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COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – SEPTEMBER 16, 2026 PREVIEW

September 15, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features…

Country-house treasure

John Goodall finds a moving monument to Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, at Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire

Spreads from Country Life 16 September 2026

Are you local?

How many generations does it take for a dynasty to be bona fide rather than blow-in? Mary Skipwith visits five Cotswolds estates in search of the answer

Property market

Renovated Cotswold manor houses with light-filled interiors and contemporary layouts catch the eye of Penny Churchill

Properties of the week

Julie Harding scours all corners of the Cotswolds as she show-cases a selection of the latest honey-hued homes for sale

Paint your garden

Tiffany Daneff is charmed by the colourful, considered palette of an artist’s garden at Ham Court in Gloucestershire

Jeremy Finnis’s favourite painting

The GWCT chairman chooses a purple-tinged landscape that evokes the spirit of the Highlands

A golden fleece

An array of parish churches are an enduring legacy of the wealth generated by Cotswolds sheep farming, reveals John Goodall

The legacy

Julie Harding travels back in time with the poetic prose of Laurie Lee’s classic Cider with Rosie

The artist’s way

The redstart’s striking looks and talent for mimicry make it a favourite for Mark Cocker

Don’t follow the lights

John Lewis-Stempel tries to avoid that sinking feeling as he ponders the precarious future of Britain’s precious peat bogs

Luxury

Justine Picardie celebrates the enduring appeal of the Burberry trench and Amie Elizabeth White rests easy with sleep essentials

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe reveals how to cook up an elegant kitchen look

Countryside mystery

John Wright debunks the myth surrounding the water-retention miracle of manmade dew ponds

Travel

A revived Ottoman masterpiece is the perfect retreat on Teresa Levonian Cole’s Greek odyssey

In a league of their own

Claire Jackson peers into curious British collections dedicated to everything from dog collars to canals and cuddly toys to clocks

Strike a posy

The Victorians were the original experts at saying it with flowers. Ashleigh Arnott reads the signs

It’s a stitch up!

Julie Harding traces the tale of the needle, a darn good creation made with pin-point precision

Arts & antiques

Feats of clay will always catch the eye of Will Gompertz, as he explains to Carla Passino

The play’s the thing

Turgenev and Sir Alan Ayckbourn supply the on-stage standouts for Michael Billington this month

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – SEPTEMBER 11, 2026

September 9, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘A Season In Hell’ – Tourism on a heating planet.

California’s Big Sur coastline is often called a slice of heaven. But this year – beset by wildfires, road closures and disruptions to tourist amenities – it has endured a long summer of hell. Now questions are being asked about how many visitors it can sustain in the face of the climate crisis.

For our big story this week, Andrew Gumbel visits Big Sur, where the tourist industry accounts for about 90% of the local economy, to hear why the community fears its ethos is under threat.

The UN has warned that the El Niño climate phenomenon is “supersizing before our eyes”. Environment editor Damien Carrington reports on the latest forecasts, which predict the event is near certain to shatter temperature records.

Then, the mayors of Paris, Milan and Phoenix write about how their cities are learning from each other on responding to the heat crisis. “How do you protect millions of people,” they ask, “when extreme heat is no longer an exceptional event, but an increasingly familiar part of summer?”

Spotlight | ‘It breaks my heart’
Kate Connolly reports from Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, where voters are digesting the far-right Alternative für Deutschland’s state election triumph

Science | Forbidden planet
Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate, writes Tim Dowling

Feature | Your lying AIs
LLMs have an alarming tendency to deceive and manipulate their users. As they become ever more embedded in society, the race is on to find out why – and stop them doing it. Snigdha Poonam explains

Opinion | The route to a brighter future
The world is being driven to the brink by thugs and dictators, says Simon Tisdall, but ordinary people have more power than we think

Culture | A stitch up
As the Bayeux tapestry goes on show in London, cartoonist Edith Pritchett offers an alternative 21st century take, capturing today’s battles, while art critic Jonathan Jones reviews the British Museum’s blockbuster exhibition of the original masterpiece

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Reviews, Travel

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – SEPTEMBER 9, 2026 PREVIEW

September 8, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features…

Choices, choices

With a seemingly endless array to select from, Country Life contributors reveal the tulips they will be planting for spring.

Spreads from Country Life September 9, 2026

Catch a falling leaf

Charles Quest-Ritson is hoping for warm days and cool nights to fuel a spectacular display of countryside autumn colour

Who let the dogs out?

Music and Man’s best friend go hand in hand. Harry Pearson collars canines calling the tune

Well, hello Salar!

David Profumo heads for the West Country in the wake of his fishing hero Ted Hughes

Luxury

Jonathan Self is dazzled by Coco Chanel jewellery and Tiffany Daneff is talking trugs

George Saumarez Smith’s favourite painting

The architect chooses a bold graphic linocut of the feline form

Country-house treasure

John Goodall admires the revival of the Tapestry Drawing Room at Castle Howard, North Yorkshire

The legacy

Tiffany Daneff pays tribute to the family who cooked up the secret recipe for Pulhamite rock

Grandstand views

An inspirational outlook makes for a magnificent garden at Mount St John, North Yorkshire. Kendra Wilson surveys the scene

Hot pots

Amelia Thorpe picks standout planters to showcase top tulips

Forever flowers

Blooms of Hydrangea paniculata are a must for every garden, suggests Charles Quest-Ritson

Why build a new country house

George Saumarez Smith weighs up the allure of a new country house in place of an historic pile

A point of prospect

John Goodall finds a striking new memorial tower worth the climb at Doddington Place, Kent

Picture this

Independent rural cinemas will always offer the best big-screen experience for Madeleine Silver

Interiors

A feast of design ideas awaits visitors to key events such as Focus/26, reveals Amelia Thorpe

Back to the future

Harry Pearson meets the art conservators giving historic paintings a new lease of life

Shell we?

The secret to dressed-crab perfection is keeping it simple, as Tom Parker Bowles reveals

Lord of the flies

Fruit flies are more than a mere pest — Ian Morton reveals their critical role in medical research

New series: Countryside mysteries

Otherworldly cramp balls — or King Alfred’s cakes — fire the imagination of John Wright

Travel

Gabriella Le Breton unpacks the winter latest, from new Swiss ski lifts to the high life in Courchevel

Arts & antiques

Benvenuto Cellini’s golden Saliera is a 16th-century cellar worth its salt, as Carla Passino discovers

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – SEPTEMBER 4, 2026

September 3, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Swept Away’ – After the Nepal-Tibet flood disaster…

Over the last week, the world has watched with horror the scenes from the Tibet-Nepal border where a devastating torrent of mud, water and ice tore along the Bhotekoshi River, destroying entire communities and leaving more than 1,000 people dead and several thousand more missing.

From the Nepali town of Devighat, our south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen describes a nightmarish scene of overflowing mortuaries and unidentifiable bodies, as shellshocked survivors of the flood slowly return to the ruins of their homes.

The disaster happened after the collapse of a glacier – and while global heating has not been definitively attributed as the cause, it is undeniable that steep mountain slopes and valleys are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides, while extreme weather events such as monsoons and melting glaciers have become more common because of warming due to human-caused climate breakdown, as our global environment writer Jonathan Watts explains.

Then columnist Nesrine Malik paints a wider picture and argues that while for many people these floods may feel as though they have happened a world away, the climate crisis is coming for us all, one way or another.

Spotlight | Mark Carney shows combative nature in face-off with Trump
The Canadian PM is one of the few world leaders to stand up to the US president. Former colleagues say they are not surprised. Leyland Cecco, Heather Stewart and Kalyeena Makortoff report

Science | The robots are coming!
… Or are they? As entrants at the World Humanoid Games lurched from triumph to farce, Robert Booth finds that a robotics revolution may not be as close as it first appears

Interview | Gordon Brown on Burnham, billionaires – and a better Britain
The former UK prime minister is still shaping politics (even if he doesn’t want to interfere). He tells Charlotte Edwardes about keeping his temper, staying fit – and why he won’t splash out for a Scotland football shirt

Opinion | The tech titans must be stripped of their power, and soon
Those who said Meta harms children struck a blow, but the ability of big tech to gouge profits and cause harm is barely diminished. That’s the battle to come, argues Jonathan Freedland

Culture | Dolly Parton’s peerless career turned country music cliches inside out
Beneath the wig and rhinestones, the late US country singer was the genius behind strings of classic songs that continue to inspire new artists, says Alexis Petridis

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Reviews, Travel

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – SEPTEMBER 2, 2026 PREVIEW

September 2, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features…

Majesty reborn

Edward Impey admires the ambitious attempt to revive early-12th-century interiors at Norwich Castle keep in Norfolk

What did the Normans ever do for us?

Jason Goodwin examines how the 1066 invasion by William the Conqueror changed the character of England forever

Walk on the wild side

Nicholas Crane re-creates the 1,000-mile, 12th-century journey undertaken by Gerald of Wales, Britain’s first great travel writer

Architecture as power

The monumental castles and churches the Normans left behind still express their strength in stone, reveals John Goodall

That sinking feeling

Quicksand is the stuff of many a nightmare. Harry Pearson tries not to get sucked in

Arts & antiques

Artists have long been inspired by the Battle of Hastings, as Carla Passino discovers

Michael Whitehall’s favourite painting

The podcast co-host chooses an arresting work expressing movement and fleeting beauty

Save our seeds

Seed Detective Adam Alexander issues an appeal to gardeners to revive the Victorian tradition of gathering life-giving pips

The legacy

The fossil-hunter Mary Anning helped put palaeontology front and centre, finds Kate Green

Country-house treasure

The golden Jean Tijou gates at Burghley House in Lincolnshire catch the eye of John Goodall

New series: Countryside mysteries

In the first of a series on rural riddles, John Wright cracks the old conundrum of strip lynchets

Yell for leather

Corinne Julius meets the animal-hide experts conserving historic objects from their Leicester HQ

You little cracker

The neglected Kentish cobnut is making an overdue come-back, suggests Susan Low

Luxury

The runway returns and Amie Elizabeth White’s earthy tones

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe picks out elegant fittings to elevate the bathroom

London Life

Will Hosie asks what makes a pub a pub and eyes properties with a pop of colour, plus our writers have all you need to know this month and Gio Fio marvels at the reinvention of the north bank of the Thames

Out on the prairie

American plants may be the answer to our warming climate, reports Charles Quest-Ritson

Travel

Pamela Goodman roots around in the Nadder Valley in Wiltshire

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY —- AUGUST 28, 2026 PREVIEW

August 27, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘The forgotten health crisis’ – DRC’s Ebola outbreak passes grim milestone.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has just passed the grim milestone of 100 days since it declared its 17th Ebola outbreak.

What is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record could also become the world’s deadliest ever.

For our big story this week, Prosper Heri Ngorora and Rachel Savage report on the frontline health workers who say, as the disease spreads “exponentially”, they have been left unpaid and at risk of infection.

Explaining the figures behind the outbreak, and the race to find vaccines and treatments, global health correspondent Kat Lay answers five key questions.

And Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, write that tapping into community leadership and knowledge is essential to halting the virus’s spread.

Spotlight | ‘We will go on – but it will be more scary’
Dan Sabbagh reports from Kyiv where, as Russian missiles rain down, casualties are mounting and the mood is darkening

Environment | Killed by kindness
Scientists were surprised to find all but two of 12 grizzlies died within a year of their “feelgood” release, unable to sustain their high-calorie diet and inclined to approach humans, writes Rebecca Ratcliffe

Feature | A family at war
Meaghan Beatley tells the remarkable story of a young Argentinian activist who thought her father’s disapproval of her leftwing views was purely political. But one evening, a kiss goodbye sent her on a remarkable journey that continues today

Opinion | Marine Le Pen’s career resurrection
No longer banned from next year’s presidential election, the far-right veteran is a bigger threat than ever, says Mujtaba Rahman

Culture | Playing the bad guy
As his new film Bitter Christmas is released, legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar talks to Ryan Gilbey about Donald Trump, Netflix – and being the villain in his own movie

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Reviews, Travel

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – AUGUST 19, 2026 PREVIEW

August 19, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features…

The legacy
Kate Green hails Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water, a remarkable tale of living with otters.

Fifty years young
The King’s Trust is celebrating half a century of supporting young people. Ambassadors explain the secrets of its success and longevity to Paula Minchin.

Spreads of Country Life magazine from the August 19 issue

Country-house treasure
Intricate decorative ceilings at Thirlestane Castle, Berwickshire, catch the eye of John Goodall.

Alexander Campbell’s favourite painting
The Royal Academy of Dance artistic director is moved by a compelling nocturnal scene.

A tower house reborn
Mary Miers explores how the derelict tower house at Balgone in East Lothian has been transformed into a Classical seat.

Whisky galore
From illicitly distilled dram to tipple of choice around the globe, Henry Jeffreys raises a glass to the world’s most popular spirit.

Winging it
Mark Cocker adds the greylag goose to his Unloved Birds’ Club.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
James Fisher welcomes Joe Root back to the helm of English cricket.

Interiors
Arabella Youens admires a Blenheim estate house in Oxfordshire and Kuba is king for Amelia Thorpe.

Cool as a cucumber sandwich
This refreshing staple of English picnics is no sarnie-come-lately, reports Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she reveals its Indian roots.

Arts & antiques
Allan Scott, the scriptwriter and executive producer, tells Carla Passino why he will never part with a prized perpetual calendar.

Luxury
New columnist Justine Picardie admires the Highland influence in the late Queen’s wardrobe and Amie Elizabeth White presents a bonnie Scottish selection.

Clash of the tartans
What does it take to toss the caber and putt the stone? Harry Pearson muscles in on the heavyweight Highland Games.

Heart Nouveau
Robyne Calvert reveals how the bold Glasgow Style of art and design conquered Europe.

Travel
Rosie Paterson experiences the ultimate in luxury camping when visiting a conservation success story in Tanzania.

Rhythm and views
Three decades of dramatic planting has paid off at Craichlaw House in Dumfries and Galloway, as Kirsty Fergusson discovers.

Summer of love
A double bill of innovative open-air Shakespearean comedy benefits from dream casting, suggests Michael Billington.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY —- AUGUST 21, 2026 PREVIEW

August 19, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘End Of The Pier Show’ – What Farage’s election gamble says about the state of British politics.

The curtain came down last week on the summer sideshow of the Clacton byelection, called by Nigel Farage amid mounting scrutiny of his finances.

For our big story this week, Daniel Boffey explores what this campaign – in which the Reform UK leader’s main challenger was a parody candidate called Count Binface – tells us about the current state of politics in Britain.

Farage’s byelection win brought the situation full circle as, shortly after he was declared victor, parliament’s standards watchdog announced it had reopened its investigation into him, report Rowena Mason and Peter Walker.

Analysing the result, political correspondent Alexandra Topping brands the contest futile and says that while Farage aimed to make the financial questions surrounding him disappear, it was the MP himself who has been absent from the political stage over the past few weeks.

Spotlight | Scramble for soldiers
As battlefield losses mount, Pjotr Sauer asks whether Vladimir Putin will order another mobilisation

Science | Wing and a prayer
A disease threatening bat species has spread to northern Canada. Trina Moyles reports on the race to find a cure

Feature | A hymn to the weekend
In 1926, Henry Ford gave his employees both Saturdays and Sundays off – and the two-day chunk of time to party, pray or simply do nothing was born. Now the weekend has changed beyond recognition, says Jess Cartner-Morley

Opinion | Meet the second most dangerous man in the US
As chief US diplomat, Marco Rubio could do great good. But, says Simon Tisdall, his pandering and neglect are a disgrace we shouldn’t ignore

Culture | Through my eyes
As their new album is released, Sam Smith talks to Juan A Ramírez about fans, fame and finding sanctuary in New York

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY —- AUGUST 14, 2026 PREVIEW

August 13, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Wrecking Ball’ – How Infantino and FIFA shook planet football.

When a crisis brought on by a rash idea that results in the most prominent part of an organisation saying it will boycott the business’s showcase event doesn’t die down after a couple of weeks, observers might expect the boss to be considering his future. Not when it’s Fifa and not when it’s Gianni Infantino, the president of football’s world governing body and the subject of this week’s big story.

Jonathan Wilson’s witty account of how Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors led to the current standoff between Infantino and Fifa’s regional associations is riveting even if you are not a football fan. Jonathan explains how money, egos and some murky politicking collided to elect Infantino on the promise of reform. It’s a tale that has little to do with the sport and its ardent fans, and has far more in common with Shakespeare or a political drama. With a neat circularity, it traces how “Fifa’s attempt to move on from the crisis caused by the executive who rented an apartment for his cats in Trump Tower has wound up back in Trump Tower, with a president who rents an office there”.

Spotlight | ‘I’ll cut your throat’
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, women are being killed with impunity. A reporting team from Zan Times collects shocking evidence of femicide

Environment | Smoke alarm
As wildfires grow in frequency and spread, environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan reports of the race to untangle the links between exposure to fine particulates in smoke and increased mortality

Feature | War and language learning
Soon after her first reporting trip to Ukraine, our chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins began to learn Ukrainian. She explains how the process taught her more about herself than she had expected

Opinion | Rule breakers need regulation
The revelation that AI went rogue in test conditions should be a call for a wise US leader to back the introduction of an international rule-based order, says Rafael Behr

Culture | What’s eating Dominic Sessa?
Being cast as the lead in Tony, the biopic of bad-boy chef and Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain let Sessa immerse himself in the 1970s where, he tells Ryan Gilbey, he wouldn’t mind staying

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Reviews, Travel

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – AUGUST 12, 2026 PREVIEW

August 11, 2026 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features…

Bradley Hemmings’s favourite painting

The artistic director chooses a colourful work bursting with vitality and the spirit of summer.

Country-house treasure

A Dante Alighieri illuminated manuscript catches the eye of John Goodall at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire.

A spread of Country Life magazine with two people who are church wardens

Keepers of the keys

Tessa Waugh celebrates our dedicated churchwardens, the unsung heroes of village life who keep parishes ticking over.

The legacy

Kate Green salutes Dr William Stukeley for saving Stonehenge from destruction in the 1700s.

When we walked in fields of gold

England’s acres of harvested, honey-hued cereal fields have long provided artistic inspiration, finds Deborah Nicholls-Lee.

A spread of Country Life magazine showing a nice house

A little object worth visiting

Romantic Dangan Cottage in Co Kilkenny has been restored to its late-18th-century glory, as John Goodall discovers.

Ghosts in the grass

A scorching summer is revealing country-house garden designs of yesteryear, as our pictures show.

Cuttings not cakes

The Secret Orchard Nursery in Derbyshire wins favour for its plants rather than pots of tea, to the delight of Arthur Parkinson.

A spread of Country Life magazine showing a bathroom

Interiors

Arabella Youens admires the transformation of a South Downs Georgian gem, and everything’s gone green for Amelia Thorpe.

Travel

Rosie Paterson unpacks the latest travel trends, and Giles Kime stays at the Italian base of film director Francis Ford Coppola.

The French connection

Tom Parker Bowles is whisked to the summery South of France by freshly baked pissaladière, the delicious ‘Provençal pizza’.

A spread of Country Life magazine showing a man playing a trombone to some worms

What lies beneath

Tom Howells is in eclectic company at the World Worm Charming Championships in Cheshire.

Luxury

Jonathan Self reveals why the tiara is the epitome of glamour, and Amie Elizabeth White is drawn to the fans of Duvelleroy.

A spread of Country Life magazine with some cows on it

COUNTRY LIFE International

Julie Harding treads the Jersey Tidal Trail, savours scallops with chef Andrew Baird and celebrates the island’s 160 years of herd history, as Holly Kirkwood eyes top properties for sale and Claire Jackson hails a new era for opera.

Arts & antiques

Geoffrey Munn feels strangely drawn to the works of 18th-century art pariah Richard Dadd, as he explains to Carla Passino.