risen from market stall to the art world souk of Camden Passage in Islington, North London, and, finally, to New York, where he now spends much of his time.

Far East Ender ; (1) How One Family Returned to Clapham with Rich Pickings After a Surprise Move to the Orient (2) Design Solutions

The enormous Victorian houses a stone's throw from Clapham Common, are in great demand as family homes. But this particular one comes with the added benefit of a top-floor lateral conversion of an adjoining flat. The flat is being sold with the house but could just as easily be marketed separately. It would make wonderful staff accommodation and has its own kitchen and bathroom.

The Cosy Parkers ; the Cosy Parkers a Garage Can Be a Cool Extension to Your Home but Make Sure You Choose the Right Size

It is one of those property features many of us can only dream of having. While those in the leafy suburbs might take one for granted, the rest, who inhabit urban rabbit hutches, salivate at the mere thought of a garage. Parking your car off the street seems luxurious if you play musical parking spaces with the neighbours, but pressinga button and watching your garage door whir upwards . . .

A Designer Who Started Work Down On the Farm ; in the Garden

Chartered surveyor Fiona Gibbonswas inspired to transforma farmland 'blank canvas' If your knowledge of garden design, hard landscaping materials and plants was nonexistent, would you attempt to create your own garden from scratch? Of course not. Most would commission a professional to give their space a facelift, but not Fiona Gibbons. She decided to train as a garden designer so she could transform an acre of rough farmland into a beautiful garden.

From Lion's Den to a 'Mousehole' ; Born Free Biographer Caroline Cass Is Selling Her Beautiful Flat for Something Much Smaller so She Can Travel the World

When Caroline Cass was growing up in Kenya in the Fifties, she had an unusual playmate Elsa, the lioness immortalised in the book and the film Born Free. Many years later, Caroline, now 60, drew on her memories to write an acclaimed biography of Joy Adamson, the Austrian-born animal campaigner and author who during her time in Africa was as famous for chasing men as she was for taming the lions who made her name.

Buying Behind Closed Doors in Jerez

Private courtyards in southern Spain's walled city are proving to be the ultimate lockup-and-leave second homes for British buyers They are the ultimate lockup-and-leave homes no central heating to monitor, no lawn to mow and no security worries. In the walled city of Jerez de la Frontera, these ancient houses with tiled courtyards, fountains and grilled windows are hidden from the heat and outside world by forbidding wooden doors. While the Spanish do not covet these historic houses they p...

How to Cut the Shock of Mortgage Charges

After four interest-rate rises in ten months, it's not easy to avoid higher mortgage rates. But borrowers can still fight back against ever higher mortgage fees. Recent research shows that lenders have already dramatically increased the amount of money they charge for arranging mortgages. Financial comparison website Find.co.uk says average application fees have nearly doubled since 2004, with prices for a typical fixed- rate mortgage going from Pounds 334 three years ago to Pounds 611 today.

Home Truths

Timing is key for council debts I bought my one-bedroom maisonette in November 2005, the previous owners having bought it from the council under the right to buy scheme. I was notified by the council in July 2006 that it had finalised the service charges on the property for 2003-04 and 2004-05 and amounts of Pounds 236.26 for 2003-04 and Pounds 374.28 for 2004-05 were outstanding. The council has told me that even though I was not living in the property at the time, the debts are now mine. Is...

Eve Mcgowan

Eve McGowan on how to find the best property advice at exhibitions, online, and on TV The Grand Designs Live property show attracted more than 50,000 visitors last year and on June 8-10 it returns to London's Excel for its third year. This time the organisers are expecting to attract more than 60,000 wannabe self builders and viewers of the hit Channel 4 show and hopes to turn them into eco developers by the end of their visit.

Let Harmony Break Out This ; a Magazine for Her, a Magazine for Him

HAVE YOU seen it yet? This weekend tens of thousands of movie fans will see the first-ever Mail on Sunday cinema ad, just before they watch Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: At World's End. With a cast of thousands and production values that would grace any Hollywood blockbuster, the ad gives a hilarious take on the battle of the sexes with a nod to the opening sequence of Gladiator . . . Intrigued? If you haven't seen the ad yet, just go to www.mailonsunday.co.uk/ harmony for a private viewing.

Cameron: Grammar Rebels Are Just Class Warriors in Reverse

DAVID CAMERON today steps up his attack on Tory critics of his refusal to bring back grammar schools by claiming they are 'inverse class warriors' who are opposing him because of his Eton background. He says he has already proved his classless credentials by breaking down barriers in his party to help more women and people from black and ethnic minorities to become Conservative MPs.