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.

Miss Bubble Kime • Bubble is a gap-year assistant at Twyford School, Hampshire. On December 18, she will sing a solo at a carol concert in aid of TP Caring Spaces at St Luke’s Church, Chelsea, London SW3. She is the daughter of Giles and Kate Kime of Cheriton, Hampshire.

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Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

The future is green

Keep the past for the future

The way we were Photographs from the COUNTRY LIFE archive

My favourite painting Jamie Hambro • Low Life by Edwin Henry Landseer

Medieval modernism • Ballone Castle, Easter Ross The home of Lachie and Annie Stewart The restoration of a ruined tower house has created the opportunity for a remarkable contemporary essay in the spirit of the Arts-and-Crafts Movement, as Mary Miers discovers

Native breeds Shire

Taken by storm • Extreme weather has long loomed large in the artist’s imagination. Michael Prodger celebrates the poetic beauty of Nature’s all-consuming fury

In for a penny-farthing • Riding his Victorian high wheeler for 400 miles across war-torn Ukraine, making pizza for local children, was an eye-opening experience for former Special Forces officer Neil Laughton

And still, as he lived, he wondered • More than a century on, The Wind in the Willows continues to entertain the young and the young at heart. Matthew Dennison explores the enduring appeal of Kenneth Grahame’s anthropomorphic animals

The whorled wide web • Whether woven to ensnare unsuspecting victims or to cocoon precious eggs, spider silk is a wonder of Nature, each translucent thread so fragile, yet stronger than steel, says Simon Lester

Scaling heart-attack hill • On a windy October morning, John Lewis-Stempel conquers Mount Caburn and revels in the rounded slopes of the sky-curving grass and wildflower-cloaked hills that have been shaped by centuries of sheep grazing on the South Downs

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • Prof Tim Spector, co-founder of ZOE, the personalised nutrition company, and author of the bestselling Food for Life and Spoon Fed, was born and raised in London, before travelling to Europe where he met his wife, Veronique Bataille. They live in north London, with their children nearby.

Find your way • Navigation watches that are not only practical, but beautiful, too

The decorated kitchen • There’s no reason why a kitchen can’t be pretty, finds Arabella Youens

Magnificent survivors • Restoring our heritage buildings can create properties of excellence and elegance, as these two examples prove

Best in class • From the biggest estate to the cutest cottage, these five properties all lead their respective fields

Lighting-up time • Leonardslee Gardens, near Horsham, West Sussex Changes are afoot at the famous rhododendron gardens, which are now being planted for year-round interest, reports Charles Quest-Ritson

Down to earth

Kitchen garden cook Pumpkins

Grape escapes • The only thing better than a glass of wine is a glass of French wine drunk at the vineyard in which it was made, says Mark Hedges

Feed your soul • The medieval practice of...