WORLD LITERATURE TODAY (June 26, 2025): The latest issue features Writing with Light – The 2025 Puterbaugh Lecture, by Guadalupe Nettel
WORLD LITERATURE TODAY – JULY 2025 PREVIEW
Tag Archives: Review
The New Criterion ——- April 2025 Preview
THE NEW CRITERION (March 15, 2025): The April issue features
The hard Frost by Brenda Wineapple
Vicar’s vision by Micah Mattix
Ambassador of dreams by Gary Saul Morson
The lush fields of allusion by Rachel Hadas
Ezra Pound & the mystery of the calling cards by William Logan
The New York Times Book Review – January 19, 2025
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 19, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Hipster Grifter’…
The Hipster Grifter Tells All
In “You’ll Never Believe Me,” Kari Ferrell details going from internet notoriety to self-knowledge in a captivating, sharp and very funny memoir.
Publishers and Authors Wonder: Can Anything Replace BookTok?
With a ban looming, publishers are hoping to pivot to new platforms, but readers fear their community of book lovers will never be the same.
Want to Get Sucked Into a Black Hole? Try This Book.
Marcus Chown’s “A Crack in Everything” is a journey through space and time with the people studying one of the most enigmatic objects in the universe.
Books on Drug Trafficking, and Kant, Line Adam Haslett’s Shelves
His new novel is titled after Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons,” he says, “given the theme of incomprehension between generations in that book.”
Country Life Magazine – December 18, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (December 10, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Christmas Double Issue’…
A story of homeliness
The Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy considers the Christmas story told in familiar rituals
Earth stood hard as iron
Frost casts a garden’s structure into sharp relief. Tiffany Daneff enters a sparkling world
The Very Revd Jo Kelly-Moore’s favourite painting
The Dean of St Albans chooses a canvas full of uplifting light for dark times
The legacy
Kate Green pays tribute to Dame Ninette de Valois, the ‘godmother of ballet’
Where Britain’s first saint lies
In the first of two articles, John Goodall traces the saintly history of the ancient abbey church of St Albans, Hertfordshire
Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet
The feisty robin is the undisputed avian king of Christmas. Mark Cocker wonders why
It’s a most wonderful time of the year
From weaving wreaths to corralling choristers, the work is ramping up for country people, who talk to Kate Green and Paula Lester
Baby, it’s gold outside
Catriona Gray meets the artists capturing Nature’s beauty in gold
Silence is golden
Stop and listen to Nature’s voice, urges John Lewis-Stempel
Each year you bring to us delight
Hanging treasured decorations is all part of the magic. Matthew Dennison opens the bauble box
Look out! Look out! Jack Frost is about
Deborah Nicholls-Lee dares to unveil the mysterious figure
The Editor’s Christmas quiz
Take on our quizmaster — and, more importantly, your family and friends
Anyone for indoor cricket?
Melanie Cable-Alexander buckles up for riotous country-house-corridor games
No Risk, no reward
Harry Pearson takes over the world with the classic board game
Make ’em laugh
Jonathan Self chortles at British comedy
The Christmas Story: ‘Bring me flesh and bring me wine’
The spirit of Christmas works its magic on a curmudgeonly baronet in Kate Green’s tale
Interiors
Natural scents win for Arabella Youens
While shepherds watched their flocks
The sheep and its patient guardians have long delighted artists, finds Michael Prodger
Luxury
Knitting, diamonds and Giles Coren’s treats
It takes a village
Is the perfect rural habitation real, wonders John Lewis-Stempel
Don’t mince your words
Modern mince pies are but pale shadows of the past, believes Neil Buttery
You’re one hot roast potato
Who can resist a roastie? Not Emma Hughes, nor anyone else in their right mind
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson builds a gingerbread house
That’ll do, pig
Glazed and succulent, the Christmas ham is the king of the feast for Tom Parker Bowles
Lay, lady, lay
Give wine time to age, urges Harry Eyres
Crown Him with many crowns
John Lewis-Stempel gathers in the holly, once divine diadem, now a cow’s Christmas feast
The straw that broke the camel’s back
Labour’s family-farm tax will mean ruin for a beleaguered sector, says Minette Batters
‘Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional’
Sam Leith opens the well-worn covers of the childhood books we will always cherish
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
From frogs to rat armies, the natural world has inspired countless ballets. Laura Parker straps on her pointe shoes for the bunny hop
Highlights, delights and lowlights
Michael Billington awards his accolades to the stars — and the scourges — of the stage
Spectres of the feast
Operas with food and wine may be rousing, but there are perils, warns Henrietta Bredin
Unputdownable: the page turners of 2024
Country Life reviewers select their top books
Country Life Magazine – December 4, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (December 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Full English’ – Why our homegrown style is back….
London Life
- Richard MacKichan finds Sir Paul Smith rockin’ around Claridge’s Christmas tree
- Catriona Gray meets the movers and shakers of the capital’s art world
- All you need to know this month in the capital
Caroline Moorehead’s favourite painting
The author selects a portrait that shows the ‘very essence of what it was to be Sicilian’
The world turned upside down
Carla Carlisle—wife of a farmer and a diversifier extraordinaire— offers an insider’s view on the Government’s ‘Great Betrayal’
What to look for in winter
Now is not the time to hibernate, suggests John Wright, as he encourages us to appreciate the countryside’s stark, intricate beauty in these colder months
Putting in a Good Word
Lucy Denton delves into the remarkable history of Stationers’ Hall, the central London home of the Worshipful Company of Stationers for the past 400 years
The legacy
Amie Elizabeth White hails Henry Cole, inventor of Christmas cards
The rocky-pool horror show
John Lewis-Stempel loves to be beside the seaside as he examines the enduring appeal of England’s glorious coastline
Bowler me over
Matthew Dennison tips his hat to the rural origins of the bowler as he celebrates its 175th birthday
A touch of frost
Beware an ill wind blowing us into 2025, warns Lia Leendertz
Piste de résistance
Joseph Phelan finds a business on an upslope when he visits the last ski-maker in Scotland
Eyes wide shut
Sleep in art is often drunken, deadly or the stuff of nightmares, but rarely is it peaceful, as Claudia Pritchard discovers
Size matters
Charles Quest-Ritson cranes his neck to take in the sheer scale of the specimens at West Sussex’s Architectural Plants
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson on sprouts
Travel
- Life in Grenada quickly grows on Rosie Paterson
- Catamarans and cabanas
- Jamaica’s Blue Mountains are heaven for Steven King
- Fine dining is the holy grail for Pamela Goodman
Country Life Magazine – November 27, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (November 26, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Advent Calendar Special’…
The master builder
Carla Passino is captivated by floral photographs that evoke 17th-century still-life paintings
A little mite with a mighty heart
She may be tiny, but Jenny wren certainly makes her presence felt, declares Mark Cocker
Worth its weight in gold
There’s more to myrrh than meets the eye, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee
Now that packs a punch
Lucien de Guise is bowled over by the intoxicating concoctions mixed by Dickens and George IV
Pie say!
Neil Buttery tucks into the tale of the Yorkshire Christmas Pye
Christmas gifts
Pick out those perfect presents with a helping hand from Hetty Lintell and Amie Elizabeth White
Mayara Magri’s favourite painting
The Royal Ballet dancer selects an inspiring, transformative work
Hardy and the country house
The author’s Wessex is brought to life in Jeremy Musson’s words and Matthew Rice’s drawings
Beauty by numbers
Deborah Nicholls-Lee is fascinated by fractals, the exquisite, ever-repeating patterns in Nature
The fall of Albion
John Lewis-Stempel urges us to rediscover our love of heathland, now a rarer habitat than rainforest
Get a Grip
Andrew Green rounds up the animals in Dickens’s life and work
First out of the lychgate
Jack Watkins explores the folklore and function of the lychgate
Little things that make a big difference
Our guide to entertaining in style
Thank you for the memories
From flying a Spitfire to sushi-making, the COUNTRY LIFE team puts gift experiences to the test
The legacy
Kate Green reveals how Sir David Willcocks changed the sound of Christmas with Carols for Choirs
Luxury
Hetty Lintell on saunas, socks, silk bows and precious stones
Now we’re just some gadgets that you used to know
Neil Buttery sorts the pudding prick from the tongue press
Lid pro quo
Rob Crossan talks Tupperware
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson on cabbage
It’s always darkest before the dawn
A black fox illuminates a dreary dawn for John Lewis-Stempel
Let’s go to the movies
Victoria Marston looks back at classic film posters
It takes the biscuit
Matthew Dennison explores the tin-novations that made Huntley & Palmers a household name
Forever a chorister
Sarah Sands shares how choral singing shaped the life of her late brother Kit Hesketh-Harvey
‘What a good boy am I’
Ian Morton investigates the real meanings of our nursery rhymes
The great astral sneeze
Harry Pearson finds out why this is the year of the Northern Lights
Country Life Magazine – November 20, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (November 20, 2024): The latest issue features Winston Churchill – The wit and wisdom of the great man…
‘Let us go forward together’
As we approach the 150th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s birthday, Amie Elizabeth White and Octavia Pollock pay homage to the great man, in his own words.
Entertaining His Majesty
In the second of two articles, John Goodall charts the 1560s and 1620s expansion of Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire
Landscape of ‘seamless sameness’
England’s heather moorland and its glorious purple swathe is a wonder of the Western world, suggest John Lewis-Stempel
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Do you know a Yonerywander from a Vinvertuperator? Engage your inner Edward Lear as Daniel McKay welcomes you into his wacky world of whimwondery
Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, jelly made of paint
Food, glorious food is fuelling the creativity of modern still-life artists discovers Catriona Gray
Sex, lies and sewing machines
The sewing machine rose to be an emblem of domesticity, but its invention is a story of Saints and Singers. Matthew Dennison follows the thread
Interiors
Raze to the ground or renovate? Has the open-plan layout had its day? Cart shed or garage? Giles Kime considers some key architectural conundrums
Wisley reinvented
John Hoyland is captivated by the spectacular transformation of Piet Oudolf’s double borders at the RHS garden in Surrey
Some like it hot
If you like your chili ‘hotter than the hinges of hell’, Tom Parker Bowles has just the dish for you (and there’s not a bean in sight)
Wooden walls restored
John Goodall lauds a decade-long project to rescue a unique painted church at Ursi, Romania
Country Life Magazine – November 6, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (November 5, 2024): The latest issue features…
The legacy
Kate Green salutes Lt-Col John McCrae for giving us the poppy as a symbol of remembrance
Fake it ’til you make it
Nature’s mimics and frauds are full of cunning survival tricks, as Laura Parker discovers
Gentleman’s Life
- Simon Mills walks a wardrobe tightrope
- Matthew Dennison charts the rise and fall of the waistband
- Hetty Lintell’s pick of the latest fashions in orange, brown, pink and more
- Harry Pearson finds there’s nothing like a ’tache to divide opinion
- Nicholas Foulkes marvels at rare métiers d’art timepieces
- Jonathan Self examines the allure of the exotic menagerie
- Tom Parker Bowles savours oysters, the food of love
Emma Ridgway’s favourite painting
The Foundling Museum director selects a captivating, life-size portrait of performing choir girls
The Sound and the Fury
Carla Carlisle tries to look on the sunny side, but remains on the alert for ‘tragedy and trouble’
Nine towers on high
John Martin Robinson examines two Lancashire powerhouses: Lathom House and Knowsley Hall
London Life
- Get your skates on at Somerset House
- Jo Rodgers seeks out the best Sunday roasts
- William Hosie toasts London pubs
A life lived, a dream dreamt
Inscriptions etched by soldiers are a window into the First World War, suggests David Crossland
Are you feeling Broad-minded?
The wondrous wetlands of East Anglia are a marshy, manmade marvel for John Lewis-Stempel
Whispers of winter
Lia Leendertz weighs up the chances of an Indian summer
Conversations on conservation
A 1974 country-house revolution was a major turning point for our old buildings, says Simon Jenkins
Digging for victory and veg
The Anderson shelter was a war-time lifesaver in more ways than one, reveals Russell Higham
Interiors
Bright ideas with Amelia Thorpe
Swaying in rhythm
Tilly Ware applauds the bold planting in The Old Vicarage garden at Wormingford, Essex
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson harnesses the nutritious punch of cauliflower
Foraging
John Wright urges caution as he extols the virtues of blewits, the most tasty of wild mushrooms
Travel
- Rosie Paterson shares the latest in luxury travel news
- Mark Hedges celebrates a mile-stone birthday in style at a villa in Mallorca
- Pamela Goodman gets a buzz on a Spanish holiday
The bare Bone
Mary Miers assesses the career of Sir Muirhead Bone, the first of Britain’s Official War Artists
Country Life Magazine – October 30, 2024 Preview
Country Life Magazine (October 30, 2024): The latest issue features…
Zandra Rhodes’s favourite painting
The fashion designer chooses a colourful, cheering scene.
A home reborn
Magnificent Knowsley Hall, Lancashire, has been rescued from institutional use through an admirable restoration project and is once again a home, discovers John Martin Robinson.
The Legacy
Amie Elizabeth White dons a Blue Peter badge to salute the show’s creator, John Hunter Blair.
Heal the land, heal the waters
Our precious rivers hold myriad life forms, yet have been sullied by the hands of humans. John Lewis-Stempel urges us to take care of them.
You’ve got peemail
Dogs, bats and other creatures keep up with the news through sniffing and sensing. Laura Parker reports on the animal kingdom’s telegraph system.
The ghost hunters
Deep in a glad or underwater, our rarest plants defy discovery. Peter Marren joins the quest.
Let Nature never be forgot
A cornucopia of delights awaits Tiffany Daneff in Alan Titchmarsh’s Hampshire garden, with secluded seats, ponds and plenty of space for wildlife.
The Renaissance men
Well-educated and curious, the British tourists with an eye for art laid the foundations of our great collections, finds Michael Hall.
Return to the steppe
Teresa Levonian-Cole boards the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express to traverse Uzbekistan, a land brimming with art, history and caviar.
And, as always, much much more, including luxury, recipes, interior inspiration and gardens.
Country Life Magazine – October 16, 2024 Preview
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
Boomers Daily 