Enter the dragon

Fizzing over water like a fairy aeroplane, the swooping and hovering bejewelled dragonfly is one of the insect success stories of the 21st century–and, as a rule, it won’t bite you, says Jack Watkins

Fowl play

TO garden with hens successfully, one has to understand hens. Regardless of their breed and reputed egg-laying numbers, all chickens are ancestral woodland birds at heart, at their happiest when nestling in the leaf litter under a canopy of twigs and leaves where they feel safe.

The last Modernist

A striking muse filled with irrepressible joy, it wasn’t until a decade after her husband’s death that Rose Hilton truly flowered as an artist, believes Ian Collins

The rewards of loyalty

The royal confidante on finding fame late in life

Oh, deer–are they out of control?

With most of our six deer species increasing in range and numbers, Joe Gibbs considers what can be done to bring populations back to more manageable levels

Thoroughly modern mansions

In the 1930s, COUNTRY LIFE found one of these four Home Counties beauties ‘stimulating’ (although Betjeman wasn’t keen); another has water canons and ‘intelligent’ technology

Virtual temptation

Circumstances have forced the Masterpiece fair online, from which we display a small sample from the 1,000 or so items on offer

In a bit of a bind

Although treasured by children for the pop of those white trumpet flowers, bindweeds are no friend to gardeners, says Ian Morton

There's no place like home

Picture-perfect cottages in the Home Counties

As others see us

Watercolour paintings served as an important visual record of Victoria and Albert’s lives–both of whom were keen and knowledgeable collectors– as well as a comfort in times of sorrow, says Huon Mallalieu

Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll'

BRITAIN GREATEST MASTERPIECES

Reaching towards the horizon

The inspiration for the garden of The Manor, Priors Marston, Warwickshire, was to create a landscape to meander through, with talking points along the way, reveals Tiffany Daneff

All ages of England

Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, part II The seat of Sir William and Lady Proby In the second of two articles on this remarkable country house, John Goodall looks at the history and changing face of the buildings from the Middle Ages to the 19th century

An English classic

The recent auction of John Evetts’s Wormington Grange collection is the perfect excuse to revisit the unostentatiously beautiful furniture of Georgian great Gillows, says Rufus Bird

A Shaw thing

It’s a joy to have live performances and richness of text, with a mix of the old and the new, the political and the musical

The Spark In Our Bonfire Hearts

Lit to warn of Viking invasion, to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee or merely to indicate bathtime, beacons are a time-honoured method of sending a message, says Jeremy Hobson

Our Little Princess Lilibet

Fond of dogs, ponies and a tortoise called Madame Butterfly, The Queen has described her childhood as a ‘happy atmosphere of love and fairness’, although, as Matthew Dennison observes, she and her sister were afforded little privacy

A vision in green

Restoration of the historic gardens at Holcombe Court, Devon, has been a slow and thoughtful process that harnessed the individual qualities of the entire garden team to great effect, says Tiffany Daneff

The art of revival

Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, part I The seat of Sir William and Lady Proby, In the first of two articles, Jeremy Musson looks at the exemplary revival of both a house and its outstanding collections on the eve of its handover to the next generation

Sculpting reality

This year is the tercentenary of Grinling Gibbons, a sculptor whose proverbial skill in wood carving has never ceased to command admiration. John Goodall looks at his career and art

The jeweller, the baker, the bicycle maker

How many times have we repeated the phrase ‘Buy British’ on these pages? Here, the COUNTRY LIFE team recommends its 66 favourite makers and businesses

Come out of your shell

With delicate flesh that’s far harder to extract than that of a lobster, the humble crab is a hard-shelled hero that never fails to delight, says Tom Parker Bowles

Diverse divas of the past

Sopranos tend to attract all the attention, but the operas Handel wrote for London audiences also favoured the richly mellow alto voice, as well as the famous castrati of the day. Henrietta Bredin explores the vocal fashions of centuries past

The great British safari

Overseas wildlife-watching trips to gaze at brown bears or giraffes have become so popular that we forget the rewarding diversity of creatures the British Isles has to offer–if you are patient, quiet and warmly dressed. Kate Green suggests 30 creatures that are thrilling to glimpse

Those gorgeous Georgians

From waterside idylls to the abodes of masquerade impresarios, these are houses to beat

Good For Body And Soul

Two beautiful Suffolk churches prove physically and spiritually nourishing

You either love 'em or hate 'em

Despised by minimalists, treasured by those with more eclectic tastes, Staffordshire figures bring humour and merriment wherever they’re put, believes Catriona Gray

The bigger picture

Grand proportions in Hertfordshire, Devon and Somerset prove that big is beautiful–and elegant, too

Prince or pauper

What happens when the details of listed buildings are inaccurate? Lucy Denton investigates

The tranquil reaper

With the arrival of June, medieval peasants would take their scythes to the long golden grasses, says Amy Jeffs