Country Life Magazine (July 9, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Experts’ Experts – 185 heroes the top designers rely on; Top dogs – politics of the village show; Boar wars – what to do with wild pigs; Tea and cakes – the rise and rise of the sponge…

The experts’ experts

Giles Kime and Amelia Thorpe ask Britain’s leading lights in design to name the talented professionals who inspire and transform their own projects

The dog with the waggiest tail

Move over Crufts, the village pooch parade is the one they all want to win with local bragging rights hanging in the balance, as Madeleine Silver discovers

Rooting for the truth

Pilfering pest or beneficial ecosystem engineer? Vicky Liddell examines the often-controversial return of wild boar to Britain’s woodland

Oh, crumbs! Secrets of the sponge

How did the Victoria sponge rise to be fêted as the queen of all cakes? Flora Watkins indulges in the history of the nation’s favourite teatime treat

Philippa Thorp’s favourite painting

The interior designer chooses a powerful work that unlocks a whole range of emotions

The devil is in the detail

Minette Batters insists that the incoming Government must be held to account over the many lavish pre-election promises on food security and farming

Salvaging the vine

In the first of two articles, John Goodall charts the long, hard struggle to bring to fruition one Bishop of Lincoln’s dreams of establishing a college at Oxford

The legacy

Amie Elizabeth White brews up  a tale of 18th-century success as she celebrates Thomas Twining’s role as a tea pioneer

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell earns her summer stripes with elegant blue-and-white pieces for home and away   

Ancient and modern

George Plumptre is heartened to witness a clever modern renovation of Nash’s Picturesque vision at Sandridge Park, Devon

If you’re lookin’, you ain’t cookin’

Tom Parker Bowles harnesses the flame’s fickle power as he shares a chef’s secrets of the perfect barbecue technique

In the dock

John Wright grasps the nettle in a hands-on investigation into the powers of the dock leaf—and, he says, it is your turn next

Word on the street

Smart Duke Street in London’s St James’s is the epicentre of British art. Carla Passino meets the larger-than-life characters who put the area on the map

Go tell the congregation

Matthew Dennison can’t help but sing the praises of Isaac Watts, that most prolific of hymn writers born 350 years ago

Goodbye, James Anderson

James Fisher pays tribute to English cricket’s legendary fast bowler ahead of his farewell Test match against the West Indies

And much more‘

Country Life Magazine (July 2, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Call of the Coast’; Seaside treasure – the museum on the cliff; What a scoop – secrets of the ice-cream makers; A boatbuilder’s life, Barbie’s lore and best beach clubs…

Water, water, everywhere

Ben Lerwill drops anchor in the Thames to meet master boat-builder Mark Edwards, whose eclectic roll call of clients includes Elizabeth II and George Clooney

What’s your flavour?

Artisan ice cream makers have got it licked, says Madeleine Silver, as she checks out cones lovingly created using local milk and natural flavourings

You can be anything

Barbie is still in the pink at the age of 65. Susan Jenkins charts the ups and downs of Mattel’s often-controversial, yet still much-loved figurehead

Travel

Rosie Paterson reveals that Italy is still the place to go for unbeatable beach clubs, Richard MacKichan discovers the untouched isle of Formentera and Pamela Goodman carves out her own niche on a transatlantic cruise

Greg Mosse’s favourite painting

The writer chooses a ‘gorgeous panorama’ bursting with fellowship and rustic merry-making

Wrestling alligators in a mud hole

The country is all of a flutter in the build up to the General Election, but all bets are off for an exasperated Carla Carlisle

The legacy

Kate Green marvels at the Minack, Rowena Cade’s breathtaking cliffside amphitheatre

If I only had a brain

Increasing numbers of jellyfish are wobbling their way into British waters, but there’s no need to be alarmed, says Helen Scales

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell’s bold sunglasses leave everyone else in the shade   

Interiors

Well-thought-out garden buildings are an ideal way to get closer to Nature, suggests Amelia Thorpe

London Life

Rosie Paterson goes up, up and away for the capital’s Balloon Regatta, Levison Wood is in the hotseat, Holly Black takes the wraps off the new-look Royal Academy Schools and Jemima Sissons is on the comeback trail

Coasting ahead

The D-Day landings were planned from its shores, but today George Plumptre finds a haven of peace at Lepe House in Hampshire

Strawberry dreams

Tom Parker Bowles is seduced by the charms of the strawberry, that most flirtatious of fruits

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson savours the joy of sweet and floral apricots

The dog days aren’t done

All eyes are on St Swithin’s Day as Lia Leendertz examines what weather lore has in store