Victoria Marston

The Country Life nature picture quiz for Easter: Can you name the animals and their babies?

How is your countryside knowledge? Our nature picture quiz will test you out.

Take the Country Life Editor's Christmas Quiz for 2021

Try your luck at the Editor's Christmas Quiz — the answers will be published in a separate piece on Boxing Day.

A weekend at the Newlyn School of Art: 'You'll find yourself studying breaking waves, changing colours and shifting light in a whole new way'

The famed art school on the tip of Cornwall promises to help anyone improving how they paint. We sent Victoria Marston along to put them to the test.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Winter's least appropriate shoes, a bed of rare glory and an everything-proof mobile for adventurers or the incurably clumsy

Every week in this little slot, we lament the nastiness out in the world and suggest that you alleviate some of that negativity with something to make you smile. This week's selection comes from Victoria Marston and Toby Keel — enjoy.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A watch that's older than planet earth, the ultimate bowl for tasteful dogs and saving the planet via the medium of cashmere

If Nero were alive today, he wouldn't have fiddled while Rome burns — he'd have bought stuff off the internet. And this is the page he'd have come to in order to help make his choices, where he'd have found the weird and wonderful as picked out by Victoria Marston and Toby Keel.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: The ultimate face mask, salvation for bored dogs and saving the world, one coffee capsule at a time

Well all be wearing face masks for a long time yet, so in a shockingly topical twist to Utterly Inessential we have one that fits the brief of design-overkill quite magnificently — as well as our usual mix of wonders. Victoria Marston is your guide.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Tea for one, gin for anyone, and the solution for a ponging pooch

Victoria Marston guides us through this week's collection of wonders, where every whim of fussy humans and even fussier dogs is taken care of.

Utterly Inessential: A pile of dogs, a bee that can open a beer and the bag which fires tennis balls at unwanted intruders (really)

Victoria Marston outdoes herself this week with a collection of quite spectacularly non-critical things which, somehow, you'll still want to buy.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A new take on a 1980s classic, an answer to bad hair days and a foolproof present for an overgrown boy

What not to buy this week. (Unless you really like it.)

The Kent Downs AONB: One of Mother Nature's works of art, from the famous White Cliffs to the wildlife of the Garden of England

Victoria Marston takes a look at the magnificently beautiful Kent Downs AONB.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Pictish gin, Cotswolds veg, and the mice you want in your kitchen

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Cheese by the wheel-load, ducklings by post and sticky ginger pudding

There's a corner of the internet where the only rule is that things must be lovely — and you just found it. Victoria Marston will be your guide.

Curious Questions: Why can women 'only' propose on the 29th February?

It's 2020, and women can propose whenever and wherever they want. But where did this strange tradition come from? Ladies, gather your red petticoats and Poundland rings – Victoria Marston is here to clear things up a bit.

The best mince pies in Britain 2019: Country Life's ultimate taste test

Mince pies maketh Christmas, but where will you find the very best? To save you the trouble, we’ve tried them all in the great Country Life mince-pie taste off.

39 things a gentleman simply must do before he dies

We’ll all end up on our deathbeds eventually, but it would be nice to make it there with no regrets.

Britain's Naughtiest Dog 2019: All the winners, from the Jack Russell who summoned the armed police to the pointer who vomits glitter

Sociable, sun-loving and incredibly patient with children, this innocent-looking Jack Russell actually enjoys a secret life of crime. Victoria Marston finds out more and introduces the runners-up of the Britain’s Naughtiest Dog Award. Photographs of Pici by Daniel Gould.

Cheval Blanc St Tropez: A place where everything is taken care of — except, perhaps, the colour of your yacht

St Tropez's newest hotel has every luxury touch imaginable, from the smartest chauffeur service you've ever seen to its own perfume. Victoria Marston paid a visit.

Skiing in Colorado: Spectacular powder, free pancakes and that incredible feeling of having a mountain to yourself

Skiing in the Alps is great, of course – but a winter trip to the Rockies is a completely different experience, as Victoria Marston found out during a visit to Colorado.

Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire review: A deeply luxurious hotel that still retains a country-house feel

A grand country estate that's become a fine place to stay, The Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire offers swish opulence and country charm within easy reach of London. Victoria Marston paid a visit.

Constance Le Prince Maurice, Mauritius: A paradise on the water

Victoria Marston discovers the wonders of Mauritius, complete with bespoke cocktails and famous reef sharks.