The Cotswolds weekend getaway where you can play your own game of the Traitors
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As the thirds series of popular reality show kicks off, Antonia Windsor reveals how you can play your own version of the game – complete with sprawling country house. I was sitting in the sauna of Gulliver’s Hall, the immaculate party house in Gloucestershire, with my old friend Jack, when suddenly the conversation turned serious. A few moments ago we’d been catching up on what had been going on in our lives over the past couple of years, but now the conversation had taken a turn.
![[The master bedroom inside Gulliver’s Hall]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/01/30/14/156250-highres.jpg)
“You’d tell me wouldn’t you?”, he said to me, looking deep into my eyes. “Can I trust that you’re faithful?”. I quizzed my friend Carla during a game of croquet, tried to work out if Nic was lying to me while we soaked in the hot tub and decided Alice was telling the truth as we pushed our children on the rope swing.
![[What a welcome: ‘The Traitors’ flapjack waiting for guests at Gulliver’s Hall]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/01/30/13/IMG_1757.png)
My friends and I first played mafia together nearly 20 years ago when we were all in the same class at the Oxford School of Drama. For those who haven’t watched The Traitors, it’s a slightly more complicated version of wink murder, where players are assigned the role of either villagers or mafia – or faithful or traitors, as they’re known in the TV game. The faithful must work out who the traitors are by paying close attention to everyone’s behaviour and body language, while the traitors have to blatantly lie to their friends – which is why our drama school favoured it as an acting game.
![[Serious discussions at the first round table, with Antonia’s daughter Zayla as ‘Claudia’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/01/30/12/IMG_1790.png)
Read more: Visit the Scottish town that is at its best in winter. We timed our weekend reunion with the final of the last series The Traitors back in January, driving from our various bases around the UK and convening in the large country kitchen of the seven-bedroom farmhouse. The giant table, which had been created from an oak tree that fell in the grounds 50 years ago, easily accommodated our tribe of 19 people for a welcome meal cooked by the couple who had the least distance to travel. Eleven kids at one end and eight adults at the other.
![[When not playing games, the pool house is a perfect place to hang out]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/01/30/14/156300-highres.jpg)
