Country Life Magazine (December 10, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Christmas Double Issue’…
A story of homeliness
The Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy considers the Christmas story told in familiar rituals
Earth stood hard as iron
Frost casts a garden’s structure into sharp relief. Tiffany Daneff enters a sparkling world
The Very Revd Jo Kelly-Moore’s favourite painting
The Dean of St Albans chooses a canvas full of uplifting light for dark times
The legacy
Kate Green pays tribute to Dame Ninette de Valois, the ‘godmother of ballet’
Where Britain’s first saint lies
In the first of two articles, John Goodall traces the saintly history of the ancient abbey church of St Albans, Hertfordshire
Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet
The feisty robin is the undisputed avian king of Christmas. Mark Cocker wonders why
It’s a most wonderful time of the year
From weaving wreaths to corralling choristers, the work is ramping up for country people, who talk to Kate Green and Paula Lester
Baby, it’s gold outside
Catriona Gray meets the artists capturing Nature’s beauty in gold
Silence is golden
Stop and listen to Nature’s voice, urges John Lewis-Stempel
Each year you bring to us delight
Hanging treasured decorations is all part of the magic. Matthew Dennison opens the bauble box
Look out! Look out! Jack Frost is about
Deborah Nicholls-Lee dares to unveil the mysterious figure
The Editor’s Christmas quiz
Take on our quizmaster — and, more importantly, your family and friends
Anyone for indoor cricket?
Melanie Cable-Alexander buckles up for riotous country-house-corridor games
No Risk, no reward
Harry Pearson takes over the world with the classic board game
Make ’em laugh
Jonathan Self chortles at British comedy
The Christmas Story: ‘Bring me flesh and bring me wine’
The spirit of Christmas works its magic on a curmudgeonly baronet in Kate Green’s tale
Interiors
Natural scents win for Arabella Youens
While shepherds watched their flocks
The sheep and its patient guardians have long delighted artists, finds Michael Prodger
Luxury
Knitting, diamonds and Giles Coren’s treats
It takes a village
Is the perfect rural habitation real, wonders John Lewis-Stempel
Don’t mince your words
Modern mince pies are but pale shadows of the past, believes Neil Buttery
You’re one hot roast potato
Who can resist a roastie? Not Emma Hughes, nor anyone else in their right mind
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson builds a gingerbread house
That’ll do, pig
Glazed and succulent, the Christmas ham is the king of the feast for Tom Parker Bowles
Lay, lady, lay
Give wine time to age, urges Harry Eyres
Crown Him with many crowns
John Lewis-Stempel gathers in the holly, once divine diadem, now a cow’s Christmas feast
The straw that broke the camel’s back
Labour’s family-farm tax will mean ruin for a beleaguered sector, says Minette Batters
‘Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional’
Sam Leith opens the well-worn covers of the childhood books we will always cherish
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
From frogs to rat armies, the natural world has inspired countless ballets. Laura Parker straps on her pointe shoes for the bunny hop
Highlights, delights and lowlights
Michael Billington awards his accolades to the stars — and the scourges — of the stage
Spectres of the feast
Operas with food and wine may be rousing, but there are perils, warns Henrietta Bredin
Unputdownable: the page turners of 2024
Country Life reviewers select their top books
Boomers Daily 