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.

Dame Zandra Rhodes • Zandra is a multi award-winning designer and the founder of London’s Fashion and Textile Museum. She has dressed Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Freddie Mercury and The Princess Royal, and her works are on show at the V&A Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US.

State of the Art

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Stuff & nonsense

Letters to the Editor

Two Houses are better than one

Athena • Cultural Crusader

Life in the fast lane • The Norfolk farmer became CLA president last November amid profound upheaval in the countryside. Julie Harding discovers what issues plague his sleep-deprived nights

Sir Thomas Drew, His Majesty’s Ambassador to France

Her Excellency Hélène Duchêne, French ambassador to the Court of St James

Country-house treasures

A house of collections • In the second of two articles, Jeremy Musson looks at an exceptional modern collection that speaks to the history and character of the house it dignifies

Sir William Burrell and the Burrell Collection

Where the wild things are • Exotic animals–whether dreamy-eyed rhinos, improbable flocks of birds from different latitudes or muscular big cats rendered in exact detail–captured the eye of artists in Europe, but also in their native countries, as Michael Prodger reveals

Cast in the same mould • Sir Antony Gormley is captivated by Adriaen de Vries’s Antiope and Theseus, which may look radically different from his own Reflect, but shares with it a fascination with balance and instability

Don’t believe in modern love? • With singlehood on the rise in Britain, Will Hosie attempts to glean some dating tips from the Ancients

Ear to the ground • The highly nocturnal long-eared owl is both the most widespread and elusive of Britain’s five species. Spotting one in flight is one of ornithology’s great joys

Ford momentum • Surging through shallow river or stream crossings–the focal point of many a Constable, Gainsborough or Munnings masterpiece–skittering sheets of glittering spray into the air, is always exhilarating, says Harry Pearson

Letters of love • The beautifully crafted messages inscribed inside poesy rings, once the most popular items of jewellery in England, are among the most touchingly romantic lines in history

If you only buy one… • Derby boots Crockett & Jones

The designer’s room • Emma Burns has revived the soul of this elegant drawing room in south-west London

Some like it hot • Chimneypieces and accessories to keep the home fires burning, selected by Amelia Thorpe

Fit for a rural Rolling Stone • As the 16th-century Devon property that Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts called home for 40 years comes to the market, his daughter, Seraphina, looks back at the family’s time at the house

Blaze of glory • An imposing inglenook fireplace can be the natural heart of a home–and a characterful draw for buyers–as it radiates warmth and coaxes company towards that comforting glow

Floral geometry • For impossibly beautiful flowers that open in the depths of winter, look no further than the many...