Country Life Magazine (September 24, 2024): The latest issue features…

Life on the hedge

Richard Negus reveals how the ancient art of hedgelaying plays a crucial role in creating countryside highways for British Wildlife.

Playing fast and loose

Matthew Dennison unmasks the tough-talking, gun-toting highwaywomen who brazenly ruled the roads of Britain

US Special

The latest in Stateside luxury on land and sea; Charles Harris Charts the birth of Liberty; Agnes Stamp relives the golden age of transatlantic travel; Charlie Thomas gets his kicks on Route 66; Russell Higham tunes up for Newport and all that jazz; Rosie Paterson checks in on New York hotels; Tom Parker Bowles finds out what’s hot in US food; and Melanie Bryan looks at Country Life across the pond.

The Legacy

Laurence Olivier takes centre stage once more as Kate Green applauds his crucial role in the founding of the National Theatre

Foraging

It’s a magnet for dirt and earwigs, but don’t let that put you off — anyone for cauliflower-fungus cheese, asks John Wright

Love in a dry climate

Kendra Wilson marvels at the innovative design of a desert garden at Ghost Wash in the Paradise Valley, Arizona

The swing of the pendulum

It’s high time we celebrated the golden age of British horology, suggests Huon Mallalieu, as he finds out exactly what made our master clockmakers tick.

A well-resorted tavern

In the first of two articles, Jeremy Musson charts the remarkable history and preservation of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s former home in Virginia

Singing the end-of-summertime blues

A does of digging is just what the doctor ordered for John Lewis-Stempel as he attends to shake off his gloomy mood

Navigating nostalgia

Joseph Phelan is at the tiller for a joyous canal-boat journey — to the Industrial Revolution and back — on Britain’s canal network

And, as always, much much more

Country Life Magazine (September 17, 2024): The latest issue features…

The legacy

Amie Elizabeth White hails king of cutlery Harry Brearley, whose stainless-steel invention was —  like himself — ‘made in Sheffield’

Country Life’s little-known gems of the Cotswolds

Jane Wheatley swerves the honeypots to share some of the region’s lesser-known places to eat, shop, stay or unwind

Dem bones, dem bones

The world’s first named dinosaur was found in the beautiful Oxfordshire village of Stonesfield. Ben Lerwill meets the Megalosaurus

A taste of the exotic

From coatimundis in Cumbria to scorpions in Kent, Victoria Marston introduces some of Britain’s most exotic residents

One bray at a time

The stoic and devoted donkey is often misunderstood, but it is capable of melting the hardest of hearts, as Katy Birchall learns

Marking time in the Cotswolds

Penny Churchill showcases the best country houses for sale in this sought-after region

Out of the ordinary

Annunciata Elwes scours the Cotswolds property market for something a little different

Geraldine Collinge’s favourite painting

The art-gallery director chooses a spectacular, nightmarish work

Revealing the Roman Cotswolds

Clive Aslet investigates the role of antiquarian Samuel Lysons in recording the excavation of Roman villas in the Cotswolds      

Love in an elevator

Country house lifts have been going up in the world ever since Queen Victoria’s day, as Melanie Cable-Alexander discovers

Interiors

Ideas and inspiration for your kitchen, with Amelia Thorpe

Where the north wind doth blow

Tiffany Daneff is blown away by panoramic views and weatherproof planting in the garden at Coates Barn in Warwickshire

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson pairs pears with both sweet and savoury

Foraging

Oyster mushrooms are a woodland delicacy, but vegans might be put off by their carnivorous tendencies, reveals John Wright

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell is on the prowl for luxurious leopard-print pieces

Travel

Steven King heads to Hungary to discover how autumn mists make Tokaji wine irresistible

We band of brothers

Octavia Pollock marvels at the medals of yesteryear, finding that many of their mottos and motifs are works of art in their own right

Right as rain

Michael Prodger dodges the showers to examine drizzle, downpour and deluge in art

The spy who came onto the stage

The first stage adaptation of a Le Carré novel is compelling viewing, says Michael Billington

Country Life Magazine (September 10, 2024): The latest issue features…

The summit of achievement

Charles Quest-Ritson marvels at Friar Park’s ‘Henley Matterhorn’ in the superb Oxfordshire garden created by the late Beatle George Harrison and his widow, Olivia

How to time travel to spring

Now is the time to plan next year’s colourful garden display. John Hoyland advises what to plant and where for best results

Put a smile on your garden

John Hoyland hails a welcome resurgence in the popularity of pelargoniums, a stalwart that  lights up the summer garden

Sing on, sweet bird

The soothing notes of Britain’s thrushes have long provided a reassuring soundtrack to our lives. Mark Cocker tunes in

Bravery beyond belief

As the Royal Humane Society marks its 250th anniversary, Rupert Uloth recounts a host of incredible life-saving feats

 ‘Without fever there is no creation’

Henrietta Bredin examines how the colourful life of Puccini was reflected in the melodramatic plot lines of his greatest operas

Rachel Podger’s favourite painting

The leading violinist chooses an inspiring, uplifting masterpiece with a beautiful depth of colour

Happiness in small things

The challenges facing female farmers in Africa put life in perspective for Minette Batters      

The great indoors

Amelia Thorpe has the pick of planters and accessories to make the most of your houseplants

Civic splendour

John Goodall is heartened by the restoration of St Mary’s Guildhall, a symbol of Coventry’s great 14th-century prosperity

The legacy

Kate Green applauds the work of Sir Arthur Hobhouse, founding father of our national parks

Let’s get to the bottom of this

Is it a blessing or a curse to find a well on your property? Deborah Nicholls-Lee tests the water

I was on fire for you, where did you go?

David Profumo is in his element as he teases Atlantic salmon from Iceland’s low, clear waters

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell turns over a new leaf with autumn-inspired jewellery

Interiors

It’s show time! Amelia Thorpe seeks Design Week inspiration

Get your cob on

Prepare to be amazed by maize as Tom Parker Bowles savours those golden corn kernels in mouth-watering Mexican style

Foraging

Do you know a damson from a bullace? John Wright revels in the plum job of explaining it all

The colour revolution

The 19th-century development of new paints was a green light for artists, finds Michael Prodger

Colour vision

Rob Crossan catches up with the most famous and enduring face of our television screens

Country Life Magazine (September 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Otterly Wonderful’ – How Otters reconquered our rivers…

Building blocks

A sensible framework on land use must be in place before we embark on a ‘build, build, build’ crusade, argues Fiona Reynolds

‘Neither fish nor flesh’

Laura Parker charts the lore and legends attached to Lutra lutra, that bewhiskered, bright-eyed beacon of conservation

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe luxuriates in an array of elegant tubs, tiles and accessories for the bathroom

London Life

• A fresh vision of the city’s future
• Tom Parker Bowles lauds the capital’s most fêted restaurateurs
• Jo Rodgers marvels at a pop-up stationery shop

Travel

News of islands and ice

Jane Wheatley cruises the waters of Indonesia and Australia

Rosie Paterson is on a slippery slope in St Moritz

Pamela Goodman relives the ups and downs of walking on Paxos

Talk of the ton

Susan Jenkins examines the high fashion of the Regency period, from low-cut necklines to trussed-up regal sausages

Claire Booth’s favourite painting

The soprano is moved by an emotional Expressionist work that hits you between the eyes

What’s next?

Carla Carlisle is growing weary of damaging family feuds as she charts a positive way forward

Building nationhood

The meticulous restoration of Villa Golescu in Romania is a tribute to the country’s Revival style, suggests Jeremy Musson

The legacy

Kate Green celebrates the 16th-century life of William Cecil, the man who left us Burghley House      

By the light of the harvest moon

How do onion skins reveal what the winter holds in store? Lia Leendertz explores the weather lore for September

The best seat in the house

Chairmaker Finn Koefoed-Nielsen tells Nick Hammond how he met his ‘national treasure’ mentor Jim Steele thanks to Country Life

Friends in low places

Mark Cocker gives us the low-down on the miracle of moss, a wonder of the natural world that lives right under our feet

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell selects elegant bags that are bound to work for you

It started with a blank canvas

A painterly eye has transformed the gardens at Patthana in Co Wicklow into an artistic delight, reveals Jane Powers

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson revels in the soft and squishy joy of figs

Foraging

Humans have been harvesting hazelnuts for millennia and long may it continue, says John Wright