Latest from Country Life
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Country Life October 14, 2026
Country Life October 14, 2026, brings you beautiful rural interiors, 24 hours at Claridge's and asks if the best lawnmower is actually an alpaca.
Our favourite new-season paints and wallpapers to refresh any room
Struggling for autumnal inspiration? We've got you.
One of the most beautiful Tudor houses in the Cotswolds is on the market for £55,000 — a week
The Temple Guiting Estate offers country life at its very best — and at a price.
Frieze! Is counterculture back just in time for London’s most prestigious art fair?
Which city, would you say, is the artistic capital of the world? It’s a billion-dollar question that can be taken either one of two ways. The first: which is the world’s most creatively fertile city? The one home to the highest number of artists and the busiest scene? The second: which city commands the highest art sales? The two yield different answers. The first is probably Mexico City; the second is obviously New York.
A Victorian country house in a landscape that has ‘all the ingredients of perfection’
With elegant proportions, Britain's most northerly vineyard and a striking lakehouse in the grounds, Adderstone House offers a huge amount to buyers.
The true face of 1990s nostalgia in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 12, 2026
The 1990s-themed exhibition at the Tate has left quite a few people disappointed — luckily the Country Life quiz to deliver a 90s nostalgia hit.
Let’s get physical: The future of shopping is decidedly old-fashioned
There's nothing quite like the feeling of trying a piece of clothing on in a shop — preferably one with good-size changing rooms and flattering lighting — and it fitting like a tailor-made glove. Covid did its best to rid us of such sensory joys, but I'm delighted to report that in-person shopping is making a major comeback.
Immortalised in ‘Poldark’ and ravaged by fire: Cornwall’s first modern manor house
Parts of Tehidy House, a historic Grade II-listed mansion, still stand near Camborne in Cornwall, but it's just not quite the same, says Melanie Bryan.
Cultural fandom is the ultimate members’ club, and J.D. Vance wants in
J. D. Vance likening Emily in Paris to the work of Shakespeare was not on my 2026 bingo card, although perhaps it should have been. In case you didn’t know, the Vice-President recently decided the best use of his time was to defend a show once called a ‘work scheme’ for ‘people who can’t act’ (its final season airs in December) and laud it as a satire of millennial decision-making and tacit defence of the nuclear family.
Mimosas, mud and ‘Trinity, would you mind?’ How to save a wet wedding with an Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster
Weddings are always a hectic affair, but if you want to actually make yourself useful to the bride and groom, you best turn up in a small tank, advises Trinity Francis.
The staunch and sturdy Austrian export that’s even better than schnitzel
Agnes Stamp extolls the virtues of the schnauzer.
Six country homes to inspire your dreams, from £750,000 to £15 million
From a four-bedroom thatched cottage in Buckinghamshire at the price of a city flat to an estate of more than 3,000 acres, here's this week's look at the finest homes to come to market through Country Life.
Following in the footsteps of our prehistoric ancestors on a 5,000-year-old trackway
Five decades ago, in the Somerset Levels, an ancient pathway transformed how archaeologists viewed our ancestors. Oliver Berry uncovers the tale of the Sweet Track, is celebrating its 50th year as a Scheduled Monument.
Admiring the Admiralty: The grand building erected on Whitehall when Britain still ruled the waves
Admiralty House and Ripley Building on Whitehall, the buildings created to accommodate the Admiralty Board during the period of Britain’s domination of the seas, are not well known. Billy Hurley Reading reveals their interest and quality; photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
Churches used to take the breath away as places of worship. Now they do so as magical homes
Buying and converting a church is almost always a passion project — and the people who’ve taken on the job at these homes show just what can be done.
A. A. Milne hoped for immortality. In Winnie-the-Pooh, he found it
One hundred years ago this month, the publication of 'When We Were Very Young' saw the nation take an accident-prone little bear to its heart. Emma Hughes uncovers the true story of Winnie-the-Pooh and the two men who brought him to life
Elif Shafak: ‘The words of my fictional characters were used as evidence against me in court’
Elif Shafak’s novels are international bestsellers, but one nearly saw her thrown in prison in her home country. She speaks to Lotte Brundle.
In search of the authentic French Riviera that captured the imagination of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jean Cocteau and Henri Matisse
A new exhibition that tells the story of how the Côte d'Azur dazzled modern art's great innovators is now open. Rupert Clague and Nick Trend attempt to follow in their footsteps.
‘The Versailles of the north’: Meet the duchess who’s created gardens of joy, wonder — and rather a lot of deadly poison
As the garden at Alnwick Garden celebrates its 25th anniversary, Charles Quest-Ritson talks to Jane Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, about its making and her plans for its future.
An Elizabethan house that’s ‘as rare as hens’ teeth’ has come to the market for the first time since the 1960s
Outstanding country houses are hard to find in Derbyshire, and that will put Bradbourne Hall right at the top of the list. Penny Churchill takes a look.
It’s a voyage of discovery in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 9, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
How do you make a map cool? By putting it on a Burberry parka
A Burberry coat, emblazoned with a map of London has caught Rosie Paterson's eye.
‘Ideally, you want to have someone there who has been recently cancelled, as everyone wants to speak to them’: How to throw London’s best party
Looking back on the greatest parties in London’s history, Will Hosie realises it’s a thin line between hit and miss.
‘If you go skiing at the weekend, take your laptop’: How to get off the beaten track, but stay on the payroll
A modern world means a mobile office for many. But if you can work from anywhere, why work from the same place as everyone else?
A Grade I-listed ‘trophy property’ in a charmed spot overlooking Ilkley Moor is in search of a new owner who can return it to glory
Farfield Hall appeared in Country Life 111 years ago, when a former owner had lavished TLC on this wonderful 17th century home. Now, new owners are needed who can do the same again.
This harvest-themed Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 7, 2026, is outstanding in its field
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
From Napoleon’s toothbrush to marvellous menageries, British collectors of the past stopped at nothing
Claire Jackson profiles some of Britain's strangest — and most prolific — collectors of years gone by.
Hydrangea paniculata: The bold, brave flowers that can stand up to whatever the British climate can throw at them
No garden should be without Hydrangea paniculata, which can bloom until the end of October. Charles Quest-Ritson sums up the results of the recent four-year trial at RHS Bridgewater near Manchester; photographs by Clive Nichols for Country Life.
A country house by Ben Pentreath that has one of the great masterpieces of medieval architecture in the back garden
One of the most celebrated architectural designers in Britain created this superb, modern country house right on the River Avon at Warwick Castle.
A Greek epic that’s lost its marbles
As Athena can count the Parthenon as a home, she naturally takes great interest in it. The latest flare-up of the dispute between Britain and Greece over the Parthenon sculptures — familiarly known as the Elgin Marbles — reminds her that the ancient Greeks excelled in epics as well as architecture.
Road tripping through the magical European holiday destination that hasn’t been ruined by overtourism
Rosie Paterson visits some of Portugal's loveliest and smallest hotels on a seven-day road trip through the south.
Get more than your five-a-day with the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 7, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
Steve McQueen ‘f***king loved’ this watch, reimagined in super-strong horse leather
Hanhart has released a limited edition timepiece inspired by one of Steve McQueen's favourite chronographs.
The oxymoron of luxury tinned tuna
Luxury tinned tuna may sound like an oxymoron, although not if you pay a visit to the Tinned Fish Market in Borough, London SE1, or Spitalfields, E1.
How sheep farming transformed the architectural face of the Cotswolds
John Goodall looks at some of the parish churches that were a product of the wealth it generated.
A ‘masterpiece of engineering’ on one of the most dramatic and historic headlands in Cornwall
Pendennis House sits within yards of the iconic Pendennis Castle, one of the most notable landmarks on the south coast.
It’s spooky season in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 5, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
The best specialist companies in Britain for country-house renovations
Country-house renovations call for expertise and traditional craftsmanship, says Amelia Thorpe. Here, she reveals the best in business.
Country Life October 7, 2026
Country Life October 7, 2026, looks at a century of Winnie-the-Pooh, the strangest collectors from history and some remarkable garden remedies.
London’s past, present and future is hidden in the docks
As autumn beckons in the Docklands, Gio Fio reflects on what two neighbouring, yet contrasting areas on the Thames’s northern flank say about London’s knack for reinvention.
An Aga so special it inspired the salvation of a magnificent 300-year-old home
The Moat House in Bedfordshire is immaculate — but if its previous owner hadn’t fallen in love with the Aga, it might have remained semi-derelict.
From Pokémon to Iron Man: Why 21st-century collectors are looking beyond art
Earlier this year, a single Pokémon card, specifically a Pikachu Illustrator, set a new Guinness World Record when it sold in the US for $16.5 million, about £12 million. The buyer was a young venture capitalist, A. J. Scaramucci, who declared that this marked the start of ‘a planetary treasure hunt’, with a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil and a Declaration of Independence manuscript next on his list. He has since bought, for $2 million (about £1.5 million), the Marvel comic in which Iron Man first appeared.
‘There was blood, graphic nudity, even a portrait of a murderer’: A five-minute guide to the 1990’s greatest and grittiest moments
Ahead of a new Tate Britain exhibition celebrating the last decade of the 20th century, Carla Passino chooses five of her own favourite moments.
Why build a new country house? There’s a long list of things you’ll gain if you can live without that lovely patina of age
To celebrate the publication of a book on houses he has designed, George Saumarez Smith reflects on why some people choose new rather than historic homes. Photographs by Peter Dixon.
‘Flowers were used to communicate sentiments too intimate or improper to say out loud’: The forgotten Victorian tradition of floriography
Cece Jewellery has created a new jewellery collection inspired by a popular Victorian tradition of giving flowers to convey a certain message.
This ruinous stately home inspired one of Britain’s greatest satirical paintings
Melanie Bryan delves into the Country Life Archive to uncover the story of Sutton Scarsdale Hall.
Sheep are getting bad press. Is any of it fair?
‘We need to get rid of the sheep,’ says Derek Gow as he shepherds his flock into a truck, never to be heard of again. Thus goes our first encounter with the farmer and rewilding enthusiast in James Dawson’s documentary Derek vs Derek, which lands in cinemas on Friday.
Does the world’s most famous route still capture the romance of the open road?
On the eve of its centenary, Charlie Thomas braves 1,300 miles of Route 66 to find out.
It ain’t nothing but a song about a hound dog: Musical muses of the canine world
Sometimes, inspiration can be found in the form of a gentle nudge from a cold wet nose, reveals Harry Pearson.
Six outstanding homes, from an Elizabethan farmhouse to a miniature castle in Sussex, as seen in Country Life
Our round-up of homes to come to the market via Country Life this week includes the work of some of Britain's finest architects.
Are you brave enough to take on Cornwall’s 40-foot answer to Hawaii’s big waves?
Cribbar attracts some of the best surfers in the UK. Ahead of the big wave season, Andy Martin went to meet them. Photographs by Adrian Bagley.
‘A platform that dignifies the views outwards into the world’: Doddington Place’s elegant prospect tower
A new prospect tower and family memorial forms a stylish addition to the fine Edwardian garden at Doddington Place, Kent, the home of Richard Oldfield and Amicia de Moubray. John Goodall reports.
Agatha Christie bought and sold homes like she was playing real-life Monopoly —and one of her favourites has come up for sale
In an Art Deco block in the heart of Chelsea, Agatha Christie kept a pied-à-terre for three decades where she wrote several of her most famous works. Today, it's up for sale.
The search for the perfect carrot led me to one of Wiltshire’s loveliest new hotels
Pamela Goodman checks in to Teffont House Hotel.
Pioneering chef Raymond Blanc on never saying no and eating caviar for pudding
Lotte Brundle meets the French chef and restaurateur.
This former soup kitchen, on the crossroads of ancient civilisations, is now an Ottoman masterpiece you can stay in
Imaret, in Greece, was built to foster tolerance. Teresa Levonian Cole investigates its landmark renovation.
‘More is more has always been my mantra’: The visionary who made the Eden Project from an abandoned clay pit in Devon
Twenty-five years ago, Sir Tim Smit created a series of futuristic plant-filled biomes: the Eden Project. James Alexander-Sinclair says we should expect even more brilliant surprises in the coming quarter century. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
‘We did that London thing of going “wow, look at how much house we can get for our money”’: India Knight on her first house in the country
The writer India Knight swapped city life for rural Suffolk a decade ago — and has never looked back.
It’s time to face the music in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 2, 2026
From ‘Waterloo’ to ‘Wonderwall’ and The Cure to The Clash, today’s quiz will test your knowledge of bands. Will you strike the right chord or fall flat?
I’ve journeyed to Cleopatra’s lost emerald mines in search of the gemstone that’s 100 times rarer than diamonds
Rarer than diamonds and more valuable than any other coloured jewels, a fine emerald represents natural beauty at its most beguiling, says Jonathan Self.
The ghost stations of the London Underground
Weaving alongside the ‘living’ London Underground is a ghostly parallel network of abandoned stations, former wartime hideouts and astonishing subterranean architecture. Emma Hughes steps back in time.
Bring back the scullery: The forgotten rooms of historic country houses
Deborah Nicholls-Lee makes the case for bringing back some long-lost, but very useful rooms — and some new ones perfectly suited to 21st-century living.
Going against the grain: Meet the British bakeries championing ancient and heritage crops
Largely beholden since the 1960s to industrially produced wheat, many British bakeries are now seeing a chance. Tom Howells meets a series of pioneering growers and makers.
Your parents could have bought Ardross Castle —home of The Traitors — for just £70,000
Melanie Bryans delves into the Country Life archives and uncloaks the history of the turreted Highland castle made famous by the global TV franchise, ‘The Traitors’.
Are you faithful to 'The Traitors'? Find out in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 1, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
Contemporary Korean art is still very much a product of its past
Reinterpreting outside influences in their own key, Korea’s artists and craftsmen mastered celadon porcelain, developed a metal moveable type and embraced ‘true-view’ landscape painting, as a British Museum exhibition reveals.
The expert tips and tricks to creating a tropical oasis in a very British garden
Despite climate change, tropical and tropical-style plants still need to be selected and planted with care. Steven Desmond reveals what to plant, when and where.
Burnham’s property dream is ‘ambition we should all support’ — but his plan ‘ignores the countryside’ and ‘throws young Londoners under the bus’, say agents
Andy Burnham's first Labour Party Conference speech this week doubled down on his plan to fix Britain's broken housing market. Are we entering a new era of home ownership, or are things just going to get worse? Anna White spoke to experts across the market to get their verdict.
Make your ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ dreams come true at this marvellous Oxford home complete with its own ballroom
Ever watched the celebrities and professional dancers twirl around the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom floor and thought: ‘I really need one of those in my home’? Now you can. This property on Charlbury Road in Oxford, on the market for £6.25 million with Knight Frank, comes with its very own first floor ballroom.
‘As dangerous as possible — the best way to be’: Political satirist Ralph Steadman on cartoons and working with Hunter S. Thompson
Ralph Steadman is among the most celebrated illustrators that this island has ever produced, says James Fisher — who meets the artist ahead of a retrospective of his work.
Robin Swithinbank: I’ve seen the world’s rarest and most valuable watches with my own eyes. Now, you can too
Patek Philippe’s seventh ‘Watch Art’ Grand Exhibition begins in the Italian city on Friday and will showcase hundreds of watches and clocks, but the biggest draws will be the Swiss watchmaker’s Calibre 89, Star Calibre 2000 and Grandmaster Chime, a trio of so-called ‘supercomplications’.
The ghosts, the survivors, and the one with six fingers: How much do you know about the wives of Henry VIII?
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
The home of one of Scotland’s great eccentric beauties — the woman who took her pet badger on 100mph speedboat rides — is a hotel you can stay in
The brains behind The Goring has had his way with Loch Lomond Arms Hotel. Steven King checks in.
‘She is part of its atmosphere, its memory, and its soul’: The bucolic final resting place of Henry VIII’s last bride
Katherine Parr will always be known in history as the bride who survived. In July 1543, this clever, confident woman put aside her personal feelings — and her love for Sir Thomas Seymour — to become Henry VIII's sixth and final wife. In contrast to her teenage predecessor Catherine Howard, Parr was older and more experienced, had been twice widowed already, and was approaching her 30th birthday She would stay with Henry for three and a half years, until his death in January 1547.
The gorgeous collection of one of the founding fathers of English Country House style is up for sale
‘It’s bittersweet, but having the collection admired by people feels really lovely,’ says George Oakes’s daughter.
Price that house in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 29, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
Teddy bears, dog collars and garden gnomes: The strangest museums in the UK revealed
On this green and pleasant isle, we have a museum for almost anything.
Country Life September 30, 2026
Country Life September 30, 2026, looks at miraculous country house restorations, meets London's last milkman and celebrates the wonders of Slow Nature.
How to rebuild an old house and make it a modern marvel, using most of its original materials
This sitting room in a newly built house on Exmoor has been lent a timeless feel by a fossil-stone fireplace.
This Cornish manor house with a 700-year history is full of life, colour and flair
Nansough Manor looks every inch the classic Georgian home from the outside — and within it’s a joyously pretty family home.
‘The lowliest material on the earth — mud — becomes something beautiful, valuable and unique’: Will Gompertz on the ‘incredible alchemy’ of pottery
Little beats the alchemy of pottery, which turns humble mud into a thing of beauty, as Will Gompertz tells Carla Passino.
Test your general knowledge in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 28, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
A wisteria-clad Cotswolds home with a name that’ll put a smile on your face
17th century architecture and early-Victorian design flair combine in the beautiful Pud Hill, in a village in the heart of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire.
Will a tourist tax serve those who pay it?
Earlier this month, the Government confirmed that: ‘Mayors and local leaders will be handed the power to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy — a fee on overnight stays — to help maximise the benefits of tens of millions of people visiting England every year.’
Beheadings, a duplicitous solicitor and a Rembrandt for the price of an Oasis ticket: The sorry story of Sprotborough Hall
The definition of 'investment' takes on a new meaning for this South Yorkshire home modelled on the Palace of Versailles.
What is everyone talking about this week: Have we reached peak 90s nostalgia?
‘It’s not happening,’ tweeted Liam Gallagher after word of Oasis headlining Glastonbury took over the internet this summer — followed by a series of expletives we are too polite to spell out, even in asterisks. It did little to diminish their lead in the odds market: both he and brother Noel are notorious for denying reprisals until there is so much money on the table that it is impossible to say no.
The Glovebox: A new era at McLaren, best of Goodwood Revival and say hello to Kermit and Nevada
Plus, VistaJet takes to the tarmac.
The humble pug has long been the darling dog of royalty
Silly looking yes, but the pug is one of the fanciest dogs around.
Six country houses, from an Elizabethan mansion to a converted boathouse that dips its toes into the water, as seen in Country Life
From Cornwall to Hertfordshire, here's our pick of the best homes to come to the market through Country Life in the past week.
The ‘hounds of heaven’ are in the skies above, and it’s one of Nature’s greatest sights
There are a few moments in the year that stand out above all the others. The first snowdrop flowering, swallows arriving from Africa in April, hearing the cuckoo, mayflies hatching in May and the roses and summer solstice in June, but for epic scale, drama and operatic glory nothing matches the wild geese arriving now.
Keep dreaming: The spectacular reimagining of Norwich Castle
A bold attempt to reconstruct the early-12th-century interiors of the Keep at Norwich Castle has paid off. Edward Impey visits this hugely ambitious Norman palace to find out more; photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
The epic country house in ‘the most beautiful spot on Earth’ is for sale for the third time in 200 years
A three-mile driveway leads to Glenthorne House, a magnificent manor that feels like it's clinging to the edge of the world. Penny Churchill tells its story.
‘People often expect a perfect repair, but we are not about that’: The experts taking care of leather
Whether it’s a football used in the First World War or the seats of an early electric taxi, the Leather Conservation Centre in Leicester helps conserve historic objects, as Corinne Julius reveals
What does it take to conserve vast and untamed African ecosystems for future generations?
A former Royal Marine, a pack of anti-poaching dogs and staff with in-depth local knowledge, according to Singita, Africa’s leading eco-tourism brand.
Meet Gerald of Wales, the medieval Bill Bryson who was Britain’s first great travel writer
Plagues of toads, bands of robbers and ‘remarkable’ eagles were no match for Gerald, discovers Nicholas Crane.
A house for those whose biggest problem is whether to take the yacht or the helicopter
Crown Pigeon Island is a private island paradise in the Bahamas with three beaches, a marina, its own golf course and space to land your helicopter.
Can you count the stars? It’s the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 25, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
When is a pipe not a pipe? When it is the painted paradox of René Magritte
A new London exhibition explores how the artist's influence extended far beyond his own lifetime.
A £15 million manor house that’s been transformed into as grand a home as you’ll find in the Cotswolds
Seven years ago, Foxcote Manor in Gloucestershire was a traditional, ivy-clad Cotswolds home. After years of work — and a seven-figure refurbishment bill — it’s a country house ready for the 21st century. Penny Churchill takes a closer look.
If any animal could be considered an artist, it is surely the redstart
The redstart or ‘fireflirt’s’ painterly good looks aren’t the only attribute that bewitches Mark Cocker–its extraordinary talent for mimicry brings the whole world within reach
The 16th century farmhouse that was home to an iconic Oscar-winning actor, and the man who wrote the Mr Men books
Sussex House Farm has had a remarkable run of former owners, including Sir John Mills and Roger Hargreaves. Could you be the next to move in?
There’s no toying around in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 24, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
David Shrigley: ‘Very strange, figurative, slushy, squishy paintings —I love that aesthetic'
Lotte Brundle meets the visual artist at his studio in Brighton.
Alan Titchmarsh: ‘The best garden gates are a fanfare, an indication of the glories to come’
First Impressions was the title Jane Austen gave to Pride and Prejudice when she penned the first draft in 1796. I am reminded of it every time I struggle with a wooden gate that forms the entrance to our new garden. It is really nothing more than a wavey- edge fence panel equipped with hinges and our garden — or the garden that will be — deserves better.
900 acres of Scotland to call your own, with rivers, beaches and mountains, at the price of a two-bed flat in South London
A croft in north-west Scotland has come to the market that is 'the ideal place in which to escape modern life'.
Lights, camera, don’t move! The new wave of English still-life painters
The most surprising genre of painting to be attracting sustained interest from England’s contemporary artists today is still life. From the soft-focus mimosa of Paul Winstanley (b. 1954) to the strange objects that pepper the abstracted interiors of 2025 John Moores Painting Prize winner Ally Fallon (b. 1998), the genre is making a comeback.
The Bentley Torcal is an electric car that isn’t afraid
Why pretend to be something you're not, when you can celebrate something that you are.
Get a whiff of the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 23, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
‘I’ve found the most enticing cheese trolley in Burgundy’: An unmissable guide to France’s best wine-producing region
From grand châteaux and Romanesque masterpieces, to the world’s most coveted wines, Burgundy is a region to be savoured slowly.
’It’s both old and new — yet you can’t see the join: Nicholas Howard on one of the greatest treasures at Castle Howard
Nicholas Howard stands in the Tapestry Drawing Room at Castle Howard, an interior refurnished as part of an ambitious wider renewal of this great Baroque house unveiled this year.
Jeff Koons: ‘AI is affecting us in the most positive ways imaginable’
The New York based artist talks perfectionism, Plato's Cave, and turning a dog into a watch with Hublot.
Are you the ultimate trivia all-rounder? You’ll need to prove it in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 22, 2026
From snakes and ancient battleships to children’s books and chocolate-inspired town planning, today’s quiz does everything it can to keep you on your toes.
One Palace Green: Returning style and splendour to a monument of the Arts-and-Crafts Movement
The redevelopment of this iconic London property intrigues Arabella Youens.
Country Life September 23, 2026
Country Life September 23, 2026, looks at the best places to live in the West Country, goes behind the scenes at the opera, and discovers a magical mouse house.
Bog standard? We beg to differ. These fascinating wetlands have a fearsome history
John Lewis-Stempel digs in to the history of the bog.
A £3.5 million townhouse that sparked a raging debate in the Country Life office
Refurbished, updated... yet unfinished? This home on one of Islington's swishest streets split opinion in the Country Life office. Is this chic just too shabby?
The Bayeux Tapestry is an exhibition to remember
Last week, Athena was fortunate to attend one of the private views of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum. She emerged exhilarated by the experience.
Do you remember the 21st Country Life Quiz of the Day of September, 2026?
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
Future-proofing, preservation and a break with formality: Reinventing the English country house
A new generation of country house owners means changing tastes. Arabella Youens finds out what really matters to a younger cohort of homeowner.
How a sweet malted milk gave rise to the finest garden in Edwardian England
The story behind the pleasure gardens of Cowley Manor is a fascinating one, albeit with an all too predictable ending.
‘Sometimes, a metal sliver may fly into his eye. Occasionally, the pointing stone will cause a fatal injury’: The dangerous but well-paid world of needle making
Slim, sharp and endlessly versatile, the needle has threaded its way through history and stitched itself into civilisation’s fabric with pin-point precision.
What is everyone talking about this week: Why do art’s insiders skip Frieze — and where do they go instead?
As the glitterati readies itself for Frieze London in October, a more discerning chorus of collectors will gather from 24–27 September at the Saatchi Gallery. The occasion? The 36th edition of the British Art Fair, which this year welcomes 72 dealers in total — 65 of whom are specialists in modern and contemporary art.
‘Better to play with a £50,000 fake than a priceless original’
Back in 1988, Roger Bell decided to draw the line on which replica cars were worth their salt.
In Peke condition: Meet the ancient toy dog breed famed for resembling a pain au chocolat
The Pekingese has long enjoyed royal attention, finds Agnes Stamp.
Six impossibly grand country homes, from a thatched Devon farmhouse to Leicestershire’s answer to Versailles
Dive into the treasures that have come to market through Country Life this week.
‘The council thought it was a useless bit of scrubland and nobody would care, but we knew different’: David vs Goliath in our green and pleasant land
If the Government and developers had their way, vast swathes of the countryside would be covered in new homes. Charlotte Cooper finds out which rural communities are fighting back.
The inventor-turned-industrial magnate who founded Unilever spent millions on art —and housed it in this gallery built to honour the love of his life
Created as a memorial to his wife, the architecture and superlative art displayed in Lady Lever Art Gallery are the legacy of one of the greatest British businessmen and collectors of all time. Steven Brindle reports. Photographs by Paul Highnam
The Cotswolds home of the meanest quiz show host in television history is up for sale
Anne Robinson became world-famous for her withering put-downs of contestants on ‘The Weakest Link’ — and after insulting all and sundry, this is the place where she went back home.
To restore a painting, science must meet art and the past must meet the present
Harry Pearson talks to the conservators that bring pictures back to life
Angela Hartnett: ‘My husband is a better chef than me. He has a little extra edge’
Lotte Brundle meets the chef, restaurateur and podcast host.
Grace La Margna review: Art Nouveau meets new wave glamour
Rosie Paterson visits the first five-star hotel to open in St Moritz, Switzerland, in half a century.
The garden at Mount St John: Tom Stuart-Smith’s contemporary pleasure ground
The starting point for making the magnificent garden at Mount St John in North Yorkshire — home of Chris and Jill Blundell — was its awe-inspiring views, writes Kendra Wilson. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
A Caribbean dream home? Pied-a-terre in Portofino? Or an 11-bedroom château? What £2 million buys you around the world
Those looking for a home overseas are spoilt for choice in the £1.5 million to £2 million bracket. Here's our pick of some of the best homes on the planet for sale at that price.
Nice houses and the famous people who lived in them
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
What happened to the most important collection of watches ever achieved by a private collector?
In an August 1958 issue, Cecil Clutton lamented the almost certain auction and dispersal of the most important collection of watches ever achieved by a private collector. Republished for the first time in nearly 70 years, we also reveal what happened to the precious assortment of timepieces.
In defence of sheep
Sheep don’t get much of a press do they? Apart from their categorisation as less than intellectual (‘being a sheep’ is a synonym for thoughtless following), ovines are the bête blanche of a vocal wing of rewilders for their alleged ‘sheep-wrecking’ of the uplands by overgrazing.
The 10 best far-flung villages worth a lengthy commute
Anna White picks out the best far-flung villages across Britain where you can live the country life, but still have a railway station and a direct train service to London. If you're ready to push the boundaries of the commuter belt, you've come to the right place.
Do we dress better when the economy is tanking?
As I cycled home from work yesterday, I came across something odd. It was a teenage girl, only she was well groomed, impeccably dressed and wore her hair in a bob. Are teenagers not meant to look spotty and out of place, I wondered? As London Fashion Week returns to the city this week, has sartorial fever finally gripped our adolescents?
A 600-year-old house that’s full of period charm outside — and 1980s-style fantasy on the inside
Ripple Hall, not far from Tekesbury, is a place that simply has to be seen.
Test your knowledge in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 17, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
What would Turner think? Meet Britain’s new landscape painters
In Reynolds’s time, English landscape painting was thought of as less erudite and important than history painting, but the sheer power of J. M. W. Turner’s sublime views and John Constable’s Suffolk scenes enabled the genre to be taken seriously for the first time.
'I rented it from the parents of a friend —they were perfect landlords who charged peppercorn rent': Sir Nicholas Coleridge on his first house in the country
Where was it? I rented a stone Cotswold cottage in the village of Notgrove, on a Gloucestershire estate between Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach A quick description It had three bedrooms, a garden large enough for a badminton net and a defunct night storage heater in the kitchen. We were there from 1985–88. What made you rent it?
Don’t bat away the fruit fly! This humble pest has six Nobel Prizes to its name
When the fruits of autumn beckon, with them will come those pestilential little flies. Across every continent and every island where fructification is celebrated, they will take to the air in search of sustenance and reproduction, an abiding nuisance wherever the pomaceous perfume of decaying orchard mesocarp ascends, sugary cooking odours arise and picnic goodies and wine glasses attract.
Justine Picardie: ‘Search dusty attics or muddy boot rooms for forgotten trench coats and sally forth, as gallant Britannic ambassadors’
If Burberry has come to signify a quintessentially British style, it also represents the quicksilver nature of national identity, for, even in our class-conscious society, the brand has been adopted as a uniform across the social divide, spanning grouse moors and football terraces, worn by everyone from the late Duke of Edinburgh to Liam Gallagher.
Death at Buckingham Palace in the Country Life Quiz of the Day
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
A restored farmhouse is a magnet for Britain’s best chefs and it’s making Deal a big deal
Richard MacKichan checks in to Updown Farmhouse — and reveals everything you need to know about the surrounding area.
Stop trying to make a pub something it isn’t
It doesn't need to be a restaurant. It needs to have a soul.
The original golden gates, created by an unparalleled genius of 17th-century metalwork
Forget the bridge in San Francisco: the most beautiful golden gates we've ever seen are at Burghley House in Lincolnshire.
A new exhibition in the Hampshire forest is setting tongues wagging — and wooing young collectors
Arina Izmestieva's roaming gallery, Funny Weather, is back with an outdoor exhibition that celebrates the materials found in our national landscapes.
Country Life September 16, 2026
Country Life September 16, 2026, is our Cotswolds special, with 55 pages of property plus mad museums, ancient families and the resting place of Henry VIII's youngest bride.
Shell we? The dressed crab is smart, splendidly laid back and uniquely British
All a freshly caught and picked crab demands is that you dress for success, says Tom Parker Bowles
A thatched roof, ancient beams and fire-engine-red Rayburn at this picture-perfect cottage in Lincolnshire
A classic chocolate box cottage with beautiful gardens and a modest price tag are on offer in this village between the Lincolnshire coast and the Wolds.
If you Focus, you too can be inspired by the wit and wisdom of leading experts in the world of design
This month, events at Focus/26 and beyond will offer an opportunity to see new launches — and pick up some expert tips and tricks.
Where were these UK icons born? Find out in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, September 14, 2026
The Country Life Quiz is published every weekday at 4pm. Missed a day? Want more quizzes? Catch up on previous editions, here.
Did Chanel’s spectacular diamond exhibition almost cure the Great Depression?
Three years after the 1929 stock-market crash, when the world was still in the depths of depression, Coco Chanel staged a dazzling exhibition of astronomically inspired jewellery.
A beachfront Victorian fortress for sale on Alderney that could be in the Caribbean
The historic fort of Château l'Etoc is on the market for the first time since the 1930s.
Country Life’s ‘unusually hurried and ill-composed photographs’ of a curious home eviscerated by The Blitz
Radnor House was unfashionable... until it wasn't.
What is everyone talking about this week: How Yotam Ottolenghi inspired a vogue for harvest parties
Of all the parties I expected to attend in 2026, I hadn’t anticipated that the most fun would be had from vegetables. ‘Rovi has always been about great produce,’ says chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi of his restaurant in London's Fitzrovia, which hosted the capital’s foremost harvest party last Thursday. ‘It is about vegetables from root to tip, with a menu shaped by our growers and our kitchen garden near Tottenham.’ The shindig, harking back to Athenian tradition, was also an excuse for a hoedown.
The Goodwood Members’ Meeting, where The Duke of Richmond meets Dave from Richmond
Nick Hendrix makes it a personal mission to inspire the next generation of petrolheads. Where else to do so than West Sussex?
Dangerous descendant of wolves or dedicated war hero? The rise, fall and rise again of the incomparable German shepherd
Agnes Stamp traces the history of the German shepherd.
Six outstanding country homes, from £460,000 to £6 million, as seen in Country Life
Our look at some of the best homes to come to the market through Country Life this week includes a magical Georgian home and a huge period house in Berkshire.
Lights, camera, countryside: The best rural cinemas
Cinemas aren't just for cities, there are plenty in the countryside too, says Madeleine Silver. Illustrations by Bryony Fripp.
A decades-long project to save a house from 500 years of ‘ungainly, hotch-potch extensions’ and reveal its original beauty
Rescued from dereliction in the early 1990s and never previously described by Country Life, Balgone House in East Lothian has evolved from tower house to remarkable Classical seat, as Mary Miers explains. Photography by Will Pryce.
A six-bedroom mansion with tower, lake and 22 acres on a beautiful Scottish peninsula at just £635,000
Ardmore House in Dunbartonshire offers the country house dream at a city flat price.