Entertainment
Country Life UK
All you need is love
Drawings, prints and the ‘weirdly shaped’ and ‘unbelievably brave’ paintings from David Hockney’s early years fill an exhibition conceived by and for people who adore his work
6 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
How to find common ground
I HAVE often heard it said that people don’t enjoy their own wedding. The stress, the consensus seems to be, is so overwhelming that the day passes in a blur of Champagne and anxiety.
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
On with the show
The garden at Stavordale Priory, Somerset The home of Michael Le Poer Trench and Sir Cameron Mackintosh - The thoughtful expansion of the existing garden over the past 30 years has added romance and drama to this historic monastic garden, finds Caroline Donald
5 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
It's Sondheim, but not as we know him
Sondheim’s final musical, inspired by Surrealism, has a ‘mesmerising oddity’ unlike any other, but is nonetheless compelling, and a Chekhov-inspired play is as riveting as an Ibsen-based one is lacking in depth
4 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Will no one rid me of this turbulent weed?
Praised in poetry, cultivated by Duchesses and an important life force for insects, could it be that ragwort is unfairly maligned, asks Bethany Stone
4 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Look who's back
It's no longer necessary to venture to tropical waters in order to catch a monster tuna, says Jonathan Young, as he attempts to land a big-game fish in Falmouth Bay
6 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
To a tea
Tregothnan is famously the home of the UK's first tea gardens, but as Mark Hedges discovers, Camellia sinensis isn't the only thing that flourishes in this charming corner of Cornwall
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
One puffin, two puffins...
ON the Farne Islands, 1½ miles off the Northumberland coast, this year's puffin count is under way as the National Trust marks its 100th year of caring for the seabird-heavy North Sea archipelago— internationally recognised as a vital sanctuary for some 200,000 seabirds.
1 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
A London park under the threat of eclipse
heultur grusader
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
The write stuff
From picturesque settings to Forsyte Saga inspiration, the West Country has something for everyone
7 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Making waves
You can't go wrong with a waterside property in the West Country
2 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Back off, snails
On the snail trail: protecting the leaves of hostas from marauding molluscs is a never-ending task
3 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
Aslan is on the move
'SOME day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again,' wrote C. S. Lewis—or perhaps you never stopped.
1 min |
May 21, 2025
Country Life UK
A compelling yarn
Designed to protect the wearer from wind, rain, salt spray and sun, chunky gansey jumpers retain a special place in fishermen's hearts, finds Jane Wheatley
3 min |
May 21, 2025
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 |