Entertainment
Country Life UK
Stick to the point
Stick insects often find themselves transported to new abodes thanks to their talent for camouflage, but they are most at home in the West Country, suggests Ian Morton
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
In the lap of the goddess
When Anne Pitt sat for Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in Rome, the French artist portrayed the young British aristocrat as Hebe, daughter of Zeus—complete with an eagle painted from life. Sarah Fortescue traces the picture's story
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Fishermen fighting for the future
At the first Tweed Salmon Festival, our correspondent finds there is much to be optimistic about in the fishing world, even if Salmo salar continues to decline
5 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
All Roads Lead to Rome: Why We Think of the Roman Empire Daily
HOW often do you think about the Roman Empire? Videos of women posing this question to the men in their lives and their bewilderment at receiving the answer 'daily', or 'several times a week', went viral on social media a couple of years ago.
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Charlotte Mullins comments on Femmes au Jardin
Femmes au Jardin (Women in the Garden) by Claude Monet
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
A glorious gallimaufry
British eccentricity at its best shone in a series of sales earlier this year that encompassed a fruitwood hand holding an apple, two puzzle pipes and an unusual wooden snuffbox inset with bone panels
3 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Beastly Britain: An Animal History
I CANNOT provide an Karen R. Jones's 'animal-centred view' of British history. She stole my sense of judgement on line five, where she describes wanting to swap her newborn brother for a dog-a kindred spirit!
1 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
London calling
LONDON is the 31st happiest city in the world, according to the Institute for Quality of Life, which releases its Happy City Index (HCI) each year.
1 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Young at art
As British contemporary art beats all odds to remain a cauldron of inventiveness and passion, Carla Passino discovers which artists aged 40 or under are on the radar of forward-looking museum directors and curators
10+ min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Where big ideas come from
The British Imagination: A History of Ideas from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II
3 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
End the mega animal farm
KILLING piglets by throwing them against a wall is disgraceful and wholly illegal.
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
A London park under the threat of eclipse
IT'S nearly eight years since Athena first wrote about the proposal to construct a Holocaust Memorial and learning centre in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament in Victoria Gardens (November 1, 2017).
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
What the Dickens!
To mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Charles Dickens Museum, London WC1, on June 9, a number of the author's descendants will give talks and readings.
1 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
A small victory
POLICY-HIT farmers achieved a win last week as the Government agreed to reopen the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme to 3,000 people—but only under threat of legal action.
1 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Sand, sea and no signal
Some are firm favourites, others offer an unspoilt contrast and many require effort to reach them, but each of these Cornish creeks and coves, selected by Ben Lerwill, is a place of true beauty in which to while away the hours
7 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
To infinity and beyond
Once extinct in these isles, the gargantuan, deep-diving osprey locks onto its piscine prey with a laser-like precision akin to the trajectory of a blunt-tipped missile.
3 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
A trip to the suburbs
ONCE associated with insalubrious activities and decried by John Ruskin as inchoate, amorphous places swallowing up vast tracts of countryside, suburbia and its development is now traced in a new book, England's Suburbs 1820-2020, by Joanna Smith and Matthew Whitfield, published by Historic England in partnership with Liverpool University Press ($40).
1 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
The call of the wild
Sculptor Hamish Mackie once shared a shower with a cheetah and faced a bull elephant's demonstration charge. He reveals to Charles Harris what it takes to capture the spirit of a wild animal in bronze
4 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
The sign of four
Fortune has long supposedly favoured those who carry a four-leafed clover, but from where did the superstition originate, asks Ian Morton
2 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
Driving home
Laverstoke Park in Hampshire—home to retired Formula 1 racing driver Jody Scheckter and family for 29 years—could be the most important estate to reach the market so far this year
5 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
Fit for a prince
The late Duke of Edinburgh, as passionate about collecting as he was a ruthless haggler, would have enjoyed a crop of paintings on offer at the forthcoming Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair
4 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
A bite of the apple
With the growing season upon us, here are some beautiful houses with orchards ripe for the picking
2 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
How 'bout them Welsh apples?
HER skin was white as apple blossom, her hair as yellow as broom... \"She is of the flowers,\" said Math, \"we will call her Blodeuedd\".
1 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
Control your waspish tongue
Does Nature offer a more courageous sight than the usually shy honey buzzard devouring a hornets' nest as the occupants whine about it with murderous intent?
3 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
Has Tate Modern's popularity peaked?
PONDERING the lessons that might be drawn from the 2024 attendance figures at Britain's visitor attractions, Athena noted (April 2) that there had been a 25% decline in visitors to Tate Modern since 2019 and asked, 'is this a blip?'
2 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
Talking to strangers
THE interior of a rural bus somewhere in Tuscany in the year 1979. My mother, who does not speak Italian, nudges my sister-in-law, who does:
2 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
Read between the lines
When not creating gardens, Alan Titchmarsh loves collecting books, which is how he ended up with 6,000 volumes, two libraries and a Shakespearean dream
7 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
A feast of ideas
More than 20 rooms and outdoor spaces by leading interior designers will offer depth and breadth of inspiration, with an emphasis on bespoke craftsmanship, at WOW!house, the summer's major interiors event, finds Amelia Thorpe
10 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
Lives through a lens
THE pioneering role of women in wartime photography is spotlighted in an intriguing collection of photographs newly revealed by Historic England to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
1 min |
May 14, 2025
Country Life UK
When a house is not a home
The Manifesto House: Buildings that changed the future of architecture Owen Hopkins (Yale, £30)
6 min |