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.

The Hon Matilda Prentis • Matilda is a Defra civil servant, who also organises charity reeling balls in aid of Ukraine. She is the daughter of Judge Sebastian Prentis and Victoria, the Right Hon Baroness Prentis of Banbury KC, of Somerton, Oxfordshire, and will marry James Foote MFH (Grafton)at St James the Apostle, Somerton, Oxfordshire, later this month.

For England, and St George! • England isn’t a sovereign nation state, it has no official National Anthem and no one holds an English passport, but being English is a beautifully fuzzy and capacious idea that still holds meaning, says the Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy

Country Life

What next for rural Britain? • The fly-tipping epidemic, housing explosion, farming’s ‘poor relation’ status and the dangers of over-regulation were among the subjects put under the microscope at the latest sell-out Future Countryside conference

Town & Country Notebook

Stuff & nonsense

Letters to the Editor

Law and disorder

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting Andrew Comben

Country-house treasures

A castle of legend • In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at how a combination of legend and the profits of war created one of the most celebrated and imposing of all English castles

The legacy • Thomas Lord and Lord’s Cricket Ground

What being English means to me • Modesty, manners, queuing and sarcasm, with a slightly Eeyore-ish attitude to life and an obsession with the weather: the notion of ‘Englishness’ is curiously eccentric, as six friends of COUNTRY LIFE explain to Paula Minchin

A fair exchange • Carla Passino presents her semi-serious guide to great English exports and imports

‘The land of patriots, martyrs and bards’ • One hundred and seventy years ago, the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson published English Traits, investigating the nation’s character. Do his observations stand up today, asks Emma Hughes

Write of way • Memorable novels are created when real places inspire writers’ imaginations. Kate Green tours England’s windswept moors, hidden creeks, gossipy villages and centres of industry that have led to the most enduring literary associations

Made in England • What do brogues, Barbours, crumpets and foldable bicycles have in common? They’re all the best you can buy–and they’re all English, says Emma Hughes

Oh, to be in England • Those who have chosen to eschew their homeland in favour of a life on our island–from George Frideric Handel to T. S. Eliot–share the Polish-born novelist Joseph Conrad’s sentiments that he never, even for a moment, felt like a stranger here, says Matthew Dennison

If you only buy one… • T-shirt by Sunspel

The drama in the detail • This year’s WOW!house demonstrates the extent to which interior designers are upping their game, says Giles Kime

Property news

Best seat in the house • A beautiful balcony offers a bird’s-eye view of some of Britain’s finest scenery

Overflowing with charm • George Plumptre visits the one-acre walled garden that forms the centrepiece of the 12 acres of new gardens designed by Tom Stuart-Smith

My Chelsea

Meat your match • It’s time to...