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 Jemima Claire Wilson

Here’s to 2023 • Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk

Country Life

Painting a momentous year

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

All presents and correct

The Arts as a bulletproof political investment

The way we were Photographs from the COUNTRY LIFE archive

My favourite painting The Duke of Northumberland • Portrait of the artist with Nicholas Lanier and Sir Charles Cotterell by William Dobson

English Home part XII, 1939–2022 • Each month of this 125th-anniversary year, COUNTRY LIFE has illustrated a period in the development of the English great house. In this final article in this 12-part series, John Goodall looks at the Country House since the outbreak of the Second World War

A Grand Tour of Britain • This country may have had its travails in 2022, but it is still a nation rich in treasures, both natural and manmade. Let Clive Aslet take you on an uplifting historic tour, from ancient to modern, in 52 extraordinary and evocative places, one for each week of 2023

O star of wonder, star of night • As with the famous carol, John Lewis-Stempel and his labrador Plum are spellbound by the stars ‘with royal beauty bright’, as they are guided home ‘to thy perfect light’ after checking the sheep at midnight

‘They seek him here, they seek him there’ • Minuscule and incredibly fast-flying, with a tendency to zig-zag on take-off before disappearing at speeds of up to 60mph, the snipe is one of our most elusive gamebirds, as Paula Lester quickly discovers

All’s well that ends well • Despite lashings of insecurity, both political and economic, the prime country-house market still managed to have a year to remember

Whatever next? • Key design trends for 2023, predicted by Giles Kime

Slow gardening

Shear genius • Christopher Stocks traces the story of topiary, from its ancient origins to the modern day

Kitchen garden cook Dates

Your chance to be a girl with a pearl • The Mauritshuis in the Netherlands is offering members of the public the rare chance of replacing a famous Vermeer with their own work

Cold calling • Aeneas Dennison picks out his top books for the armchair traveller

Crossword

Bridge

Christmas dinner gives cook the slip

TOTTERING-BY-GENTLY • Visit Tottering-By-Gently on our website: www.countrylife.co.uk/tottering