For the last 125 years Country Life has championed the pleasures of British life.
Country Life was founded in 1897 by Edward Hudson, incorporating Racing Illustrated. For the last 125 years it has provided expert coverage of country house architecture, fine art, gardens, gardening, food and drink and dogs, as well as celebrating the people who are integral to its landscape. The magazine is world-famous for advertising the most beautiful country houses for sale in Britain and abroad, and has been guest-edited by HRH Prince Charles not once but twice.
Contact Country Life | Follow Country Life on social media | Advertise in Country Life | Meet the Country Life team
Carolside, The Borders. Photograph © Paul Highnam for the Country Life Picture Library.
At Country Life Magazine we bring readers an incredibly diverse range of material.
One week we’re writing about caviar from Exmoor or the rise and fall of the smoking room in the country house in the 19th century; a few days later we’re reviewing a Botticelli exhibition or advising on box blight.
We celebrate the seasons every year — who doesn’t love the first whiff of spring in the air after a long, hard winter? But as the wildflowers and the dawn chorus appear as heralds of summer we are instantly converted. Likewise, as the days get shorter and the smell of woodsmoke fills the air, don’t we all become seduced by the beauty of autumn, and its natural bounty, from sloes to mushrooms. We also have a great sloe gin recipe.
Country Life likes to try to cover the best bits of the British countryside from favourite dogs to country houses, country events and rural issues, as well as country sports and pursuits, from three day events like Badminton to the best places to fish. It’s a diverse range of subjects – more diverse than most — but then life in the country has a great deal to offer and we would hate to miss anything. Do let us know if we have…
Contact Country Life
Address: Future Publishing Ltd, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR
Subscriptions department: Call Magazines Direct at 0330 333 1120
Editorial desk: To speak to a member of the editorial team, call 0330 390 6591
Email: For subscribers send your message to help@magazinesdirect.com and for letters to the editor email countrylife.letters@futurenet.com. For other enquiries please choose the appropriate contact from our Contact Us page.
Follow Country Life on social media
Twitter: @countrylifemag
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CountryLifeMagazine
Instagram: @countrylifemagazine
Advertise in Country Life
To advertise in the magazine, website or social media channels, contact our advertisement director kate.barnfield@futurenet.com, or see our separate page on how to advertise in Country Life.
Meet the Country Life team
The Country Life editorial team at The Ritz to celebrate Prince Charles guest editing the magazine in 2018.
Mark, Editor, grew up in the Cotswolds near Chipping Norton, in a house now owned by Jeremy Clarkson. After graduating from Durham, Mark worked as a gold prospector and at the leading bloodstock auction house Tattersalls, where he started the concept of the breeze-up sale. He now lives in Hampshire and has three grown-up children.
Rosie Paterson, Editor’s Office & Lifestyle Editor
Rosie joined Country Life in July 2014 after graduating from Oxford Brookes and a stint at the Sladmore Gallery, working on their stand at Masterpiece 2014. She grew up at her family’s prep school, Woodcote House School in Surrey, and is known in the office for her interesting array of trousers, particularly one pair featuring zips.
Kate is the author of 10 books and has worked as an equestrian reporter at four Olympic Games. She commutes in from Berkshire, but her favourite place in the UK is Exmoor, close to where she grew up in West Somerset.
John Goodall, Architectural Editor
John spent his childhood in Kenya, Germany, India and Yorkshire before joining Country Life in 2007, via the University of Durham. Known for his irrepressible love of castles and the Frozen soundtrack and a laugh that lights up the lives of those around him, John also moonlights as a walking encyclopedia and is the author of three books.
Tiffany Daneff, Gardens Editor
After growing up in Montgomeryshire and London, Tiffany now gardens in a wind-swept frost pocket in Northamptonshire and is learning not to mind — too much — about sharing her plot with the resident rabbits and moles.
Giles is a former Editor of Decanter magazine and author of four books; Decoration, Secrets of Wine, Decorate To Speculate and, most recently, Nina Campbell Decoration. He recently completed the restoration of an Arts & Crafts house on the banks of the River Itchen and is currently looking for another lost cause.
Paula Lester, Managing & Features Editor
With a degree in journalism from the London College of Printing, Paula joined Country Life after starting her career as a crime reporter on the The Sidmouth Herald in Devon. She lives in Dorset with her husband, a gamekeeper, and their three dogs and has written for The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, as well as Harpers & Queen, Horse & Hound and The Field. Paula can be found tweeting at @mrspaulaslester and her Instagram feed is @paulaslester
Victoria Marston, Deputy Features Editor
Victoria made the leap to Country Life from Horse & Hound after completing an MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield. Her family home is on the Kent/East Sussex border, where she collects broken horses as field ornaments. She once ran away to France for a year, but has promised never to do it again.
Annunciata Elwes, News & Property Editor
Annunciata Elwes (née Walton) joined Country Life after founding a literary and music festival at Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, and working at The Sunday Times Travel Magazine.
Hetty joined Country Life as Editorial Assistant before going on to pioneer the magazine’s luxury pages. Known for keeping the contents of a small wardrobe beneath her desk—because you never know—she is the go-to person for gift-giving advice. Outside work, you are most likely to find her in Daylesford farm shop in Gloucestershire.
Heather Clark, Deputy Art Editor
Heather studied fashion at university and specialised in graphic design. When she isn’t taking oil-painting classes, Heather and her husband devote their time to fostering dogs from Hounds First Sighthound rescue centre, chronicling the highs and lows in an online diary for Country Life.
Emma Earnshaw, Art Editor
Emma grew up between Wiltshire and Dumfries-shire in Scotland and now resides in Henley. Emma trotted over to Country Life from the Horse & Hound picture desk and also designs and produces her own range of tableware, Once Upon a Table.
Warwickshire girl Lucy comes from a press photographer background and has 17 years experience working on newspapers. In her opinion, a good photograph is one you wish you’d taken yourself. Lucy can be found tweeting at @lucyf79.
Emily Anderson, Deputy Picture Editor
Emily has always had a passion for photography, design and illustration and worked for a food and interiors media agency before joining Country Life. Her favourite season is autumn, for its rich and vibrant colour palette.
James Fisher, Acting News and Property Editor
Despite growing up in New York City, James quickly learnt to love all things countryside after moving to Suffolk in 2002. Since graduating Newcastle University in 2013, he has worked on a farm, a shooting estate, at a charity, and as a reporter for a local newspaper. He is easily the tallest Sub-Editor, in his free time listens to bands you’ve never heard of, and in lockdown grew a lustrous beard which he seems to have no intention of ever removing.
After growing up in the wild, concrete wastelands of south London, Toby spent years trying out various escape options from the capital. After spells in St Albans and St Andrews he resisted the urge to try St Austell, instead settling down in West Sussex. After making that move, working for Country Life seemed the perfect option.
Why trust Country Life?
For 125 years, Country Life has been the voice of the countryside in Britain, celebrating the best of our glorious island’s rural space — but also celebrating the finer things about life in our towns and cities. We always use the best expert writers in their fields, whether property, nature, food or more, and have won countless awards over the past few years — not least the top prize at the Oscars of the magazine industry, the PPA Magazine of the Year award.
Country Life is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (which regulates the UK’s magazine and newspaper industry). We abide by the Editors’ Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint please contact mark.hedges@futurenet.com. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors’ Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk
Country Life is part of Future PLC. We are both fiercely committed to protecting your privacy. Please have a look at our in-depth privacy policy to find out more.
