Lifestyle
Country Life UK
That's my boy-bishop
Held in high esteem and lavished with furs, velvet and precious stones, young male choristers-turned-bishops were all the rage at Christmas in the Middle Ages, says Matthew Dennison
5 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Bringing lost London to life
A NEW book, Panoramas of Lost London: Work, Wealth, Poverty and Change 1870–1945, brings to life Britain's capital city through more than 300 atmospheric black-and-white photographs taken largely from the collection of the former Greater London Council Historic Buildings Division.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Liberal values
DAISY BELL stands beside a huge banner created in the 1840s on behalf of her ancestor, John Bell.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Cathedrals' stained glass to feature in online campaign
THE Rose Window in St Albans Cathedral, Hertfordshire, will be one of several stained-glass ‘artworks’ in British cathedrals that will be highlighted during the Association of English Cathedrals’ #DivineLight campaign.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
A gut feeling
One good deed: Pamela and her wellbeing companions swap health therapies for bathing in the dawn sun at Goodwood, West Sussex
2 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Kitchen garden cook Carrots
Roasted carrots and venison meatballs with harissa lentils, labneh and fresh pesto
2 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
The taste of Britain Norfolk: Cromer crab
ALTHOUGH, technically speaking, Cromer crab—Cancer pagurus—is the same species of piecrust-shelled brown crab found all over Europe, it's in a class of its own, with an impressive ratio of white to brown meat and a delicate, sweet flavour.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Flight of winter's birds
ONE of the loveliest of collective nouns is surely the 'murmuration' of starlings.
2 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Flowers in the frame
The search for still-life subjects led the artist Kate Friend to some of the greatest gardens and gardeners in the country, discovers Tiffany Daneff
5 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Budget sparks London tensions
TENSIONS flared in London last Wednesday, for, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered her autumn budget in the House of Commons, the farmers who had converged on the capital to protest against unpopular inheritance tax (IHT) changes were being arrested for defying Metropolitan Police 'conditions'.
2 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Presenter calls for 100-year pause on demolition
UNLESS we know where we have been, it's impossible to know where we are going,' Kevin McCloud stated at this year's SAVE Britain's Heritage annual lecture at the V&A Museum, stressing the importance of building preservation.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Town Mouse: Revision and relaxation
SIENA: THE RISE OF PAINTING, 1300 TO 1350' lives for the past decade or so through my wife's involvement as its co-curator.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Budget betrayal
THAT was the Budget, that was. The months of leaks and 'guidance' from the Treasury and No 10 threatened such extreme measures that it made the actual announcement last week seem a nonevent. However, it did fulfil its party-political purpose: it has kept Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in post at least until May. Only then will Labour's probable dire local-election results produce a possible challenge. Labour MPs in general have heaved a collective sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that this Budget won't cause new fissures in the party. The left will applaud the abolition of the two-child limit on support—particularly as it's paid for by a tax on the rich living in London—and the financial markets have been quietened by an approach more moderate than had been trailed.
2 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Oaks could be doomed by their odours
OAK trees could be hastening their own demise due to the odours they emit, according to scientists.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
A turn for the better at the British Museum?
IN December 2019, a metal detectorist in Warwickshire made an astonishing discovery: a gold and enamel heart-shaped pendant, probably dating from 1518, that bears the monograms of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon. In October, the British Museum launched an appeal to raise the purchase price of $3.5 million by the deadline of April 2026. Athena hears that the response from both funding bodies and the public has already been gratifyingly generous. If this treasure is acquired, it will be a triumph for the museum. The pendant’s authenticity and significance were confirmed by the research of its curators and technical staff and its determination to acquire an item of extraordinary historical, as well as artistic, significance is a welcome sign of energy and optimism in an institution that has shown little of either in recent years.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
Country Mouse: Glorious mud
ONE oddity of where we live is that, although its chalk and flint buildings, the soil, due to a quirk of geology in the garden and surrounding fields, is clay. And clay in December means mud.
1 min |
December 03, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
From gleaming presents to inebriating parties, discover five artists' interpretations of the festive season
7 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
Bridge
MY team had insurmountable logistical problems at the 11th European Transnational Open Teams in Poznan, Poland, last summer.
2 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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).
1 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
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 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
The royal treatment
The Bohemian King Wenceslas really was good, but his reward for gracious piety was not, discovers Ian Morton
3 min |
November 26, 2025
Country Life UK
Spare a thought
Creating a room where guests want to spend time takes the pressure off busy hosts, says Arabella Youens
3 min |