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 Julia Goldfeld • Julia, a former Wall Street trader and graduate of Cornell University, New York, US, and the University of Cambridge, is founding a sustainable fashion label. She is engaged to Dr William Aslet, whom she will marry at Bevis Marks Synagogue, London EC3, and is the daughter of Vladimir and Shoshanna Goldfeld of New York City, US.

Saved by beauty

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

A pitiful choice

Athena • Cultural Crusader

Jeremy Clarkson • Rain, Steam, and Speed–The Great Western Railway, by J. M. W. Turner

Opening the shutters • In the second of two articles, John Goodall looks at the way in which this major Georgian house was awakened from sleep as a modern home and place of entertainment

The legacy

Venus was her name • The goddess of love and beauty’s naked form caused a stir in the 4th century BC, incensed Suffragettes in the 20th and ruled art history in between and beyond, as Michael Hall reveals

Tripping the light fantastic • A lustrous play of colour alchemy, iridescence can intrigue, camouflage and incite desire. Laura Parker immerses herself in one of Nature’s greatest special effects

‘Makes Buckingham Palace seem rather dull’ • The London homes of the British aristocracy were often grander than their country counterparts, palatial without ever being called palaces, says Lucien de Guise

The final straw • From jewellery to headwear, woven raffia is perfect for summer both home and abroad, says Hetty Lintell

Bend it like Beckham • Chippendale, Scotland’s only independent furniture school, bears a huge name to live up to, but with courses in wood-bending, marquetry, upholstery, restoration and more, it is flourishing under a new generation, finds Mary Miers

Design brought to life • The 2024 WOW!house is a delightful parallel universe of creativity, finds Giles Kime

Stars in the East • Continuing from last week, further East Anglian properties include a moat beloved by wildlife, a Georgian hunting lodge on the site of a Civil War battlefield and a well-restored manor with a Tudor-hall wedding venue

Very clubbable • Houses close to countryside members’ clubs are quickly snapped up, finds Madeleine Silver, particularly in the new ‘golden triangle’ between Soho Farmhouse, Daylesford and Estelle Manor

Bourne to run • A flat waterside site has been transformed into a garden full of drama with plenty of delightful places to stop and enjoy the view, writes Kathryn Bradley-Hole

The ideal kitchen garden

Courgettes

Mother of herbs • Enjoying a strange association with childbirth, mugwort is of more use in the kitchen and may even induce ‘lucid dreams’, finds John Wright

Full steam ahead • The railway may have started its artistic life as a fire-breathing monster that devoured the countryside, but it soon became an emblem of advancing modernity, a cherished memento of the past and even, in the case of one station, the centre of the universe

Having the last laugh • Rotting teeth, modelling woes and an appreciation for solemnity have historically conspired to make painted grins a rarity, but beaming faces...