In this issue

Songs from the garden of Eden
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato talks to Henrietta Bredin about gardening, keeping busy and singing to save the planet.

The bloodhound gang
Lolloping, intelligent, with the best nose in the business, a bloodhound is worth the slobber, believes Katy Birchall.

A brush with history
Family-run company Hillbrush is celebrating its 100th birthday in fine style, finds Julie Harding.

The Eden project

The singer on gardening, climate change and using music to propagate a topic

5 mins

ENGLISH HOMES OLD & NEW Part 2 Lancastrian and Yorkist 1400–85

Each month of this 125th anniversary year, COUNTRY LIFE will illustrate a period in the development of the English great house, from the Middle Ages to the present day. This week, John Goodall looks at the 15th-century home

9 mins

The bloodhound gang

Far from snoozing on a porch all day, bloodhounds are highly active pack-hunting dogs that require ‘slobber cloths’ when in company, discovers Katy Birchall

7 mins

A brush with history

A family in Wiltshire has built a 100-year-old empire on brushes for sweeping, scrubbing, cooking and construction, finds Julie Harding

6 mins

Twinkle, twinkle ancient stars

A bronze ‘sky disc’, thought to be the world’s oldest map of the cosmos, is the star attraction of an exhibition about Stonehenge, finds Vicky Liddell

3 mins

A lack of common knowledge

Enshrined in law since 1215, commoners’ rights allow the unrestricted grazing of all sorts of livestock–including ducks–that learn to ‘heft’ or ‘lear’ to the land in an ancient farming system that’s now under threat, says Octavia Pollock

7 mins

Better by design

A house built of Beer stone in Devon has commanding views, as do a cleverly converted Chilterns farmhouse and a Scandinavian style property in prime Shires hunting country

5 mins

Think big

The old advice always used to be to plant small and wait, but recent innovations mean that gardeners can plant outsize trees with confidence, says Charles Quest-Ritson

6 mins

Three men in a triptych

As children grow into adults in the blink of an eye and with three sons in their twenties, Clive Aslet decided to capture this moment of their youth in a group portrait

4 mins

Friends for life

I DON’T accept the old adage ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. I buy books I already own when I see a new edition with a wonderful cover. Then there is the title.

6 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.