Country Life Magazine (October 15, 2024): The latest issue features…

Murder on the palace floor

John Goodall charts the rise, fall and rise again of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the Edinburgh landmark’s 900-year history

A nose for Nature

Harnessing the power of a dog’s snout can play a crucial role in protecting curlew, newts and red squirrels, discovers Alexa Phillips

England at its best

Kate Green celebrates the 70th birthday of Exmoor National Park, famed for a beguiling blend of wild beauty and farmed landscape

The hunger games

Find out what happens when the greenery bites back as Deborah Nicholls-Lee develops a taste for Britain’s carnivorous plants

Sarah Bardwell’s favourite painting

The managing director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra chooses a vibrant, glowing work   

The legacy

Conservation owes much to Dr Dick Potts, says Kate Green

This perfumed arcadia

The smooth flanks of the Downs are our oldest manmade habitat, suggests John Lewis-Stempel from a lofty perch on Caburn hill

Meet the tusk force

Paula Lester puts her stalking skills to the test as she sets out in pursuit of Chinese water deer on a Bedfordshire farm

Duck and cover

Harry Pearson hails the dandy, diving eider duck, safeguarded since the time of St Cuthbert

Once upon a time in the west

David Profumo relives the days when the fabled waters of Lewis were seemingly ‘paved with fish’

The good stuff

The advent of autumn calls for richer hues, advises Hetty Lintell

100 Interiors

Matthew Dennison recommends a pediment for a grand flourish

Where her tears fell, asters grew

Michaelmas daisies are among the shining stars of the autumn garden, declares John Hoyland

Natural beauty

Amelia Thorpe selects sculptures to adorn any outside space      

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on parsnips

Foraging

John Wright goes rooting around for the subtle, subterranean flavour of Britain’s native truffles

Gone fishing

This piscatorial profession and pastime has kept artists hooked for centuries, finds Carla Passino

Not to be sneezed at

Snuff taking is nothing to get sniffy about, argues Harry Pearson

She’s got the key, she’s got the secret

James Clarke examines The Secret Garden’s enduring appeal a century after the author’s death

Moving with the times

Michael Billington is spoilt for choice with a run of first nights