Loyal toasts

Friends of COUNTRY LIFE tell Katy Birchall why they enjoy the magazine, from the riddle to rare breeds, fine architecture to Tottering-by-Gently

- Katy Birchall

I GREW up in London and it wasn't until I reached 40 that I bought a house in the country; in the meantime, COUNTRY LIFE fed my dreams. I bought my first full set in 2004, having been the under-bidder for a set at Christopher Gibbs's house sale at the Manor House, Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire, in 2000. However, it was incomplete, so I bought a second set and combined them, using eBay to locate the last missing issues. I had them bound by Atkinson Bookbinders in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Every year, I would do another decade and, eventually, they took over the whole library. A few years later, out of the blue, I was contacted by someone wanting to buy a whole set, so I sold them and put back the books. But I missed the magazines enormously, so, in 2015, I bought my third set. These days, the first things I turn to are the bridge column and the houses and gardens.

Mark Cecil, businessman, and collector

I look forward to reading COUNTRY LIFE each week and have done for years. It has lots of informative articles about such interesting people. I really enjoyed the recent articles on people in trade and their specialist skills, such as a wheelwright, a hedge cutter and a drystone-waller. I collect the "riddle me this' on Notebook each week and love sharing it with my grandchildren to see who is the first to solve it. I keep the Annie Tempest cartoon until the end, as it always makes me chuckle.

The Duchess of Devonshire