COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features the magic, power and beauty of water, pays tribute to the king of British powerboating and enjoys the Victorian splendour of Scarborough.

Why our water is going down the drain

Investment, organisation and effort can guarantee secure water supplies for everyone in Britain, argues Lord Deben

The power of water

Kate Green surveys the surging strength of the Severn Bore, the haunting beauty of the flooded Somerset Levels, life on the edge at Dawlish and the capital’s mighty Thames Barrier.

Why every drop counts

People who work with water tell Kate Green and Mary Skipwith why we need to reconnect with our most precious resource

Up with the gulls, to bed with the owl

Patrick Galbraith experiences an eventful day in the life of the ever-changing, but enduringly beautiful Cley estuary in Norfolk

On peak form

Artists such as Turner, Bierstadt and Wolf took painting to new heights with their depictions of mountains, finds Michael Prodger

Let all the world sing

The 2026 BBC Proms promises to be a truly global spectacle, as Henrietta Bredin discovers

The queen of spas

Scarborough in North Yorkshire is the original Victorian seaside resort. Kathryn Ferry charts the development of its spa complex

The Revd Sam Wells’s favourite painting

The St Martin-in-the-Fields vicar chooses a painting where ‘magnificent humanity’ is laid bare

Country-house treasure

John Goodall unearths evidence of Bowood in Wiltshire’s wartime role as a ‘beacon of recovery’

Pooling assets

George Plumptre is charmed by the Anglo-Italian landscape at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire

The legacy

Agnes Stamp pays tribute to speed merchant Sir Max Aitken, the king of British powerboating

Winging it

Mark Cocker assesses the anti-social antics of the herring gull

Luxury

Jonathan Self ponders the power of fine jewellery and Amie Elizabeth White finds coral for all

Interiors

Arabella Youens visits a kitchen giving a nod to history, and reveals that chequerboard floors are back

Travel

Rosie Paterson is looking for a New England in Nantucket

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino investigates the intriguing tale of ‘Mad Madge’, a pioneer of science-fiction

Truth, lies and somewhere in between

Michael Billington delves into a world of deceit and infidelity

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘The Experts’ Experts’ – Country Life asks architects, designers and specialists on its Top 100 list to delve into their little black books to reveal the talented craftspeople and suppliers they turn to for inspiration on their own projects…

Why haste creates waste

Hold off on that online-shopping impulse buy — there’s no substitute for carefully crafted quality 

It’s getting hot in here

Ben Lerwill sets his tastebuds a-tingling as he meets the British chilli-sauce makers adding to the spice of life  

Luxury

If you only buy one suitcase, make it a classic GlobeTrotter, suggests Amie Elizabeth White

Winging it

Mark Cocker looks beyond the raven’s grim reputation to seek the truth about our largest corvid

Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s favourite painting

The Speaker of the House of Commons is captivated by the Westminster riverfront in a work with a photographic quality  

On top of the world

Kirsty Fergusson applauds the stamina of the hardy souls who tend the spectacular clifftop gardens at Chygurno, Cornwall 

Country-house treasure

John Goodall stands in the stead of William Tyndale behind a preacher’s pulpit at Bucklebury House in Berkshire  

The legacy

Agnes Stamp salutes Agnes Marshall, the Queen of Ices 

While the cat’s away…

David Glasper lifts the lid on the cat flap, the means by which the regal feline can come and go precisely as it pleases  

An architectural evolution

Jeremy Musson charts the rise of Selwyn College, Cambridge, from its origins as a memorial to a 19th-century missionary  

The raw deal

Tom Parker Bowles savours the lip-smacking summer freshness of that Peruvian classic ceviche 

Travel

Rosie Paterson unpacks the latest in luxury-yacht looks and follows in Frida Kahlo’s footsteps 

Arts & antiques

Beauty and function were fused in the form of the sedan chair, the conveyance of choice for the upper echelons of Georgian society, reveals Carla Passino 

Art to dine for

Intriguing art can be a meal-time conversation starter in country-house dining rooms, as Melanie Cable-Alexander discovers 

Catch of the day

Collector Paul Martin shares his tips on amassing a school of exquisite antiquarian fish prints