Entertainment
Country Life UK
The schoolmaster by René Magritte
Charlotte Mullins comments on The schoolmaster
1 min |
April 30, 2025
Country Life UK
A question of technique
Craft-makers stand equal with architects and patrons in the trinity of the country-house creator. Mary Miers meets five experts keeping our historic houses and their collections alive, repairing, conserving, reinstating and adding new layers of creativity
8 min |
April 30, 2025
Country Life UK
Knowsley Hall, Lancashire
IN 1997, after it had spent 35 years in institutional use, the Earl and Countess of Derby began to restore Knowsley Hall, which stands only 11 miles from the centre of Liverpool.
1 min |
April 30, 2025
Country Life UK
Bringing 'beauty' back
Lord Deben explains the thinking behind his 'Gummer's Law', which provided for the creation of new country houses within planning law
3 min |
April 30, 2025
Country Life UK
A vibrant era for our country houses
Rather than perceiving the mid 20th century as a troubled period in the history of the country house, John Martin Robinson argues that it was perhaps one of the most interesting, unexpected and enterprising
7 min |
April 30, 2025
Country Life UK
And now for something different
The days of pulling up the drawbridge are long gone. Over the past 50 years, many owners have turned around the fortunes of their country houses with imaginative diversification, becoming major rural employers in the process, as they tell Kate Green
9 min |
April 30, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
Back to birdwatching school
‘Two willow warblers are described as ‘elegists for a previous world, singing their anthems for the lost’.
3 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
My favourite painting Mary Miers
Rowadill in Harris
1 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
Material world
Copper, brass, wood veneers and reeded wood surfaces are bringing richness to contemporary kitchens, finds Arabella Youens
3 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
Room service
Why British designers dream up the most desirable hotels
1 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
Let's get this party started
The party barn is taking off like never before, finds Madeleine Silver
3 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
'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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
April 09, 2025
Country Life UK
Past and present master
As TEFAF Maastricht nears the 50th anniversary of its first incarnation, astounding works from earlier centuries still make their way to the Dutch fair, but the size and quality of its modern and contemporary art offering has also increased
4 min |