Country Life UK - May 21, 2025

In this issue

Sand, sea and no signal Cornwall’s craggy coastline is home to charming coves and beautiful bays. Ben Lerwill revisits some of his favourites. A compelling yarn Generations of fishermen have relied on the good old gansey to keep them warm and dry, as Jane Wheatley discovers. Look who’s back British waters are once again teeming with huge bluefin tuna. Jonathan Young goes fishing.

A small victory

POLICY-HIT farmers achieved a win last week as the Government agreed to reopen the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme to 3,000 people—but only under threat of legal action.

1 min

Aslan is on the move

'SOME day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again,' wrote C. S. Lewis—or perhaps you never stopped.

1 min

A trip to the suburbs

ONCE associated with insalubrious activities and decried by John Ruskin as inchoate, amorphous places swallowing up vast tracts of countryside, suburbia and its development is now traced in a new book, England's Suburbs 1820-2020, by Joanna Smith and Matthew Whitfield, published by Historic England in partnership with Liverpool University Press ($40).

1 min

One puffin, two puffins...

ON the Farne Islands, 1½ miles off the Northumberland coast, this year's puffin count is under way as the National Trust marks its 100th year of caring for the seabird-heavy North Sea archipelago— internationally recognised as a vital sanctuary for some 200,000 seabirds.

1 min

What the Dickens!

To mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Charles Dickens Museum, London WC1, on June 9, a number of the author's descendants will give talks and readings.

1 min

London calling

LONDON is the 31st happiest city in the world, according to the Institute for Quality of Life, which releases its Happy City Index (HCI) each year.

1 min

End the mega animal farm

KILLING piglets by throwing them against a wall is disgraceful and wholly illegal.

2 mins

A London park under the threat of eclipse

heultur grusader

2 mins

A London park under the threat of eclipse

IT'S nearly eight years since Athena first wrote about the proposal to construct a Holocaust Memorial and learning centre in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament in Victoria Gardens (November 1, 2017).

2 mins

Charlotte Mullins comments on Femmes au Jardin

Femmes au Jardin (Women in the Garden) by Claude Monet

2 mins

The legacy

THE writer Richard Doddridge (R. D.) Blackmore (1825-1900) was, in his time, a leading figure in the rise of the English novel during the Victorian age, yet only his best-known book, Lorna Doone (1869), endures and is probably rarely studied to the same degree as those of his friends Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling.

1 min

Sand, sea and no signal

Some are firm favourites, others offer an unspoilt contrast and many require effort to reach them, but each of these Cornish creeks and coves, selected by Ben Lerwill, is a place of true beauty in which to while away the hours

7 mins

A compelling yarn

Designed to protect the wearer from wind, rain, salt spray and sun, chunky gansey jumpers retain a special place in fishermen's hearts, finds Jane Wheatley

3 mins

Look who's back

It's no longer necessary to venture to tropical waters in order to catch a monster tuna, says Jonathan Young, as he attempts to land a big-game fish in Falmouth Bay

6 mins

Stick to the point

Stick insects often find themselves transported to new abodes thanks to their talent for camouflage, but they are most at home in the West Country, suggests Ian Morton

2 mins

Fishermen fighting for the future

At the first Tweed Salmon Festival, our correspondent finds there is much to be optimistic about in the fishing world, even if Salmo salar continues to decline

5 mins

To infinity and beyond

Once extinct in these isles, the gargantuan, deep-diving osprey locks onto its piscine prey with a laser-like precision akin to the trajectory of a blunt-tipped missile.

3 mins

Will no one rid me of this turbulent weed?

Praised in poetry, cultivated by Duchesses and an important life force for insects, could it be that ragwort is unfairly maligned, asks Bethany Stone

4 mins

The write stuff

From picturesque settings to Forsyte Saga inspiration, the West Country has something for everyone

7 mins

Making waves

You can't go wrong with a waterside property in the West Country

2 mins

On with the show

The garden at Stavordale Priory, Somerset The home of Michael Le Poer Trench and Sir Cameron Mackintosh - The thoughtful expansion of the existing garden over the past 30 years has added romance and drama to this historic monastic garden, finds Caroline Donald

5 mins

Back off, snails

On the snail trail: protecting the leaves of hostas from marauding molluscs is a never-ending task

3 mins

Watercress and pistachio chimichurri spatchcock chicken

Kitchen garden cook Watercress

1 min

To a tea

Tregothnan is famously the home of the UK's first tea gardens, but as Mark Hedges discovers, Camellia sinensis isn't the only thing that flourishes in this charming corner of Cornwall

2 mins

All you need is love

Drawings, prints and the ‘weirdly shaped’ and ‘unbelievably brave’ paintings from David Hockney’s early years fill an exhibition conceived by and for people who adore his work

6 mins

In the lap of the goddess

When Anne Pitt sat for Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in Rome, the French artist portrayed the young British aristocrat as Hebe, daughter of Zeus—complete with an eagle painted from life. Sarah Fortescue traces the picture's story

2 mins

Young at art

As British contemporary art beats all odds to remain a cauldron of inventiveness and passion, Carla Passino discovers which artists aged 40 or under are on the radar of forward-looking museum directors and curators

10+ mins

A glorious gallimaufry

British eccentricity at its best shone in a series of sales earlier this year that encompassed a fruitwood hand holding an apple, two puzzle pipes and an unusual wooden snuffbox inset with bone panels

3 mins

Where big ideas come from

The British Imagination: A History of Ideas from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II

3 mins

All Roads Lead to Rome: Why We Think of the Roman Empire Daily

HOW often do you think about the Roman Empire? Videos of women posing this question to the men in their lives and their bewilderment at receiving the answer 'daily', or 'several times a week', went viral on social media a couple of years ago.

2 mins

Beastly Britain: An Animal History

I CANNOT provide an Karen R. Jones's 'animal-centred view' of British history. She stole my sense of judgement on line five, where she describes wanting to swap her newborn brother for a dog-a kindred spirit!

1 min

It's Sondheim, but not as we know him

Sondheim’s final musical, inspired by Surrealism, has a ‘mesmerising oddity’ unlike any other, but is nonetheless compelling, and a Chekhov-inspired play is as riveting as an Ibsen-based one is lacking in depth

4 mins

Read all stories from {{magazineName}}

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.