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 Countess of Sandwich • Julie Montagu is chatelaine of Mapperton House, Gardens and Wildlands in Beaminster, Dorset, and presenter of the American Countess YouTube channel. She has a degree in Country House Studies from the University of Buckingham and is married to Luke Montagu, the 12th Earl of Sandwich, with whom she manages Mapperton’s operations, preservation and public opening.

Triumph of the country house

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Letters to the Editor

The world was his parish

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting Stuart Procter

The legacy • Constance Spry and flower arranging

The Renaissance of the Country House • In 1975, the end seemed nigh for the great country houses of Britain, but, 50 years on, our built heritage has defied expectation and undergone a remarkable revival

A vibrant era for our country houses • Rather than perceiving the mid 20th century as a troubled period in the history of the country house, John Martin Robinson argues that it was perhaps one of the most interesting, unexpected and enterprising

Bringing ‘beauty’ back • Lord Deben explains the thinking behind his ‘Gummer’s Law’, which provided for the creation of new country houses within planning law

Radbourne Hall, Derbyshire

A question of technique • Craft-makers stand equal with architects and patrons in the trinity of the country-house creator. Mary Miers meets five experts keeping our historic houses and their collections alive, repairing, conserving, reinstating and adding new layers of creativity

Chillingham Castle, Northumberland

1975 and now • Over the past 50 years, in the aftermath of the ‘Destruction of the Country House’ exhibition, many (although not all) aspects of life have changed out of all recognition

Asleep no more • Fifty years ago, there were very few garden designers. Now, horticulture is a major industry, thanks to the extraordinary revival of the country-house garden, finds Tiffany Daneff

Knowsley Hall, Lancashire

And now for something different • The days of pulling up the drawbridge are long gone. Over the past 50 years, many owners have turned around the fortunes of their country houses with imaginative diversification, becoming major rural employers in the process, as they tell Kate Green

What’s on at the big house • Here are 40 events being held at country houses this summer, from jousting to Shakespeare, birdwatching to motor-racing and horse trials

Stowe, Buckinghamshire

Ready for anything • How do you prepare a country house for the challenges of the future? Arabella Youens asks the experts

Wimborne St Giles, Dorset

Best-kept secrets • With the arrival of spring, the rural property market in Norfolk has taken off in style, as some of the county’s less well-known, but historically significant country houses come to the market

Odd ones out • Who needs old rectories and manor houses when you can have Fagin’s den or a windmill that can withstand lightning strikes? As the Monty Python boys say, ‘and now for something completely different…’

The designer’s room • This set in Albany, Piccadilly, was...