Country Life

Published by TI Media Limited 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 Anastasia Knight • Anastasia works in the private funds group at Evercore, an investment bank in London, and is a qualified helicopter pilot. She is the daughter of Charles and Lalley Knight of Tythegston, Mid Glamorgan, and will wed Felix Curtis at St John the Baptist Church in Newton, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan, in August.

A show to savour

Country Life

Countryside sees red over ‘green’ schemes • Britain’s dash for sun-powered energy has sparked a modern gold rush–panels replacing pasture, developers’ profits soaring and rural communities pushing back against the encroachment. Charlotte Cooper reports

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Stuff & nonsense

Letters to the Editor

The work begins

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting His Excellency Antonio Patriota

Country-house treasures

The legacy • Brenda Colvin and the industrial landscape

Home and away • Kathryn Bradley-Hole previews the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which opens next week

Flow states • Fountains and water features to enhance a garden’s tranquillity, selected by Amelia Thorpe

A coming of age • The transformation of a derelict estate into a mature garden with surrounding parkland is nothing short of miraculous, reveals Tiffany Daneff

The best bred buddlejas • Almost every garden in the country will contain a plant bred by Peter Moore, one of whose great enthusiasms is for buddlejas. Charles Quest-Ritson went to meet him

Roses and runner beans

Architectural ambitions • This magnificent country house was the unexpected product of the fractious and corrupt politics of early 18th-century England, as John Goodall explains

Hoops and glory • The gentle clunk of a wooden mallet against a ball may signal the advent of summer, but be warned, ‘croquet is not for sissies’, as it offers many opportunities for venting rancour, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Dark satanic bills • In the second instalment of our series on Britain’s most misunderstood birds, the voracious cormorant–sometimes dubbed ‘the black death’–is in the spotlight

Mirror, mirror on the wall • An indicator of wealth, a tool of either flirtation or restraint and ‘one of the most powerful ways to shape a space’, a grand mirror reflects far more than a pretty face–especially in country houses, discovers Melanie Cable-Alexander

If you only buy one…

The designer’s room • Studio Squire has given a fresh look to this sitting room overlooking a leafy London square

The art of soulful spaces • On the first day of WOW!house, this summer’s most exciting interiors event, COUNTRY LIFE will host an opportunity to hear leading figures in the design world discuss the role of light and materials in their work

Property news

Everything’s coming up roses • Few flowers rival the rose for variety of hue, from vivid pinks to understated lemons. In any shade, rose gardens bring romance and refinement to a setting, something that this quintet of homes for sale demonstrates with aplomb

Kitchen garden cook Peas

Round and round we go • From a Lanarkshire bakery to the Commonwealth Games, the irresistible Tunnock’s Tea...