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.

Doctor Ella Ravilious • Ella is a curator in the architecture and design department of the Victoria & Albert Museum. She is the daughter of James and Robin Ravilious of Exeter, Devon, and the granddaughter of Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood.

The digital detox

Country Life

Town & Country

Town & Country Notebook

Stuff & nonsense

Letters to the Editor

On the trail of sense

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting Peter Layton

Country-house treasures

Wedded to the landscape • A disastrous fire in 1951 gave the architect Clough Williams-Ellis the opportunity to re-think the house that he and his wife, Amabel, loved. Kathryn Ferry admires the result

The legacy • Edmond Halley and astronomy

Shepherd’s delight • A glowing red sky, shot with crimson and copper and streaked with the dusky blush of sunset, is a spectacle that has spellbound writers and artists since the dawn of time, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee

All white on the night • What part–if any–did the white-tailed eagle play in the mysterious disappearance of a group of Shetland foals? Mark Cocker investigates

Weeding out the wildflowers • If cultivated plants are a sign of orthodoxy and order, are weeds symbolic of anarchy and wildness? Who really decides whether flora is wildflower or weed, asks John Lewis-Stempel

The great escape • Scourge of electric fences and occasional cattle-herd, Max the ram leads John Lewis-Stempel a merry dance on a bright blue-sky shearing day in June

On red alert • Wine experts have long advised against buying Bordeaux en primeur–but 2025 might be the year to change that, as long as you’re quick about it, urges Harry Eyres

Luxury Notebook

A few of my favourite things • Corin Mellor is creative director of David Mellor Design, the cutlery and kitchenware manufacturer established by his father, David Mellor, in 1969. He divides his time between London and the family home in Derbyshire, located on the same woodland site as the factory, head office, design museum and shop. He lives with his wife, Helen, two sons and their cat, Claude.

Holding court • Classic or colourful, a tennis bracelet will sparkle through the season and beyond

The designer’s room • Stealing space from an awkwardly arranged landing allowed Vanrenen Hanbury to create a generous bedroom in this former vicarage in south-west London

Ageing gracefully • Why verdigris is the colour of timelessness

Property news

The restoration game • Skip the disruption and uncertainty of building work by moving straight into a property that has already been restored and finished to an exceptional standard

All fired up • Pots and panoramas in Puglia

Cantos in the quiet • Ravenna’s stillness, history and faded grandeur profoundly shaped Lord Byron, inspiring some of the poet’s most mature and reflective later works, as Jack Watkins discovers

Going to pot? • The ravines, caves and kilns of Grottaglie in Italy have shaped a ceramic tradition so distinctive that its status is protected. Corinne Julius traces a craft culture that is anything but half-baked

Oh, I do like to be beside the...