Country Life UK - November 27, 2024

I denne utgaven

The legacy - Kate Green reveals how Sir David Willcocks changed the sound of Christmas with Carols for Choirs.

The master builder - Carla Passino is captivated by floral photographs that evoke 17th-century still-life paintings...

Save our family farms

IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.

1 min

A very good dog

THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.

1 min

The legacy

THE 'Carols for Choirs' series 'changed the whole sound of Christmas for everybody who sings,' according to the composer and choral conductor Sir John Rutter.

1 min

The master builder

Harald Altmaier's photographs of floral tableaux, as colossal in effort as in scale, recall 17th-century Dutch still lifes, but the inspiration behind them is far wider, as Carla Passino finds.

3 mins

A little mite with a mighty heart

Shy yet bold, furtive yet fearless and fond of nesting in your trousers, the tiny Jenny wren' has a lusty voice that matches its sense of adventure, observes Mark Cocker

5 mins

Hardy and the country house

With the help of specially commissioned drawings by Matthew Rice, Jeremy Musson considers the abiding presence of the stone-built manor house in the stories of Thomas Hardy

8 mins

Beauty by numbers

What do spiders' webs, snowflakes and snail shells have in common? They all contain fractals: Nature's exquisite, endlessly repeating mathematical pattern. Deborah Nicholls-Lee unpicks their complex geometry

5 mins

Worth its weight in gold

Myrrh isn't only an expensive motif of mortality, a potent analgesic and an Ancient Egyptian mouthwash, it's also associated with untamed lust and sensuality, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee

5 mins

First out of the lychgate

There are few things more romantic than a gabled lychgate leading to a charming church, says Jack Watkins, despite their funereal and functional purpose

2 mins

Now that packs a punch

Today's punch might be an insipid fruit cocktail best left to students, but Charles Dickens and George IV knew how to conjure heady pleasures from their five key ingredients, says Lucien de Guise

4 mins

Pie say!

Today's baked goods pale in comparison to a Georgian festive speciality, says food historian Neil Buttery, as he lifts the lid on the Yorkshire Christmas Pye.

3 mins

Thank you for the memories

What do you buy for the person who has everything? A special day out flying a Spitfire, sharpening their gardening knowledge or quaffing wine among the vines, says the COUNTRY LIFE team, as they try out some of the best gift experiences around Co-ordinated by Victoria Marston

9 mins

Stone mad

A ready supply of high-quality building stone in Devon and Somerset is reflected in three landmark properties-a manor house near Tavistock, a county council venue in Exeter and a historic former rectory near Taunton

5 mins

Now we're just some gadgets that you used to know

Be it a spit wheel, a pudding prick or a tongue press, many kitchen utensils once considered essential have long been consigned to obscurity, laments Neil Buttery

5 mins

Lid pro quo

A product of post-war ingenuity, Tupperware lessened domestic drudgery and empowered thousands of women, but the party's finally over for this ubiquitous kitchen aid, discovers Rob Crossan

3 mins

Tarrying in the mulberry shade

On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.

3 mins

It's always darkest before the dawn

After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat

4 mins

It takes the biscuit

Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them

3 mins

Old habits die hard

Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves

4 mins

Best of British

In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.

3 mins

Forever a chorister

The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death

4 mins

'What a good boy am I'

We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton

3 mins

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Country Life UK Magazine Description:

Country Life; architecture, gardens, countryside, property, the very best of British life Published by IPC Media. 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.