Great British Brands 2025

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Rossella Beaugié
Founder of The Thinking Traveller

• Favourite British brand? The BBC, especially its radio. Before the internet, its diverse channels and programmes kept expats connected and helped foreigners in the UK understand British culture and stay informed globally.

• Hero? Dame Sarah Gilbert, the professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford who led the team behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in record time.

• Weekend? A full immersion in nature, away from it all. One of my favourite, and the most exciting long term rewilding projects I’m aware of, is Wildland in the Scottish Highlands.

• Meal? A seafood platter – ideally on the seafront – with Whitstable oysters, scallops, crab and shrimps.

• Shop? I love the old book shops, such Daunt in Marylebone, and the University ones, like Blackwell in Oxford or the Cambridge University Press Bookshop.

• Undiscovered gem? Burgh House in Hampstead, a historic house with a lovely garden café and interesting art collection. Or further afield and unusual, I love sauna by the sea (after a kayak trip) at Blackpool Sands, run by Brya Life who are kind supporters of the Devon Environment Fund and the Conservation Collective.

• British idiosyncrasy? ‘Yes, I’d love a cup of tea.’ It sounds quite amusing to Italians and it always makes me smile , even if I’m a passionate tea lover myself.

• Car? It would be either an old white Mini (both my parents and in-laws did their honeymoon with it) or a Jaguar E-Type convertible.

• Book? The Chronicles of Narnia, with my kids. It was our favourite bedtime reading when they were little.

The Thinking Traveller, founded in Sicily in 2002, now offers a collection of houses, villas and estates across the Mediterranean.

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