Country Mouse on the Bath & West

Country Mouse main

(Image credit: Country Life)

published 5 June 2008

Miscanthus was the word on everyone's lips at the Royal Bath and West Show last week. Dozens of bales of the elephant-grass chips usually used as biofuel were delivered to counter the effects of the flash flood that drenched the showground on the Thursday evening.

The organisers' marquee looked like the disappearing ballroom on Titanic and rivers appeared in the shopping avenues. Yet the Dunkirk spirit prevailed. The president of the show and her dinner guests joined the stockmen at their disco as all the catering outlets consolidated froces in the Westex Suite. Meanwhile, trade-stand holders and officials dumped the liquid hungry matter in the worst-affected areas with the cry 'the show must go on'.

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty 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.