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.

Ms Claire Hanson • Claire is the creative director of make-up and hair company MACH Management—which she co-founded with her partner, Dominique Ventura—and former personal assistant to Lionel Richie.

Still bowling over

Country Life

Ripe for rescuing

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

Blooming marvellous

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting The late Sir Andrew Davis

Elegant and congruous • In the second of two articles, John Goodall looks at the abbey’s history after the Reformation and its descent in the hands of one family to the present

The legacy Thomas Darley and the Thoroughbred horse

We salute you • To commemorate 80 years since the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, military charity Blind Veterans UK is paying tribute to the men and women who served in that decisive operation with portraits of survivors, overlaid against images taken at the time they remember all too well

‘Plans are worthless, but planning is everything’ • Country houses great and small were indispensable to D-Day preparations, with electricity and sanitation, well-stocked wine cellars, countesses to run the canteens and antique furniture to feed the stoves, says Allan Mallinson

‘Because it’s there’: the Mallory and Irvine mystery • It’s now 100 years since George Mallory and Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine disappeared high on Everest; speculation has been rife ever since. Robin Ashcroft takes a broad perspective

Empire protest • Without meaning to issue a clarion call for independence, E. M. Forster perfectly captured the rising tensions of the British Raj. One hundred years later, Matthew Dennison revisits the masterpiece A Passage to India

‘Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest creatures’ • Giving himself neck ache from constantly looking upwards, John Lewis-Stempel makes the most of a sunny May day harvesting ‘tree hay’ and marvelling at the myriad wildlife–including flies and earwigs–that reside on bark

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • Famed for his three-Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck in Berkshire, the self-taught chef is one of the most influential of his generation. Born in London in 1966, the culinary genius received an honorary Master of Science from Bristol University and doctorates from the Universities of Reading and London. In 2006, he was awarded an OBE by the Queen for his services to British gastronomy. Heston and his wife, Melanie, live between Provence and the UK. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park has launched a new menu alongside the opening of their seasonal terrace, Hyde Park Garden.

A bug’s life • Juicy citrus fruits will always attract insects. This time, they come with added sparkle

The designer’s room • Bright colours, together with contemporary art and furniture, were key to injecting warmth into the drawing room of this west London townhouse by Studio Vero

Bringing the past to life • An event hosted by COUNTRY LIFE at WOW!house is one of the highlights of a programme that features some of the biggest names in interior design

There’s no place like home • Riding a train may not be as joyful as clicking a pair of ruby slippers, but there is a...