What's Your Fancy?: Plum Sykes Plans a Cotswolds Survival Kit

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In her new novel, Wives Like Us, the journalist and author Plum Sykes explores the bucolic, sharp-elbowed world of the Cotswolds, the rural British region where politicians and powerbrokers rattle around in million-pound piles. It's a world that she knows well.

“I moved to the Cotswolds about 10 years ago, to a very remote farm, to raise my children out of the city,” Sykes says. “We decided to live there full time, and then started to notice that the entire Cotswolds was being invaded by very glamorous women from New York. They were well dressed and their houses were extremely serious and glamorous—there wasn't mud or a tractor in sight, it was all Range Rovers and helicopters.”

She goes on, “It’s such a beautiful part of England that it’s attracted people who really want that bucolic weekend life, and it’s become very, very expensive. It reminded me a bit of when I wrote Bergdorf Blondes, which was about a group of Park Avenue princesses, because here was another group of princesses and I couldn’t believe nobody else had written about them, to be honest.”

In Wives, Sykes follows the dramatic lives of group of women (as well as their families and staff) who live among a series of villages—Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom, and Monkton Bottom—and keeps a sharp eye trained on the way each sees her social stock rise and fall. It’s certainly a work of fiction (and it’s more of a love letter to the world than anything else), but parts of it did come from the author’s own experiences. “I was observing everything, because of my training as a fashion writer to wonder what’s on the table, what’s in the glass, what kind of jewelry someone’s wearing,” Sykes says. “It's looking inside the super-glamorous one percent. I was really just looking around my own environment and saying, ‘right, what shall I do?’ And this was right in front of me.”

Here, Sykes shares the musts for any Cotswolds hopeful.

Hamper Tote with Waterproof Picnic Blanket

"I think this is the ultimate picnic basket, and its just the right size and shape to fit everything you need for a relaxed casual picnic. I’m not one for over-ambitious meals out of doors – but a basket filled with cucumber sandwiches, sausage rolls with puff pastry, strawberries, double cream and a bottle of rose is perfection."

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs

"It tastes so crisp and delicious, and it has the most beautiful bottle. It's also very expensive, and everyone knows it. It's the Birkin bag of champagnes. And I have to admit, it's delicious."

Chasseur Boot

“They're lined in neoprene, and you can even get a pair that's lined in leather, so they're extremely comfortable—and they're very expensive, but they last for 20 or 30 years, and all the royal family has them. The French fit means they’re very narrow on the calf, and they can be difficult to get off; you might have to use a boot pull, but it means they're a comfortable wellie while other brands can feel like a horrible pair of rubber boots.”

AGA Classic

“The reason that Aga Range Cookers are a status symbol is that they signify a kind of aristocracy. You want to have one in your kitchen, whether in London or in the country, because traditionally they were the oven in a grand country house. A Duchess might never have gone into the kitchen, but that was the oven she had—the reason being that you could heat the water and the house from the Aga. They were invented in Sweden and became a very British thing. I was brought up with an Aga, and I have one in my house in the country. They’re an amazing piece of engineering, but they also have this generational authenticity.”

Pinstripe Double-Breasted Blazer Jacket

"I just got this for summer, and it’s the best work-to-cocktail outfit I’ve ever owned. With black heels and a gold bracelet, you’re ready for anything in minutes."

Les Eaux Paris-Deauville

“Chanel is always developing perfumes and bringing out new ones. I love this one because it’s very, very light. It’s not sweet, but quite crisp and almost a little bit androgynous—you can spray it all over you and walk out the door. I just love it.”

Peony Subscription

“What I love about Flowerbx is that you sign up, you pay your subscription like you're paying for the New York Times, and flowers arrive either every week or every month, depending on which package you've chosen. It's very modern. But the main thing I love about them is that they only send you the single stems. There's no cheap foliage or filler; if you want 20 peonies, you get 20 peonies. It is properly chic flower delivery.”

Irish Sport Horse

“Having a horse in Gloucestershire or Oxfordshire is the heart of the social glue. People meet up on their horses to either go hunting or for fabulous hacks. They'll go on hacks together and stop for a picnic on the way. Cooley Farm in Ireland is the ultimate place to get either a show jumper, a competition horse, or a hunter. The Irish Sport Horse is the perfect breed, and I'm sure the British are fighting with the Americans to get the best horses from Ireland.”

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