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.

Dr Eleanor Stephenson • Eleanor is a curator at the National Museum, Cardiff and recently completed her PhD in History of Art at the University of Cambridge. She is the daughter of Graham Stephenson of Bishopstone, East Sussex, and Mieke Vierling of Doesburg, The Netherlands.

Look and you will see

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Stuff & nonsense

Letters to the Editor

Wool good, PETA bad

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting Tony Iommi

Country-house treasures

The genius of place • A new country house combines Classical and Gothic detailing to brilliant effect. John Martin Robinson reveals the sophistication and interest of this remarkable building and its landscape

On the brink of extinction • As the telephone exchange passes into obsolescence, Ptolemy Dean asks if these ubiquitous and neglected buildings deserve a selective attempt at posthumous recognition

John Bateman and the water system

When the Englishman’s home was no longer his castle • With patients in the parlour and potatoes in the parterre, the role country houses played in the Second World War was so significant that it was joked SOE stood for the Stately ’Omes of England. Deborah Nicholls-Lee discovers more

Look, listen, learn • No matter how familiar we are with Nature, there is always more we can absorb about it–and ourselves–by paying closer attention. As his new book on the subject is released, Mark Cocker makes a passionate case for watchful wandering

There goes summer • The hopeful transitions that mark the ushering-in of autumn leave a deep impression on John Lewis-Stempel, as he gets to grips with the sheep-tupping season on a mist-laden September morning

The return of the native • This spring, a fluttering wave of marmalade orange reappeared on our shores after 40 years. Happily, the large tortoiseshell butterfly isn’t the only prodigal species to make a surprise comeback, says Harry Pearson

The last milkman standing? • With Britain’s milk rounds all but run dry, Patrick Galbraith joins one of London’s last remaining milkmen to discover whether a trusted and traditional doorstep service still has any bottle

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • Rita Konig is a prolific interior designer and writer whose online course with Create Academy is inspiring a new generation of home owners. She lives in west London with her daughter and her dog, Eddie

A clean sweep • White diamonds are as timeless as they are beautiful. Here, contemporary forms showcase them at their best

The art of the hand • Specialist companies that bring expertise and traditional craftsmanship to country-house renovations, selected by Amelia Thorpe

A house at the crossroads

Listed and luscious • A listing usually ensures that a property has pedigree, personality and permanence. This quintet has all those attributes in spades–and many more

The restoration of ‘England’s green and pleasant Land’ • The transformation of an estate that includes one of the earliest and loveliest Pulhamite gardens has been miraculous, says Timothy Mowl

The Versailles of the north • As the garden...