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.

LONDON LIFE • Your indispensable guide to the capital

News

SW4 LITTLE BLACK BOOK

Put your hands together • There’s plenty to celebrate in leafy Clapham, including its historical links to the abolitionist movement, finds Carla Passino

At home in Clapham

Seasonal suggestions

Here’s looking at the City of London's churches

The great and the good

Pass it on

Manteca, 58–59, Great Marlborough Street, W1

February at a glance • We’re all guilty of ignoring what’s on our doorstep, so we’ve made it easier for you. Here are suggestions for what to do this month

A MARATHON EFFORT • The idea for the first London Marathon was born in a pub in Petersham. On the eve of its 40th anniversary, Jeremy Taylor looks back at the famous event that has raised more than £1 billion for charity

DID YOU KNOW?

BEST DRESSED

Levison Wood • Rosie Paterson talks to the explorer and photographer about his upcoming book launch and why he’d like more people to use the River Thames

Miss Iona Bielby • Iona is studying Art History at the University of St Andrews and is due to graduate this year. She is the founder of online art dealership New Fine Art Exchange, which connects emerging artists with first-time buyers, and the daughter of Michael Bielby and Lesley Murray Bielby of Blockley, Gloucestershire.

Lessons learnt

Country Life

Turning off the green light

Flying high

The show must go on

Good week for

Bad week for

Come a little bit closer

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum

Art on your doorstep

Country Mouse • The living daylights

Town Mouse • Snow sculpture

100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE February 5, 1921

Oh, the agony! • Resident agony uncle Kit Hesketh-Harvey solves your dilemmas

Town & Country Notebook

Wines of the week

To the letter

Letters to the Editor

Empty returns

Athena Cultural Crusader • Don’t assume change is coming

The way we were • Photographs from the COUNTRY LIFE archive

The Toilet of Venus by Diego Velázquez John McEwen on The Toilet of Venus

‘Thou wast not born for death’ • Dismissed as ‘the Cockney Homer’ and a fey lovelorn dreamer, John Keats was actually a robust and spirited man with medical training and a penchant for fisticuffs, says Jack Watkins, on the 200th anniversary of the poet’s premature demise

The brief life of John Keats

A literary shrine

Down by the river • Exploring the mysterious lower reaches of the Severn brings new local delights

Warm feet and warm hearts • A medieval February was a time of romance and roaring fires, discovers Amy Jeffs

‘A picture of magic beauty’ • Leighton Hall, Lancashire The home of Mrs Susan Gillow Reynolds A Georgian house remodelled in the Gothic style became a seat of the Gillow family, famous for their furniture-making business, in 1824. John Martin Robinson looks at the remarkable story of the house and its collections

Desert-island tweets • Forget discs–which eight birdsongs would you choose as the soundtrack to your solitary existence? Our castaway today...