Tag Archives: Great Britain

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – SEPTEMBER 24, 2025

Cover of Country Life 24 September 2025

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features St Michael’s Mount at low tide.

The roads less travelled

Now you see them, now you don’t: Roger Morgan-Grenville treads the ephemeral sea paths of Britain, those often-ancient routes at the mercy of the tides

Spreads from Life Country Life 24 September 2025

A stitch in time

Deborah Nicholls-Lee unearths Mr Darcy’s shirt, Bertie Wooster’s dressing gown and Poldark’s tricorn hat in a fascinating trawl through the Cosprop wardrobes

Property market

A quartet of significant West Country houses is seeking buyers, reports Penny Churchill

Properties of the week

A Devon longhouse, Cornwall cottage and Somerset thatch catch Arabella Youens’s eye

Spreads from Life Country Life 24 September 2025

When your art is in the right place

To whom do the experts turn for the best in framing, restoring and valuing? Leading art and antique dealers open their little black books for Amelia Thorpe

Leslie MacLeod Miller’s favourite painting

The impresario picks a portrait of a 19th-century singing sensation

Country-house treasures

The fortunes of a Cumbrian castle rest with the ‘Luck of Muncaster’, finds John Goodall

A Regency prospect

Steven Brindle looks at the remarkable story behind a fine Georgian creation — Samuel Wyatt’s Belmont House in Kent

Spreads from Life Country Life 24 September 2025

The legacy

Emma Hughes toasts the genius of Dennis Potter, the man who gave us the darkly comic and gritty Singing Detective

Beginning to see the light

John Lewis-Stempel and his dogs are up with the skylark to witness the dawning of a spectacular September day

Luxury

Amie Elizabeth White on tartan, tweed, timepieces and fruity jewels, plus a few of Victoria Pendleton’s favourite things

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe admires the makeover of a guest bedroom at a Scottish country house and picks the best bedside tables

Spreads from Life Country Life 24 September 2025

Plum advice

Charles Quest-Ritson shares his favourite forms of plum, gage, mirabelle and damson from the 20-plus varieties he has grown

Slightly foxed

Second-hand bookshops can be a goldmine of gardening wisdom, says John Hoyland

Scale model

David Profumo is transported back to childhood by the spiny, swashbuckling stickleback

Travel

Mark Hedges takes a break from reality on Bryher, a heather-clad haven in the Isles of Scilly

Arts & antiques

Art dealer John Martin tells Carla Passino why he can never part with a panel he stumbled upon by Nigerian sculptor Asiru Olatunde

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – JULY 16, 2025 PREVIEW

Cover of Country Life 16 July 2025

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features the sustainability special, looking at the animals who are saving our landscape, solar power, and the best of the Proms.

Spreads from Country Life 16 July 2025

Give us, this day, our sustainable daily bread

From eating better-quality meat to buying seasonal and local produce, Jane Wheatley suggests how we can shop smart to aid the environment

Solar, so good

Banks of solar panels covering farmland have sparked much opposition, but, with local input, could they be a force for good, wonders William Kendall

No job too big

Kate Green trumpets the native breeds best suited to grazing Britain’s green and pleasant land, as our farmers walk a fine line balancing food production and biodiversity recovery

Spreads from Country Life 16 July 2025

‘It’s terrifying, but also an absolute dream’

Henrietta Bredin talks to Errollyn Wallen, Master of the King’s Music, about composing in a lighthouse and going on stage

Liz Fenwick’s favourite painting

The novelist picks a trailblazing nude by the first female RA

A passion for plasterwork

John Goodall discovers a neo-Classical delight when he takes a peek behind the unassuming frontage of a Swansea terrace

Spreads from Country Life 16 July 2025

The legacy

Kate Green admires Rachel Carson’s seminal Silent Spring

A wing and a prayer

Hannah Bourne-Taylor extols the importance of feeding over the ‘hungry gap’ to help our beleaguered farmland birds

Spreads from Country Life 16 July 2025

Country Life’s Little Green Book

We all want to shop well, but how to decipher the marketing? Madeleine Silver picks a handful of brands that do what they say

Spreads from Country Life 16 July 2025

The good stuff

Let those bangles jangle, urges Hetty Lintell, with her bracelet pick

Interiors

Arabella Youens admires the rich refurbishment of a Scottish fishing lodge and laments the scarcity of trusty English oak

True grit

Gravel gardens are becoming ever more popular, but what are the secrets to making them a success, wonders Non Morris

Spreads from Country Life 16 July 2025

Winging it

The ‘flying barn door’ that is the magnificent white-tailed eagle is returning to our shores. Mark Cocker, for one, is very glad

Arts & antiques

A lost technique is being revived by a Swiss sculptor, as pioneer-ing women of science are celebrated, reveals Carla Passino

War and peace

Tom Young’s intricate, powerful paintings capture the beauty and the heartbreak of Lebanon. Octavia Pollock meets him

All the world on one stage

Michael Billington finds Ralph Fiennes at his brooding best as Sir David Hare’s engrossing new play premieres in Bath

Country Life Magazine – April 2, 2025 Preview

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (April 1, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Smaller Country Houses’; The Maldives unpacked; How to grow a magnificent magnolia and The Portmeirion phenomenon and secret pillboxes…

Interiors

The art of conversation can be aided by a carefully configured drawing room, says Emma Burns of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler

All ‘Clough-ed up’

Ben Lerwill marks 100 years of Portmeirion in North Wales, the outlandish architectural creation of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis

Spreads from Country Life 2 April 2025

Property market

Arabella Youens casts her eye over compact country estates in Dorset, Devon and Hertfordshire

A prince among plantsmen

Charles Quest-Ritson is wowed by the memorable magnolias among the 6,000 plants in the Kent garden of Maurice Foster

Spreads from Country Life 2 April 2025

Travel

Libby Brodie and Rosie Paterson explore the magnificent Maldives and Pamela Goodman shares not so fond memories of cheese fondue

Zoë Wanamaker’s favourite painting

The actress chooses a vibrant work bursting with the light, colour and energy of spring

A house of many inspirations

Jeremy Musson marvels at the amazing transformation of 300-year-old farm buildings at High Wardington House, Oxfordshire

Spreads from Country Life 2 April 2025

The legacy

Kate Green pays tribute to Joe Henson, a ‘true gentleman’ who led the way in safeguarding some of our favourite native breeds

From this slumber you shall wake

Numbers have plummeted in the past 20 years, but plans are afoot to revive the fortunes of the hazel dormouse, reveals Jack Watkins

The good stuff

Immortalise your beloved pet in a beautiful piece of bespoke jewellery, suggests Hetty Lintell

London Life

Amie Elizabeth White embarks on the capital’s Big Egg Hunt, Country Life writers present all the titbits you need to know this month and Huon Mallalieu takes a trip down memory lane as he recalls the colourful characters of Booksellers’ Row

Foraging

John Wright lauds elderflower for its ‘scent beyond compare’

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino delves into the beauty, birds and beasts in the kingdom of J. M. W. Turner

Close to your chest

Huon Mallalieu investigates how the chest of drawers has gradually made itself at home in every room of the house

A song of the four seasons

Henrietta Bredin applauds the fusing of poetry and music in the exquisite song cycle ‘Seasons’

Country Life Magazine – February 12, 2025 Preview

Van Gogh's bedroom on the cover of Country Life

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 11, 2025): ‘The Fine Art Issue’ features ‘What makes an Old Master?’….

Let the art rule the head

The UK’s status as a world leader in creative industries will be in peril if we fail to nurture art-and-design skills in our schools, argues Tristram Hunt

Let’s fall in love

Laura Parker investigates the boxing, croaking, crooning, dad dancing and even murder that passes for courtship ritual in the animal kingdom

Beauty and the blimp

Could a new airship designed in Britain deliver eco-friendly aviation, asks Charles Harris

Country Life 12 February 2025

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe picks out glass acts in world of garden rooms, greenhouses and orangeries

Soup-er charged

Tom Parker Bowles reveals how to beef up a boozy, hot-as-Hades French onion soup

A leap in the dark

The play of light and shade has long defined Western art. Michael Hall examines what Constable called ‘the chiaroscuro of nature’

The Duke of Richmond’s favourite painting

The owner of Goodwood picks a work that reflects the sporting history of the West Sussex estate

Three wishes for food and farming

Minette Batters calls for the UK to set a self-sufficiency target for producing its own food

Nature and nurture

In the final article of a three-part series, Tim Richardson ponders the innovation and imagination behind the wonderful grounds at Bramham Park, West Yorkshire

Bramham Park

The legacy

Amie Elizabeth White applauds altruistic John Ritchie Findlay, who paved the way for Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell backs a winner with a range of horseshoe jewellery

Light work

Tiffany Daneff is dazzled by the transformation of a dark London garden into a light-filled oasis

Foraging

Winter mushrooms are a rarity, but the striking velvet shank earns John Wright’s approval as a welcome addition to game pie

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino marvels at the masterpieces amassed by Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart as the works go on show in London

Wick me up before you go-go

The wick trimmer’s work was never done in candlelit times, discovers Matthew Dennison

Country Life Magazine – February 5, 2025 Preview

Cover of Country Life February 5, 2025

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 5, 2025): The ‘Travel Issue’ features The Romance and Risk of a Big Adventure….

The inimitable Wodehouse

Roderick Easdale marvels at the ‘pure word music’ of P. G. Wodehouse, whose aristocratic comedies are still treasured as English-language classics

All I have to do is dream

Nod off with Tree Carr as she investigates what it means when our sleeping hours are filled with enchanting visions of wildlife and the natural world

London Life

· Giles Kime admires The Goring’s stylish new look

· All you need to know in the capital this month

· Arabella Youens visits the best second-hand markets

Travel

· Richard MacKichan dives into Canada

· Kate Eshelby treks across Pakistan

· Rosie Paterson takes a chance on Italy

· Adam Hay-Nicholls follows in Bond’s tyre tracks in the Swiss Alps

Country Life 5 February 2025

· Rosie Paterson ventures into the US wilderness

· Hetty Lintell selects top travel accessories

· Christopher Wallace relives a Cape Town-to-Cairo adventure

· Pamela Goodman visits a faithful old geyser

Jason Goodwin’s favourite painting

The writer and historian selects a pencil drawing alive with energy

Ruin and rebirth

In the second of three articles, John Goodall tells how Bramham Park in West Yorkshire rose from the ashes of an 1828 fire

Country Life 5 February 2025

The legacy

Octavia Pollock places David Garrick centre stage for his role in revolutionising the theatre

Interiors

The latest lamps and lighting options, with Amelia Thorpe

Pottery winners

Tiffany Daneff talks terracotta with Beth Tarling, a Cornish collector with a passion for flowerpots

Foraging

All flash and no flavour — John Wright pans the scarlet elfcup

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino reveals the tale of the Royal Academy’s Prince and ponders the identity of the sitter for a 16th-century Venus

Let there be light

Matthew Dennison enlightens us on the history of the chandelier from its origins as a candlelit ‘crown of shimmering gold’

Alright, petal

Catriona Gray meets the talented botanical illustrators celebrating 30 years of chronicling Chelsea Physic Garden’s plant collection

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – January 29, 2025 Issue

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (January 28, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ – The wonderful thing about Springers…

Full of the joys of spring(ers)

The non-stop English springer is still our number one working spaniel, reveals Matthew Dennison, as he delves into this enthusiastic, energetic breed

Snake, rattle and roll

Rob Crossan investigates the deeply spiritual origins of that enduring family board-game favourite Snakes and Ladders

Heard it on the radio

The wireless broke new ground as the first form of home-based mass entertainment and is still going strong in the age of the smart speaker, finds Ben Lerwill

Friends with benefits

Nematodes are a natural way to halt the march of all manner of garden pests and Charles Quest-Ritson is a convert

Mould and behold

Josiah Wedgwood was a brilliant businessman with a remarkable social conscience. Tristram Hunt assesses his life and legacy

Catch us if you can

Owain Jones sizes up six of the best as he picks out the players to watch in this year’s Guinness Six Nations rugby extravaganza

Roger Morgan-Grenville’s favourite painting

The conservation campaigner selects a work that inspired his lifelong obsession with seabirds

A Palladian premonition

Richard Hewlings offers a fresh analysis of the architecture at Bramham Park, a highly original West Yorkshire country house

The legacy

Kate Green remembers Robert FitzRoy, the founder of the Met Office whose name lives on in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast

Dear country diary

Paul Fleckney flicks through The Guardian’s Country Diary, which has offered a snapshot of rural life for more than 120 years

Interiors

The best stoves and fireplaces picked by Amelia Thorpe, plus the alternatives to burning logs

Luxury

Hetty Lintell’s top timepieces and James Haskell’s favourite things

Magnificent mahonias

Charles Quest-Ritson makes the case for mahonias, arguing that their pleasantly scented flowers are a seasonal delight

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson pairs peppery horseradish with salmon fillets

Ring-dove beauteous!

John Lewis-Stempel coos over the much-maligned wood pigeon, that canny, keen-eyed and fast-flying stalwart of our countryside

Country Life Magazine – January 15, 2025 Preview

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (January 14, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Totally Tropical’ – The gardens of Tresco, where anything grows…

Totally tropical taste

Tiffany Daneff savours the exotic surroundings of Tresco Abbey Garden, where the temperate climate of the Isles of Scilly has created a colourful paradise

Box of tricks

The devastation of box blight is well documented, but what can we do to save our hedges?  Charles Quest-Ritson investigates

Now that’s what I call pulling power

The ox may have disappeared from the fields of Britain, but that mighty beast of burden still plays a huge role in agriculture across the globe, finds Laura Parker

 ‘Make way for Her Majesty’s gloves!’

You’ve got to hand it to Cornelia James, suggests Katy Birchall, as she recounts the incredible rise to prominence of our late Queen’s favourite glove-maker

Amie Atkinson’s favourite painting

The actress selects a heavenly landscape that has fired her imagination since childhood

The legacy

Tiffany Daneff pays tribute to Beth Chatto, whose ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy inspired her Essex dry garden

Top seats

The best chairs and benches for the garden, with Amelia Thorpe

Cool schools

Non Morris taps into the expert knowledge of Troy Scott-Smith, Charles Dowding and Tom Stuart-Smith as she digs into some of Britain’s best garden courses

Town versus Earl

John Goodall charts the history of The Lord Leycester and its outstanding medieval buildings in Warwickshire that have been given a whole new lease of life

See you on the top deck

To celebrate the centenary of London’s covered double-decker bus, Rob Crossan hops aboard for a whistle-stop tour of our capital’s public transport

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell keeps her cool with a sparkling selection of jewellery inspired by ice

Interiors

Arabella Youens admires a sitting room in London and Amelia Thorpe answers the call of the wild with animal accessories

Kitchen garden cook

Earthy leeks take centre stage in winter for Melanie Johnson

Be still, my beating art

An obsession with Emma, Lady Hamilton led painter George Romney to produce his finest pieces, reveals Carla Passino

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Dec. 13, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (December 11, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The tragic Queen of France’ – The legend of Marie Antoinette; William Dalrymple’s Indian empire; Mary Beard – A night at the museum; The coffee house scientist; What Kindle readers want…