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“I’ve been brought up with one foot in the country and the other in London. My father is an arable farmer – he’s got 1,800 acres, mainly of wheat, in Suffolk. My mother, Miranda Holland, was an international couturière who used to make clothes for Elton John and Harrods. She had a fashion studio at the bottom of the garden, and I was constantly in and out of it.

“I was always keen on design and got offered places both at Central Saint Martins and the London College of Fashion, but I decided to go to the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester instead because I couldn’t bear the thought of not being able to ride my horse. I was studying international equine and agricultural business management there, but the trouble is, there’s no money in horses.

“The social life around here revolves around horses and I noticed that there wasn’t anyone making fun, individual clothes for the country scene that were appropriate for my age group. You would go to events and see girls wearing the same clothes as their mothers. I was sitting on a tractor, grain carting on my father’s farm, when the idea came into my head to glamorise tweed. I’ve spent two summers working on the farm, but it’s been contracted out now, so Daddy can retire. Farming is coming up in the world, and it’s about time, too. With arable farming, the people who’ve hung on to their farms are at last seeing some return – the price of corn has doubled since last summer. But farmers have all had to diversify to earn a living. Our farm isn’t small by any means, but even so, my father sells trailers as well – he’s the Suffolk dealer for Ifor Williams. I think we’ll always keep the farm in the family, but I’d rather have a fashion business than rely on farming.

“My skirts are mini-hipsters in brightly coloured Italian tweed; they’re sexy but they’re also practical. I do one-offs and made-to-measure, too; our cheapest summer skirt is £55 and they go up to £150. We launched two months ago at Badminton Horse Trials, and we sold out, all 78 skirts flew off the rails. Now I’ve got six people working for me and we’re going into blazers, hoodies and men’s clothes. I feel I’ve got the best of both worlds, living in the country but running a fashion business.”

Mike Millington, 75, beef farmer and shire horse breeder, Hampshire

“I was brought up with working horses. My family had a contract with the council; in those days, horses were used for carting, and we used to deliver parcels between Havant and Portsmouth. But the council stopped using horses in the Fifties. Horses are just too labour-intensive – you can’t put them in the shed at the weekend. I suppose it was nice having them around, but times move on. These days, even the breweries don’t have their own horses, and they say shires are in danger of becoming a rare breed. But mine earn a living: I’m lucky, because I’m sponsored by Fuller’s brewery, so I attend the shows for them. My horses, Major and Minor, pull a green cart with George Gale on it – that’s the name of the brewery that I was originally sponsored by, before Fuller’s took it over.

“I’m a beef farmer by trade, but I always had the horse bug, and after 20 years, I decided to buy a shire horse and it went from there. I’ve got three now, and we’ve been showing for 25 years. I’ll keep them till I drop. They’re characters, they’re like people, they’re all different. But my children aren’t really interested in them.

“I don’t get the same out of the cattle. Years ago, when we had dairy cows, you’d see them twice a day and they became individuals, they all had names. But we don’t see our cattle long enough for them to be anything but a number. In some ways we all live better nowadays, but I wonder whether life is quite as good as it was when things went a bit slower. It’s all rush. That’s probably why I like driving the horses – you have to go slowly.”

Roy Shuttleworth, 66, retired set builder, and Tony Langdown, 63, ex-Mayor of Windsor and Maidenhead, who run a ferret rescue centre, Berkshire

Tony: “Our ferrets are found in wheelie bins and gutters. People get them as kits [baby ferrets]. Then, the boys start to stink and people can’t afford to neuter them. Or they buy a jill [female] and a hob [unneutered male] and think they won’t mate because they’re brother and sister.

“Ferrets were domesticated 500 years before cats, and they make the best pets. They’re very intelligent and very naughty, a cross between a puppy and a two-year-old. I’ve got 29 and I’d have more. In a famous portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, there’s a ferret on her lap. And Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, that’s really a ferret, too – it’s too big for an ermine.”

Roy: “I’ve been working with STA Rescue for four years, raising money for ferrets. Mostly, we do racing – the ferrets run along tubes and climb over obstacles. People love it and so do the ferrets.

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