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Country Life UK Magazine - November 26, 2025

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In this issue

Perfect present ideas and festive feasts:try something new this Christmas

It’s crunch time
What’s the perfect cocktail to pair with pickled-onion Monster Munch? Susan Low quizzes Neil Ridley, the crisp sommelier

Christmas gifts
Presents for pets, luxuries for ladies and gifts for gardeners— Amie Elizabeth White shares 10 pages of exceptional ideas

The silver touch
The sheen of elegant silverware can elevate mere eating into the more refined sphere of fine dining, says Matthew Dennison

The royal treatment
The life of the Bohemian ‘good’ King Wenceslas ended in an act of treachery, reveals Ian Morton

Post it

AN advertisement for the first ever Christmas card, in 1843, ran: 'Just published.

2 mins

Outcry over Leaden Hall plans

A PLANNING scheme that could 'spoil' the view depicted in John Constable's 1820 painting, Salisbury Cathedral and Leadenhall from the River Avon, as well as other works, has sparked such controversy that the subject of 'settings' and 'views' has been raised in the House of Lords. Lord Patten, former Secretary of State for Education, questioned whether the gardens of the Grade I-listed Leaden Hall fall within a nationally significant setting to be protected as defined by the National Planning Policy Framework. Baroness Taylor of Stevenage last week answered that it is up to 'the decision maker to decide what the setting of a particular heritage asset is when considering a relevant planning application'.

2 mins

Oscar Wilde collection to go under the hammer

An extensive collection of Oscar Wilde memorabilia, which was amassed by Jeremy Mason over 60 years, will be offered for sale at Bonhams Knights-bridge, London SW7, on February 18, 2026, a fitting event to follow the 125th anniversary this year of the author, poet and playwright’s death.

1 mins

Guest editor sets off for Chelsea

COUNTRY LIFE's guest editor Sir David Beckham is taking his passion for gardening in an exciting new direction by helping to create the RHS and The King's Foundation Curious Garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 (May 19–23). Horticulturist, author and television presenter Frances Tophill will design the garden—her first at Chelsea—with Alan Titchmarsh an ambassador. The overall aim is to encourage curiosity about growing plants and creating pockets for the natural world. Sir David says: 'I hope we inspire people to get outside into Nature and to try something new.'

2 mins

Guest editor sets off for Chelsea

1 mins

The happiness conundrum

MY flatmate has started taking online French lessons. It's a lot harder than when we took the subject at GCSE, she says, because her current teacher insists on over-philosophising everything. Truthfully, I once overheard him lecture the class on how happiness has become a pipe dream due to technology and that people were far happier in the days when Nero was setting Rome ablaze, amid a lesson purportedly about the past participle. She may have had a point.

1 mins

Is the UK's heritage flourishing or faltering?

ON the eve of lockdown more than five years ago, Athena paid a visit to Canterbury, Kent (February 5, 2020). At that time, the city seemed to be struggling with a decline in tourism and the closure of many shops. As she observed then, if such a well-connected, attractive and formerly prosperous place was struggling, what hope for many other historic cities? It was, therefore, heartening to return this week and to see it in a happier state, with a bustling High Street. Added to which, the cathedral—apart from the perhaps inevitable clutter of a Christmas market at the north porch—felt as if it was being spring cleaned for the forthcoming installation of the new Archbishop. Inside, it was busy with visitors and tour groups.

1 mins

My favourite painting Sarah Lamb

Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth

2 mins

The legacy Carl Giles and the Giles cartoons

THE Giles family, whose daily doings kept Daily Express readers amused for 48 years, were born out of their creator Carl Giles's job as the paper's official Second World War cartoonist: he coped with it by depicting Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and Mussolini as a dysfunctional family.

1 mins

A string to the bow

LORD EDWARD MANNERS stands in the 14th-century Eagle Tower at Haddon Hall with one hand resting on a curious timber frame fixed into the fabric.

1 mins

To Manderley again

The writer Daphne du Maurier was fascinated by the English country house. Jeremy Musson explores her evocation of these buildings with the help of specially commissioned drawings by Matthew Rice

8 mins

Sticking with it

Christmas stamps, as featured on this year's COUNTRY LIFE Advent calendar cover, are a cherished annual event- but how did they become one?

3 mins

Where there's a will, there's a whey "

France may be synonymous with fromage, but the terroir of our green and pleasant land gives rise to all manner of magnificent varieties of our own, declares Tom Parker Bowles, who picks his favourites

8 mins

Thoroughly cream crackered

They might be plain in looks, but Jacob's Cream Crackers have had a colourful life. Tom Howells presents a bite-sized history of the Christmas cheeseboard staple

3 mins

It's crunch time

Which crisp pairs perfectly with Pinot Noir? What should you open to go with the Champagne? Can a cocktail really bring out the best in a bag of Monster Munch? Susan Low learns how to match drinks and crisps at Berry Bros & Rudd

5 mins

Tipple tattle

Dust off the Dubonnet: old-fashioned drinks- cabinet staples deserve to be moved from Christmas past into Christmas present believes Will Hosie

6 mins

The royal treatment

The Bohemian King Wenceslas really was good, but his reward for gracious piety was not, discovers Ian Morton

3 mins

Game on

Chess sets and backgammon boards are a familiar sight on drawing-room tables, but one expert Highland woodworker is refashioning their forms in beautiful new ways, writes Mary Miers

5 mins

A lot of bottle

The nuances of modern perfumery now allow a single drop to evoke an entire landscape. Amie Elizabeth White explores the native houses hitting the right notes

5 mins

A few of my favourite things

Born in Swaziland, in 1957, Richard E.Grant moved to London in 1982 to pursue a career in acting. He was cast in Bruce Robinson's cult classic Withnail and I in 1986 and has starred in everything from Dracula and Gosford Park to Game of Thrones. He launched his unisex perfume house, Jack, in 2014, and published his bestselling memoir, A Pocketful of Happiness, in 2022. Mr Grant divides his time between London and the Cotswolds and is the co-host of Hotels with History, a new podcast exploring the world’s most renowned hotels.

1 mins

Spare a thought

Creating a room where guests want to spend time takes the pressure off busy hosts, says Arabella Youens

3 mins

Treasures in the shadow of Kilburn White Horse

Three historic country houses in Yorkshire, a stone's throw from the most northerly of Britain's 16 white chalk horses, offer comfortable contemporary living and fascinating backstories

5 mins

Deck the halls...

These five standout properties have halls made for towering trees, sparkling decorations and Champagne-bright celebrations- festive magic that will practically begin before new owners move in

3 mins

A brush with genius

Alexander Marshal-this country's first major botanical painter-deserves to be better known, writes Tiffany Daneff, after seeing his luminous originals in the Royal Collection

6 mins

The rake's progress

AND now the leaves suddenly lose strength... New strong/Rain-bearing night-winds come,' wrote Philip Larkin in a poem about autumn. 'Leaves chase warm buses, speckle statued air,/Pile up in corners, fetch out vague broomed men/Through mists at morning.'

2 mins

Golden wreath walnut mince pies with clementine

Makes nine mince pies or one large wreath

2 mins

A window in time

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through- lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel

4 mins

The only way is Esox

With its baleful stare and lupine grin, the Death Metal anti-hero of the subaqueous scene enjoys a diabolical reputation

3 mins

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

From gleaming presents to inebriating parties, discover five artists' interpretations of the festive season

7 mins

The silver touch

Silverware, with its glistering surface and ornate designs, dresses the table like no other material and has an unmatched capacity for turning a meal into an occasion, as Matthew Dennison discovers

5 mins

Parting is such sweet sorrow

A sale of Modern British Art earlier this year brimmed with the kind of wonderful works that auctioneers find a little heart-wrenching to let go, including a Waterfall full of wild windiness by Sir Kyffin Williams

4 mins

The answer is blowing in the wind

IT'S tricky stuff, wind. We can't live without it—the wind dispersal of crop pollen being an obvious instance—but sometimes we rather feel we might like to. The frequency of wrecking hurricanes across the planet per annum would be monotonous if it were not tragic. It is tricky to grasp, too, wind. Quite a portion of this book by veteran journalist Simon Winchester is given over to human attempts to classify it.

3 mins

Bridge

MY team had insurmountable logistical problems at the 11th European Transnational Open Teams in Poznan, Poland, last summer.

2 mins

It's the thought that counts

At one extreme are the smug planners; at the other desperate last-minuters

2 mins

Read all Stories from Country Life UK

Country Life UK Magazine Description:

Publisher: Future

Category: Lifestyle

Language: English

Frequency: Weekly

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.