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 Olivia Jane Celeste Taylor • Olivia is a head of sales in the Modern and Contemporary Art department at Phillips auction house. She is engaged to George Van Horn, whom she will marry at St Mary’s Church, Fittleworth, West Sussex, in September, and is the daughter of Ian and Belinda Taylor of London SW13.

’Tis the Season

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

Television’s top three

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting John Booth

The private made public • In the second of two articles, John Goodall traces the 20th-century evolution of this outstanding house and its current revival in the care of an independent charitable trust

The legacy The Stevenson family and lighthouses

The summer Season • Celebrate all that is glorious about the British social round

A need for speed • Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping quite like live, fast-paced action and the summer Season enjoys the finest athletic, equine and motor-driven moments of elation. Ben Lerwill tells us why awe-inspiring speed adds glamour and draws the crowds

The heat of the moment • With temperatures rising, but formal dress codes remaining the same, Tom Chamberlin and Sophia Money-Coutts tell us how on earth they keep their cool–or, if not, at least remain standing–at the smartest events of the Season

Summer loving • Make hay while the sun shines in these glorious ensembles

Life’s a picnic • With picnic season fast approaching, it’s time to elevate your alfresco feast to Michelin-star levels of deliciousness. Here, Paul Henderson asks a selection of the finest chefs to open up their picnic baskets and share some of their top tips for culinary success

Hampering after summer • Lifting the lid on a sturdy hamper to find cold ham and ginger beer is a summer joy. Julie Harding meets the wicker weavers who make the dream come true

A sparkling collection • Guided by the nose of wine expert Harry Eyres, the COUNTRY LIFE team tasted some of England’s finest sparkling wines and found elegance and finesse, with notes of hedgerows and seaside air, to compete with any fizz from across the Channel–surely, this is what we should be drinking now

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • One of the world’s leading fashion artists, David Downton has illustrated shows from Paris to New York. He also produces exquisite portraits from life of the world’s most eminent women, Catherine Deneuve, Iman, Rachel Weisz, Charlotte Rampling and Kristin Scott Thomas among them. In 2011, he was appointed the first ever fashion artist in residence at Claridge’s, London W1, where he draws the hotel’s most illustrious guests from the world of style and fashion.

The designer’s room • Flora Soames has created a new kitchen that offers a space for family life and a cherished collection

On the edge • Decorative frames can make all the difference

Processions, proclamations and punishment • The wayside crosses that were once beacons in the British landscape have seldom survived the forces of Nature and iconoclasm. Lucien de Guise follows a trail of destruction

A Georgian legacy • Down in Wiltshire and...