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Country Life UK

Country Life UK

The racing club you can bet on

The exclusive Royal Ascot Racing Club offers its membership a unique experience at the world-renowned racecourse

1 min  |

April 24, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

A need for speed

Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping quite like live, fast-paced action and the summer Season enjoys the finest athletic, equine and motor-driven moments of elation. Ben Lerwill tells us why awe-inspiring speed adds glamour and draws the crowds

3 min  |

April 24, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

The private made public

In the second of two articles, John Goodall traces the 20th-century evolution of this outstanding house and its current revival in the care of an independent charitable trust

8 min  |

April 24, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Too divine

Four actresses earn the plaudits this month, for parts ranging from Sarah Siddons to Charlotte Bronté

4 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Stashed away

The vast collection of the late George Withers, encompassing everything from Prattware pot lids to barometers, doubles up as a guide to the mid-market collecting fancies of the past 60 years

4 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

A hungry heart

A man who strove, sought and found, Wassily Kandinsky pioneered not one, but two artistic movements against the tumultuous backdrop of early-20thcentury Europe, as Holly Black relates

5 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Parsley of Macedon

Not quite a native, alexanders can taste like joss stick-tainted celery or sweetly spiced parsnips, depending on your method, warns John Wright

2 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Royal favours

AFTER much speculation as to what might be the favourite flower Her of Elizabeth II, the truth was revealed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2019.

3 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Smart thinking

A private family garden near Godalming in Surrey How does a garden design begin? With a lot of questions and by finding a central theme says James Alexander-Sinclair

4 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Escape to the hills

These four houses in the county of Surrey can offer the best of both worlds: rural settings and easy access to London

4 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

A little help from your friends

Driven to distraction by paint charts? A colour consultant could be the answer for anyone befuddled by choosing the right hue

1 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

A (crab) apple a day

They may be too tart to eat, but crab apples can be made into all sorts of good things, from jellies to salves, and may even have been Adam and Eve's forbidden fruit, says Ian Morton

5 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

The sound of centuries past

The past 50 years have seen an energetic revival of the instruments that would have been played in Bach's day. Henrietta Bredin meets players fascinated by the noises Baroque composers would have heard

5 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Where the wild things are

In his paintings, Archibald Thorburn captured the essence of Nature, whether it was piercing-cold snow enveloping a stricken deer or the existential fear of the ptarmigan. This talent for conveying atmosphere set him apart, finds Charles Harris

6 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

The legacy Sir John Soane and his Museum

EXASPERATED and despairing at the provocative behaviour of his sons, Sir John Soane (1753-1837) decided towards the end of his life to make the British public his heir. His eldest son, John-whom he had hoped would follow him as an architect, but who had no interest in the profession -had died in 1823 and he had become estranged from his younger son George.

1 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

From royal favourite to stranger's heir - Stansted Park, West Sussex, part 1

A property of the Stansted Park Foundation In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at the stages by which a medieval hunting lodge developed from the 17th century to become a great country house

8 min  |

April 17, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Orchid spotting

I HAVE had many horticultural enthusiasms, but I have never really caught the orchid bug. Better gardeners than me— rather more passionate plantsmen —have orchid houses with graded temperature zones for the different species: cool-ish is fine for cymbidiums, slightly warmer for phalaenopsis and steamy tropical heat for vanilla orchids.

3 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

We need to trade on a level playing field

Life after the NFU and why MPs of all parties need to sort a food strategy

3 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

That boat has sailed

WELL, we haven’t stopped the boats. The Rwanda Bill was supposed to deter illegal migrants. It hasn’t and it won’t.

2 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Through the looking glass

Little is more alluring than a mirror, its glittering reflection at once a symbol of vanity, palatial splendour and human ingenuity. Matthew Dennison charts its history from polished obsidian to decorative furnishing of unrivalled glamour

7 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

The sinner who painted saints

Although named after an angel, Caravaggio needed no stronger reason to brawl than having his artichokes dressed with butter instead of olive oil. Maev Kennedy delves into his short and brutal life

5 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Whistle down the wind

‘The Lady of the Nightingales’ Beatrice Harrison charmed King and country with her garden duets. One hundred years later, Julian Lloyd Webber examines whether her performances were fact or fiction

5 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Small, but perfectly formed

With a stream running through it and views of the Uffington White Horse, this is a garden of great natural beauty cleverly designed and planted to make it seem much larger than it actually is

5 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Keys to the kingdom

Buying agents excel at gaining access to houses of which there's nary a whisper on the market, finds Annabel Dixon

3 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Wedding belles

With parkland or rural settings, country houses make for idyllic wedding venues, as the vendors of these three properties have found

5 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Different strokes

The infinite possibilities of decorative painting brought life to villas in Pompeii, Florentine palaces and Charleston in East Sussex. Today, a revival of interest in the artform is once again precipitating a highly distinctive new look in interiors

5 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

The art of layering

Henriette von Stockhausen believes combining textiles in a variety of different forms is the secret to creating a room that is not only timeless, but also supremely comfortable

3 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Shepherd's delight

A prolific weed, shepherd’s purse has long been taken for granted, but it deserves greater consideration, if only for its medicinal properties

4 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

Our incomparable coastline

Our beautiful, infinitely varied coast has become central to our national concept of what makes Britain so special

4 min  |

April 10, 2024
Country Life UK

Country Life UK

A marvel revived

A major restoration project has brought one of Britain's greatest Victorian buildings back to splendour and life. Steven Brindle explains the extraordinary story of how it came to be

8 min  |

April 10, 2024