Country Life

Published by Time Inc. (UK) Ltd Country Life, the quintessential English magazine, is undoubtedly one of the biggest and instantly recognisable brands in the UK today. It has a unique core mix of contemporary country-related editorial and top end property advertising. Editorially, the magazine comments in-depth on a wide variety of subjects, such as architecture, the arts, gardens and gardening, travel, the countryside, field-sports and wildlife. With renowned columnists and superb photography Country Life delivers the very best of British life every week.

Mrs Lucy Bowden-Croston • Lucy is a marketing executive at Farlows Group and founder of the Fishing For Everyone Ladies Fishing Club, which aims to get more women into the sport and helps raise money for members of the Armed Forces suffering from mental-health issues, such as PTSD. She is the daughter of Christopher and Margaret Bowden of Alnwick, Northumberland.

Learn to love your planning officer

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

Crushed by bureaucracy

Athena Cultural Crusader Delve for the riches beneath the superficial

The way we were Photographs from the COUNTRY LIFE archive

My favourite painting Graham Lloyd-Brunt • In The Evening Light

A question of balance • In the age of industrialised agriculture, can our intervention ever truly nurture ecological harmony? We cannot better Nature, but we can enhance it, says John Lewis-Stempel

Rooted in tradition • Wield Park, Hampshire The home of Andrew and Arabella Dunn A landscape previously used for intensive farming has been turned into the setting of an idyllic new country house in a classical idiom. Jeremy Musson reports

Native breeds Dartmoor pony

Are we too eager for beavers? • Valuable eco-engineers or destructive pests? The busy beaver is a friend to biodiversity, but can pose a threat to farmland. The key to reaping the benefits and avoiding the drawbacks lies in sensible management plans, argues Simon Lester

Written in the dam • Although beavers have only recently been reintroduced to Britain, they enjoyed a long and eventful history in reality–including being hunted for their testicles- and folklore before they died out, explains Ian Morton

Eel meat again • Once a sought-after delicacy, a miraculous remedy and even a way rural Britain paid the rent–is there anything the eel couldn’t do, wonders Jeremy Hobson

‘There’s something regal about them’ • Once the scourge of gamekeepers, lurchers have since leapt to dizzying heights of desirability and now make endearing family pets, says Katy Birchall

Nothing but sunshine and a sea breeze • A game of beach cricket with captains and kings leaves Steve King with hazy memories, but the all-encompassing glow of a perfect game (despite losing by three wickets)

Of fish and men • Visionary fisherman Mick May set up a charity to give cancer patients the opportunity to find some peace in fishing. A year after his death, our correspondent joins the trustees for a day in pursuit of trout to honour his friend’s memory

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • Born in the UK, but raised in Lugano, Switzerland, musician Jack Savoretti has spent the past year in Italy working on his next album, set for release next year. His impressive 17-year career has seen collaborations with icons such as Bob Dylan, Kylie Minogue and Nile Rodgers, as well as two number-one albums. Mr Savoretti is an ambassador for War Child and a supporter of Tusk Trust–last month, he ran the Lewa Safari Marathon in Kenya with his wife, the actress and artist Jemma Powell. They live in the Cotswolds with their three children and three dogs.

Just the bare necessities • A few essentials for the gentleman...