Country Life Magazine (May 14, 2024): The latest issue features…

The year of the tree

This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show is poised to celebrate the unfolding freshness and energy of deciduous woods in May, as Kathryn Bradley-Hole discovers

Beneath the boughs

Garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith is returning to Chelsea’s Main Avenue for the first time in 14 years for the National Garden Scheme, reveals Joanna Fortnam

‘When the ass begins to bray, surely rain will come that day’

It’s raining ancient folklore and proverbs as John Lewis-Stempel relies on jumping trout, croaking frogs and chirping crickets to predict the great British weather

My art is in the garden

Carla Passino examines how the brushstrokes of Monet, Turner, Klimt and Canaletto are providing colour and inspiration at Chelsea

All I need is the air that I breathe

Cathryn Spence airs the story of how—250 years ago—Joseph Priestley ‘discovered’ oxygen at Bowood House in Wiltshire

Cindy Sughrue’s favourite painting

The director of London’s Charles Dickens Museum picks a classic snapshot of the capital’s skyline

The legacy

Bess of Hardwick was the first of many influential Chatsworth women, as Kate Green learns

A timeless view

George Plumptre admires the simple beauty of the gardens at Pusey House in Oxfordshire

Seating plans

What makes a comfortable garden seat, asks Tiffany Daneff

Sitting pretty

Amelia Thorpe seeks out crafted benches to suit every garden

The cutting-garden diaries

In the final part of her series, Anna Brown is focused on harvesting

A lily among weeds

Clive Aslet lauds the enduring influence of the prolific Victorian architect George Edmund Street

Slugging it out

Marianne Taylor is captivated by the curious beauty of molluscs

Mane stay

Deborah Nash visits the last British firm creating horsehair fabric

Out and About

The Royal Countryside Fund reception at Fortnum & Mason

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe takes a look at six of the best WOW!house creations

A brush with sparkles

Hetty Lintell is wowed by jewels celebrating the National Gallery

Kitchen garden cook

The arrival of new-season carrots is applauded by Melanie Johnson

Native herbs

John Wright is playing with fire as he investigates horseradish

Sweet chamomile, good times never seemed so good

Deborah Nicholls-Lee dreams of dainty white flowers and a fragrant lawn that never needs mowing

Falstaff reimagined

Sir Ian McKellen lends a ‘silvering dignity’ to Shakespeare’s famed roisterer, finds Michael Billington

Country Life Magazine (May 7, 2024): The latest issue features…

The legacy

Mrs Beeton’s recipes are still followed more than a century later. Kate Green raises a spoon to the first domestic goddess

This is how we brew it

Good coffee, companionship and delectable cakes are on offer in the cafés of the Cots-wolds. Ben Lerwill takes a sip

The magnificent seven

On the 75th birthday of Badminton Horse Trials, Kate Green salutes seven heroes of eventing’s premier weekend

Mere moth or merveille du jour?

The names of our butterflies and moths owe their artistic overtones to a golden group, discovers Peter Marren

Heaven is a place on earth

From Sissinghurst to Charleston, gardens offered the women of the Bloomsbury group refuge, solace and inspiration. Deborah Nicholls-Lee enjoys a stroll

Jane Tuckwell’s favourite painting

The event director of Badminton Horse Trials chooses a hunting scene with personal resonance

Where are the food targets?

Farmers should be allowed to prioritise producing food, believes Minette Batters

An air of homely distinction

The Anglo-American artistic circle of Russell House in Broadway, Worcestershire, lives on through its current incumbents, John Martin Robinson is pleased to say

Blow the froth off

Spring has donned its lacy garb as cow parsley flowers. Vicky Liddell walks the umbellifer lanes

There is no sting in this tale

The fearsome scorpion fly is straight out of science-fiction central casting, says Ian Morton

Angels in the house

Jo Caird marvels at a rare survival in a Cotswold church

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell packs her case and runs away to the airport

Interiors

Curl up and get cosy with the comfiest bedroom accessories, chosen by Amelia Thorpe

A haunt of ancient peace

Recently renovated, the gardens of Iford Manor in Wiltshire are as idyllic today as they were when Harold Peto created the Italianate design, marvels Tiffany Daneff

Native herbs

John Wright adds tonic and raises a glass to the juniper

I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly

Quivering, crystal-clear savoury jelly is all grown up. Tom Parker Bowles braves the wobble

Dulce et decorum est

Michael Sandle is still fighting the good fight through his art as he turns 88, reveals John McEwen

Put some graphite in your pencil

A trick of Cumbrian geology led to worldwide fame for Keswick, scribbles Harry Pearson