Lifestyle
Country Life UK
Making up lost ground
The gardens of Wootton Hall, Staffordshire The home of Johnny and Laura Greenall This woodland garden is one of the most ambitious and successful made this century
5 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
All hail the 'glory of Britain'
Offa: King of the Mercians Rory Naismith (Yale, £30)
6 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Burnt butter, miso and watercress columns of Pompeii
Kitchen garden cook Watercress
1 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Childhood lost and found
When he stumbles across a box of Nature books in the attic on a bright April morning, John Lewis-Stempel is transported from a donkey-identification hunt to a land of long ago and far away
4 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Wild arts run free
A new, sustainable, small opera company is sweeping through our country-house gardens. Ysenda Maxtone-Graham reports
3 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Le Sirenuse Mare, Italy
It was here, in Positano, that Hercules lost his heart to a nymph called Amalfi and where the very concept of la dolce vita was born.
1 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
'Gold bubbles rising into sky'
A wader with a haunting call, the enigmatic curlew has inspired both gloom and life-affirming joy in the hearts of some of our greatest writers
5 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
A garden lover's library
George Saumarez Smith reveals his design for COUNTRY LIFE's stand at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which embodies his passions for architecture, drawing and books, and his fiancée Jane Kennerley's love of plants
5 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
A study in history
JAMES NASON and his son Edward read at the table of the new library at Pitchford Hall. This striking Gothic interior was created in Shropshire with the help of the Kennedy family at nearby Acton Round Hall and a company of talented cabinetmakers.
1 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
A leap in the dark
Francisco de Zurbarán captured the intense spirituality of Counter-Reformation Spain in highly charged paintings moulded by the contrast of light and shadow, often using tenebrism to almost shocking effect
7 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Have you had your Weetabix?
Beloved of explorers, wartime housewives and social-media stars alike, the no-frills breakfast has enjoyed a surprisingly eventful century
3 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
The legacy Beau Brummell and the Royal Ascot dress code
THE Royal Ascot dress code is as integral to the event as the racing itself, but it wasn't until 1807 (96 years after the meeting's inauguration) that a code was decreed.
2 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
A hole new level of chaos
Britain's mass of potholes continues to prompt angst, anger and, occasionally, amusement. Many councils responsible for road repairs appear to be fighting a losing battle, accident statistics are mounting and the cost of making the nation's roads smooth again is soaring. Is relief for motorists just around the corner or still miles away?
8 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Run, rabbit, run
THE whole thing was a long and messy business.
2 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
A quiet authority
Swaine-a byword for British excellence for more than 275 years- is celebrating the modern City gentleman in its latest campaign
3 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Turn over a new leaf
Spring is in the air and botanical art takes centre stage at a newly launched fair in Chichester, West Sussex, as well as other events in southern England
4 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Flowers in a Glass Vase with a Tulip by Rachel Ruysch
RACHEL RUYSCH was the preeminent painter of Dutch floral still lifes in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, with a career that spanned seven decades.
1 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Society's Victorian top 10 stuck in cycle of decline
MURALS featuring classical figures and seasonal allegories by Elizabeth Arkwright adorn the ceilings, doors and wall panels of Grade II-listed Parndon Hall, Essex, and yet, despite their historical significance and the fact that they are rare large-scale survivors from the period by a female artist, the building housing them has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair.
2 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Rising to the challenge
Glin Castle, Co Limerick, part II The seat of the FitzGeralds, Knights of Glin In the second of two articles, Jeremy Musson considers the significance of the work of the late Knight of Glin—and his daughter Catherine FitzGerald—in keeping this castle in family hands
8 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Hi ho silver lining
Far prettier than its cyprinid cousins the gloomy tench and the greasy bream, the glittering common bleak-or blay-loves nothing more than carousing with insects come high summer
3 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Which club is right for you?
Will Hosie rounds up the 10 clubs everyone won't stop talking about-both during the Season and beyond it
8 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Think inside the box
A penchant for picnics is part of our cultural DNA, regardless of the weather. Pork pies, pan bagnat and good company are integral to getting it right
8 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Crowning glories
Markers of time, place and personality, headpieces are little pieces of theatre; exquisite sculptural objects that exist in dialogue with the body
5 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
The Season's who's who
As hats and morning coats are brushed off, picnic hampers are packed and shoes are polished, COUNTRY LIFE picks some of our favourite characters from the Season's milieu
8 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Hats, horses and high jinks
THE absence of Glastonbury in this year's season of great British events leaves a large hole in the calendar for annual pilgrims, but it is for the sound reason that the ground at the Eavis family's Worthy Farm in Somerset—in real life a permanent dairy farm—needs a year off to recover from the pounding it receives.
2 min |
April 29, 2026
Country Life UK
Earth's Eden
Chris Cotonou journeys to New Zealand, where dramatic landscapes conspire to slow time and stir the soul
7 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Roasted cod with Jersey Royals and peas-and-lettuce pesto cream
Kitchen garden cook Jersey Royals
1 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Of cabbages and kings
I DON'T usually think about sealing wax when I go aboard a ship, so I'm not sure why I began thinking about kings as I was pricking out my cabbages.
2 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Let's raise a glass
Homes with wine cellars offer discerning buyers climate-controlled conditions that let collections age gracefully, so that every gathering becomes a toast-worthy triumph. Cheers!
3 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
The best things come in threes
The National has a trio of excellent new productions, including a star-studded Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and a new star is born playing a 20-year-old van Gogh
4 min |