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Jonathan Self: After 44 years and seven attempts, I am finally starting to get the hang of this parenting business
Jonathan Self has nailed it, just as his twins leave for university.
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Jason Goodwin: They've started measuring distances in minutes. But what of loitering and lingering? What of the flowers of the wayside and the hill views?
Jason Goodwin rages against the sign-erecting quangos who are helping tourists miss the point.
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Carla Carlisle on Martin Amis: The 'passionate, graceful, fierce' writer who scared us, challenged us, and brought us understanding
Carla Carlisle pays tribute to the late Martin Amis, who died last month.
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Jonathan Self: My 146-year-old timepiece is the antithesis of the smartwatches — and it's all the better for it
How lovely to have a beautiful watch to order your life, says Jonathan Self; but how much better to have no need of one at all.
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Opinion: Continuing feuds instead of seeking compromise is irresponsible. As we argue, British wildlife collapses
Dialogue, tolerance and trust are crucial to Nature restoration, so events that encourage an honest exchange of views among different camps, such as May's Why Moorlands Matter summit, mark the way forward.
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Our countryside is utterly magnificent — now is the time to find the will to save it
James Fisher reports back from the Future Countryside conference at Hatfield House.
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'The countryside faces either terrible harm or uplifting good. Which will it be? It really is up to us'
The countryside is for everyone and the problems facing it — and farming and the environment — will not be solved if the different factions continue to squabble, points out Julian Glover.
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Jason Goodwin: 'What makes a garden is serendipity. Two plants grow together and a stray seedling springs up between them'
Jason Goodwin's garden tours have kicked off, leaving him musing on things unplanned.
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Jonathan Self: What I learned from the last garden hermit in Britain
Our columnist's rare time to himself causes him to reflect on his encounter with a man who had nothing but himself for company for years on end.
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Jason Goodwin: How to be a saint (you'll need some tongs and a furnace)
Ancient kings became saints by popular acclaim, says Jason Goodwin — and that is ‘the kind of sainthood worth achieving if you are a modern king, whose life through thick and thin is devoted to helping the less fortunate, upholding faith and caring for the planet.’
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Carla Carlisle: 'I think I sound as English as Judi Dench, but strangers still ask “where are you from?"'
Our columnist Carla Carlisle bumps in to a milestone in her life, prompting her to take a look at the nation of her birth — but her chief emotion isn't homesickness.
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Jonathan Self: How do mosquitoes know when it's Easter?
The arrival of warmer weather heralds many joys — but also one very specific pain, as Jonathan Self grumbles.
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Colin Heber-Percy: 'You literally can’t get it right. Not completely. And yet, so often, we think we can; we think we should'
Although often overlooked, the Easter message is as much about making mistakes as it is about Resurrection. However, getting it wrong and letting go of our perfectionism is the key to a more contented life, says the Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy
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Patrick Galbraith: 'Rather than asking if she could be next up for a pigeon, she quit. Her liking for oat milk should have given the game away'
Country Life's newest columnist Patrick Galbraith on car washes, dogs and the inevitable culture clashes that come with being a country boy living in London.
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Curious Questions: Why do churches have gargoyles?
Inevitably hideous-looking and often mischievous, why do gargoyles and grotesques adorn some of our most solemn churches, asks Ben Lerwill.
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Jason Goodwin: 'He thought his wife had punched him — but he was down the pub with a six-inch knife sticking out of his back'
A chance encounter in the unlikeliest of places leaves Jason Goodwin with a memory he'll surely never forget.
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Curious Questions: Where do the names of our weights and measures come from?
Arms, feet, local stones and even barleycorn have all played a part in our bid to quantify the world, discovers Ben Lerwill, as he weighs up the stories behind how units of measurement were standardised.
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Jonathan Self: What can you do with dogs? Their yea is yea and their nay, especially in lashing rain, is nay
It's raining, and Jonathan Self is outside waiting patiently for his dogs to do their business.
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Opinion: It shouldn’t be a case of farming OR the environment — both sides will get more done working together
'Recently, we’ve talked about farming and the environment,' says Cumbria-based farmer Douglas Chalmers. 'The truth is that they are one and the same.'
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Carla Carlisle: 'What do the Sussexes want? How does this saga end?'
Our US-born, Norfolk-based columnist Carla Carlisle was only too happy to welcome Meghan Markle into the sisterhood of American women married to Englishmen. How things have changed since that 'hopeful and happy time'.
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The Ford Fiesta that dreamed it was Noah's Ark
Joe Gibbs tells a tale of roadkill, sporrans and the protected species who can circumvent an electric fence as stealthily as a cat burglar.
