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 Naomi Thrower • Naomi is head of governance at MindGym and studying to be a solicitor. The daughter of Philip and Susan Thrower of Horsell, Surrey, she is engaged to Charles Palmer, son of Sir Robert and Lady Palmer, whom she will marry at The Hurlingham Club, London SW6, in May next year.

Artificial art

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

Athena

My favourite painting Norman Foster

All in a day’s work • Duck dating, snowdrop splitting, welcoming avian visitors and manning the barricades against an unwanted national park

Brothers in art • An ambitious redevelopment project has augmented the celebrated interiors of this magnificent studio house. John Goodall reveals how it came into being

Blooming marvellous • From Duccio, who sneaked a vase of lilies into his depiction of the Annunciation, to Georgia O’Keeffe, who plunged viewers straight into the heart of her poppies, Michael Prodger explores how flowers have inspired artists across the centuries

Man of the world • Sir John Lavery is best known as a Society portraitist, but he was also a plein-air painter of modern life who moved easily between continents, painting as he went. Mary Miers follows his peregrinations

Follow your art • In a heist with a happy ending, a stolen Lavery oil made its way back to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, where it now inspires headmaster John Browne, as Carla Passino discovers

On a wig and a prayer • Like marmalade on toast, saying sorry and the Shipping Forecast, there are few things more typically British than the courtroom wig, says Agnes Stamp

Where be dragons? • Lucien de Guise finds the answer in the original source of Hic sunt dracones (‘Here be dragons’): a small copper globe of about 1510. The location is East Asia, where the dragon is still most active… as it is, of course, in Wales

Just a drop • What better era for jewellery than Art Deco, insists Hetty Lintell, as she chooses favourite earrings: old and new, but always modern

Is this London’s most exquisite hotel room?

The designer’s room • A clever combination of colours has brought life to this inviting Cotswold kitchen designed by Sims Hilditch

New looks • Favourite finds at London Design Week 2024, selected by Amelia Thorpe

All in a life’s work • Shropshire lads supreme and joined-up thinking in Oxfordshire

Talk of the town • A range of townhouses in all corners of England

Hedge of eternity • As old as husbandry hedges may be, but that doesn’t mean they cannot be beautiful, too. Charles Quest-Ritson considers the many options

Trumpet majors

A seed of an idea • There is a lot more to successful wildflower propagation than scattering a packet and hoping for the best, discovers Tilly Ware, as she visits the UK’s biggest wild-seed producer

A tower of thorns • Made with wind, sea and thorns on the wild west coast of Scotland, Blackthorn Salt brings surprising health benefits, as well as being a unique example of sustainable craftsmanship, says Ben Lerwill

Kitchen garden cook Rhubarb

Love and marriage • Marital relations are the central theme in these three...