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 Sienna Alexandra Hervey de Gale • Sienna is studying for a professional business diploma at Oxford Media & Business School before reading Business at the University of Exeter from September. She is the daughter of William and Sasha de Gale of Tolethorpe, Rutland.

In deep water

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

Stopping the rustlers

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting Emily Howes

Overflowing with delight • The fountain has a long and fascinating history in England, from the Roman period to the present day, as John Goodall reveals

The legacy Godfrey Baseley and The Archers

The secret life of chalkstreams • Chalkstreams were forged millions of years ago when Europe was largely underwater and developed into unique and complex habitats that we must consider national treasures, says Charles Rangeley-Wilson

Oil on stormy waters • An island nation, we love to immerse ourselves in water–in all senses. Holly Black dives into works inspired by the world beneath the waves

Water by numbers

It’s a pirate’s life for me • Tales of swashbuckling pirates have entertained audiences for years, inspired by real-life British men and women, says Jack Watkins

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • Nicknamed the ‘Princess of Punk’, British designer Dame Zandra Rhodes burstonto the fashion scene in the 1960s and continues to work from her London studio. She has dressed famous names from Freddie Mercury, Diana Ross andBarbara Streisand to Princess Diana and The Princess Royal. In 2003, she founded London’s Fashion and Textile Museum and, in 2020, formed the Zandra Rhodes Foundation, a charity that enables future generations to study her life, designs and techniques. Her memoir, Iconic: My Life in Fashion in 50 Objects, is out this month and she has a new collection with fashion designer Celia B.

Dive right in • Time will always be on your side when wearing one of these reliable diving watches

The designer’s room • The owners of this elegant London house asked the team at De Rosee Sa to create a light, modern kitchen for their large family

Hopelessly devoted • Home accessories for dog lovers, selected by Amelia Thorpe

Levelling up in Somerset • Two impressive houses have seen it all, from an elopement with a footman to rescue from ruin

Sittin’ on the dock of the bay • Now is the time to buy a house by the water, according to research conducted exclusively for COUNTRY LIFE by Jackson-Stops. Annunciata Elwes finds out why

Honouring the past • Kathryn Bradley-Hole traces the story of the gardens in the past 40 years with its ingenious designs by Russell Page and François Goffinet

The year of the umbellifer

Kitchen garden cook Tomatoes

Irrigating the imagination • From stew ponds and medieval moats to a miniature Mount Parnassus, water has flowed through the history of British gardens, often in ruinously expensive fashion, reveals Christopher Stocks

‘It’s an instrument that never fails to amaze’ • Anne-Sophie Mutter describes playing a Stradivarius violin as ‘life changing’ and Yehudi Menuhin said the instrument...