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
This story is from the May 11, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
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This story is from the May 11, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
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