Country Life

Published by Time Inc. (UK) Ltd Country Life, the quintessential English magazine, is undoubtedly one of the biggest and instantly recognisable brands in the UK today. It has a unique core mix of contemporary country-related editorial and top end property advertising. Editorially, the magazine comments in-depth on a wide variety of subjects, such as architecture, the arts, gardens and gardening, travel, the countryside, field-sports and wildlife. With renowned columnists and superb photography Country Life delivers the very best of British life every week.

Lucy Lockwood

Eat cake

Country Life

Bonfire of the vanities • For all the latest news, visit countrylife.co.uk

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

It’s time to unite

A different approach to renewal

The way we were Photographs from the COUNTRY LIFE archive

My favourite painting The Duke of Buccleuch • Chalk Cliffs on Rügen by Caspar David Friedrich

The Cruel Sea

Water, water everywhere • After days of incessant January rain, the chicken paddock has turned into a quagmire, ghost ponds have resurfaced and a sheep has come close to drowning. But, even in a downpour, John Lewis-Stempel finds glimmers of beauty

A monument to enthusiasm • Fawley Hill, Buckinghamshire, part II The home of Lady McAlpine and the late Sir William McAlpineIn the second of two articles, Marcus Binney looks at a home filled with remarkable collections and striking interiors that reflect its creator’s enthusiasms and interests

Native breeds Oxford Sandy and Black pig

Take a bough • Among their deceptively inert branches, trees shelter feathered Pavarottis, scuttling beetles, opportunistic fungi and fierce owls. John Lewis-Stempel recounts a day in the life of an oak and the creatures that call it home

You greedy gannet! • Its plunge-diving underwater quest for food is spectacular, but the gannet deserves greater respect than its gluttonous reputation invites, suggests Ian Morton

In a league of their own • From antisocial scientist Henry Cavendish, who only communicated with his housekeepers in writing, to crocodile-riding Charles Waterton, British eccentrics should be nurtured and cherished, says Claire Jackson

From sheep to shop • Beginning its life on the back of a sturdy Shetland sheep, the wool used to make one of the smartest tweed field coats on the market has quite a journey before it becomes a garment, says Annika Purdey

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • The award-winning British fashion designer-turned-interior designer is known for his use of kaleidoscopic pattern and colour. He has developed several homeware collections, from wallpaper with Osborne & Little to his new collection of decorative lampshades with lighting company Pooky. Matthew lives in Deià, Mallorca, with his husband, daughter and dog Mr Plum.

The designer’s room • A kitchen and pantry designed by David Sant of Martin Moore perfectly complement this oak-frame extension to an Arts-and-Crafts house in Buckinghamshire

Go with the grain • Wooden furniture and accessories that showcase the beauty of wood, selected by Amelia Thorpe

Go the Cotswold way • This AONB in the west of England still holds a special pull for buyers

Farmland: an investment for the ages

Land of hope and glory

To dig or not to dig

Mediterranean masterpiece • Les Colombières, Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, FranceA century after its seven-year creation by the artist Ferdinand Bac, this magnificent cliff-top garden has been brilliantly restored, says Kathryn Bradley-Hole

The winds of change • Farewell to Masterpiece, for now anyway, and to pub tradition

A leap into the unknown

Kitchen garden cook...