Country Life: Intelligent stories for the curious mind

For more than 125 years, Country Life has celebrated modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures.

Iford Manor gardens
Iford Manor gardens photographed at dusk.
(Image credit: Clive Nichols for Country Life)

The first issue was published January 8, 1897 — Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee year — under the exacting eye of its founding editor, Edward Hudson. Advertisements cluttered the front page — they were not confined to the inside until 1941 — the Frontispiece was a middle-aged Earl of Suffolk and the articles covered a remarkably wide range of topics, from the rules of Association Football, to, rather more expectedly, the country house. Its success was instant.

And in February 2025, we expanded our online offering, reaching an ever-growing Country Life audience in the process.

As well as property, we cover the best bits of the British countryside, from country house hotels to dogs and the people who live and work in it, cultural events of interest — at home and abroad — interiors, gardens, cars and all things style. We move in time with the seasons — who isn’t buoyed by the ritual sight of snowdrops, signalling the first days of Spring — believe in having fun, and like to bring you stories you likely can’t find anywhere else, written by leading and emerging voices.

We are a guardian of the past and a blueprint for the future.

Welcome to Country Life.


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Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.