Country Life UK Magazine - April 09, 2025

In this issue

The legacy
Amie Elizabeth White admires the blossoms that Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram left behind.

The very best of luck
Magpies, hay bales and dirty socks could mean the difference between winning and losing, discovers Harry Pearson.

Spam, spam, spam
Mary Greene tucks into spam, the American pork product that filled our post-war cupboards.

For the love of Cecil

IT'S been 45 years since Sir Cecil Beaton died, yet the Vogue favourite retains a certain cool factor that has inspired three new exhibitions this year.

2 mins

Play like a pro

WE’RE less than two months away from Britain's famed grass tennis season, beginning, this year, with the Lexus Birmingham Open (May 31-June 8).

1 min

Blooming marvellous

EIGHT glorious gardens have been short-listed for the Historic Houses (HH) Garden of the Year Award 2025 and the public is now invited to vote for the winner.

1 min

My favourite painting Mary Miers

Rowadill in Harris

1 min

'Of the islands'

An improving landlord in the Outer Hebrides created a remote Georgian house that has just undergone a stylish, but unpretentious remodelling, as Mary Miers reports

8 mins

Across Russia with love

When addressing the Japanese Cherry Society in 1926, Ingram was shown a painting of a white-flowered blossom (Akatsuki, meaning 'daybreak' or 'dawn') that had become extinct there.

1 min

The very best of luck

Whether repetitive, colourful or potentially whiffy, a sportstar’s rituals, charms and peculiar idiosyncrasies are all part of ‘getting in the zone’, observes Harry Pearson

5 mins

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM!

A tinned treat courtesy of our ‘special relationship’ with the US, Spam offered Britons a taste of the ‘hot-dog life of Hollywood’ and was once served in Simpson's, discovers Mary Greene

4 mins

Shaping the future

How is a new generation of interior designers responding to changing lifestyles, proliferating choice, the challenges of sustainability and the tireless demands of social media? Arabella Youens asked some of the profession's brightest lights

4 mins

The return of the drawing room

Lockdown revealed the deficiencies in open-plan living, as well as the benefits of areas dedicated to entertaining. Three designers tell Amelia Thorpe how drawing rooms are evolving into spaces used for both formal entertaining and quiet contemplation

3 mins

A hero of haute Bohème

Some of the world’s most beautiful furniture and works of art passed through the hands of Christopher Gibbs. Yet a new book reveals his rare gift for finding beauty in the ordinary and the obscure that had a lasting impact on classic English interiors, finds Giles Kime

4 mins

Material world

Copper, brass, wood veneers and reeded wood surfaces are bringing richness to contemporary kitchens, finds Arabella Youens

3 mins

Room service

Why British designers dream up the most desirable hotels

1 min

The art of the home

Janine Stone & Co began with a passion for fine furnishings and exceptional design, deeply rooted in its founder's artistic upbringing.

1 min

Let's get this party started

The party barn is taking off like never before, finds Madeleine Silver

3 mins

What's not to like?

Choose the right spot and cultivar of Clematis montana and you will be rewarded with long stems of pink or white clusters of flowers, often scented with vanilla or chocolate. Charles Quest-Ritson visits the National Collection

6 mins

The agony and the ecstasy

GREAT is the agony of start-ing to work in the garden again when winter is at last behind us!

3 mins

Making mulch of it

Give your plants a natural homemade mulch that feeds the soil, holds in moisture and keeps down weeds says Charles Quest-Ritson

3 mins

The morel of the story

More likely to be found hiding in plain sight than in the wild, the elusive morel gives a punch of pure mushroom that's perfect with pasta, says John Wright

3 mins

California here we come

Welsh gold prospecting was the Victorian equivalent of the National Lottery. Now, precious metal is glinting in those hills once more, says Harry Pearson

3 mins

With a heavy art

A ruthless, intransigent man, who fought against the unions and never took responsibility for a tragedy that killed more than 2,000 people, Henry Clay Frick nonetheless had a redeeming quality: he bequeathed the world an exceptional art collection, finds Michael Prodger

8 mins

In with the old

The younger generations' appetite for everything vintage bodes well for the future, at a time when an extraordinary Old Masters collection is about to go under the hammer

4 mins

Read all stories from Country Life UK

Country Life UK Magazine Description:

Country Life; architecture, gardens, countryside, property, the very best of British life Published by IPC Media. 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.