Lifestyle
Country Life UK
Fit for a Queen
Elizabeth II dazzled in her ballgowns and tiaras, but she is best remembered for the silk scarves, raincoats and sensible shoes she wore when out with her beloved dogs and horses.
4 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Interior designers Sarah Vanrenen and Laura Hanbury have created a hallway with a smart, but welcoming feel
WHEN Sarah Vanrenen and Laura Hanbury of Vanrenen Hanbury were asked to redecorate this 9,000sq ft house not far from their studio on the borders of Berkshire and Wiltshire, it soon became apparent that there was much work to be done; the project involved rewiring and replumbing, reconfiguring the ground floor, replacing a tired conservatory with a new kitchen, repositioning doorways and removing unsympathetic 1990s joinery.
1 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
'Oh, mow on then'
The history of the lawnmower is a gloriously British tale of eccentricity, brainwaves and dogged determination, featuring camel-powered contraptions, steam and Diana Dors.
5 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Pollution fears intensify near historic William Kent garden
POTENTIALLY PFAS-contaminated streams that run off the high limestone plateau on which the RAF Upper Heyford airbase in Oxfordshire was built run down into the Cherwell valley, in which Rousham, the sole surviving intact William Kent garden in the world, is situated.
2 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Home is where the heart is
LUCY AND JONATHAN CHENEVIX-TRENCH flank the figurative heart of Madresfield, a square panel of oak laid centrally in the floor of the Staircase Hall.
1 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Did Greene give a clue to the Third Man?
The Writer and the Traitor Robert Verkaik (Headline, £22)
5 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Reach for the Tsars
Mystery surrounded the buyer who paid a record price for Fabergé's spectacular Winter Egg, the only imperial egg made by a woman. Now, its new owner is revealed
3 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
A yeoman's home
Enlarged by a prosperous yeoman farmer in the 17th century, this remarkable house has a complex history stretching back to the Middle Ages.
7 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
The legacy Margery Allingham and Campion
ALBERT CAMPION made his debut in 1929's The Crime at Black Dudley, a blond, bespectacled and disconcertingly blank-expressioned member of a house party beset by the occult. Over the next 37 years, he would grow into a kind of Jazz Age Sherlock Holmes, solving crimes and mysteries with the help of his irascible manservant, reformed burglar Lugg.
1 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
We will remember her
THE year 1926 was modest in its eventfulness. Traffic lights were installed at Piccadilly Circus and a car ferry opened between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, Germany and Russia signed a neutrality peace treaty and the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen flew over the North Pole in an airship.
2 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Rooting for you
A versatile herb valued as a tonic for the nervous system, valerian's soporific effects were once considered a great asset to public decorum
4 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Durham Castle gives up its secrets
ARCHAEOLOGISTS working at Durham Castle, once the seat of the powerful Prince Bishops of Durham, have discovered a medieval wall painting in the Senate Suite that is thought to date from the late 13th to the early 14th centuries.
1 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
Funding strain to blame for Laskett Gardens sale
THE LASKETT GARDENS, created by historian, former museum director and broadcaster Sir Roy Strong and his late wife, Julia Trevelyan Oman, in the 1970s, are being sold.
1 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
A war of words
‘It is giving the world a sharp lesson in the fragility of civilisation and the proximity of savagery’
2 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
An eye to the future at Daylesford
The magnificent Heritage Barn at Daylesford in the Cotswolds was the setting for an event at which five specialists with a deep understanding of country properties shared their expertise
1 min |
April 15, 2026
Country Life UK
A lapwing and a prayer
St Valentine's month may be bitterly cold, but the capricious charms of Vanellus vanellus never fail to warm the heart, says John Lewis-Stempel
4 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Put your trust in me
I found out last week that you don't always need to give something up for Lent: you can also take something on.
1 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Vote for the countryside
COUNTRY people in much of England will now have a chance to vote in May.
2 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
In her write mind
Sibyls, the book born of Ruth Fainlight's poems and Leonard Baskin's prints, became a memento of friendship, beauty and sorrow for its author
4 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Kitchen garden cook- Cauliflower
Cauliflower-cheese crumpets with smoked salmon
2 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
An eye to the future
What changes to a house do most to enhance its aesthetics, function, comfort, sustainability and longevity? On March 24, leading experts in architecture, interior design, craft and restoration will share the secrets to maximising possibilities and protecting value at Daylesford's magnificent Heritage House in Gloucestershire
1 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Brown study
Beloved of everyone from prime ministers to Sir John Betjeman, brown sauce-arguably Britain's favourite piquant condiment-has a wonderfully rich history, writes Harry Pearson
3 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Northern beauties
Before the country-house market begins in earnest-which is later in the northern regions-three handsome houses are launched in the hope of catching the eye of eager would-be buyers
5 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Dogs behaving badly
I CHEWED my granny's passport and now she is stuck in Canada.'
2 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
The land of saints and seals
In our new series exploring the best places to visit in the UK, Mark Hedges journeys to Cornwall's wild and ancient coastline
3 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
A glimpse of Nineveh
JAMES HERVEY-BATHURST holds a small Assyrian bas-relief in gypsum, almost certainly from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq) and probably carved in about 645BC.
1 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Chichester Cathedral and Chelsea prepare for floral spectacles
CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL'S biennial Festival of Flowers marks its 30th anniversary this year (June 3–6), and once again the 950-year-old West Sussex cathedral will be transformed by floral installations.
1 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
We will remember them
One day this month saw the sale of the medals of a naval war hero and the collection of a long-serving art critic with a keen eye for pictures
4 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Dear Daphne
So alluring is the scent as it hangs in the cold air that no garden should be without a winter-flowering daphne. Charles Quest-Ritson picks the best
6 min |
February 25, 2026
Country Life UK
Let's be clear
Orangeries, glasshouses and furniture for enjoying the garden view, selected by Amelia Thorpe
2 min |