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'I've seen a lot of change — but not as much as my grandmother. She lived through horsepower to seeing a man on the moon.'
Lucy Baring reports back from her mother's 90th birthday party, but not before negotiating a phone shop with no phone signal.
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Curious Questions: Is there any such thing as coincidence?
Just when you were musing about the nature of coincidences, along comes Martin Fone to explain exactly what they are — and what they aren't.
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Carla Carlisle: Wallis Simpson's great gift to Britain? Swapping vain, impulsive Edward for the patience, steadiness and kindliness of George and Elizabeth
Carla Carlisle may be a free-born American, but she doffs her cap to the late Queen, the new King, and how Britain's centuries-old balancing act can trump the whims of political mood in a republic.
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Carla Carlisle: The day I rescued The Queen
Carla Carlisle's friends and family back in America are convinced she's on personal terms with Her Majesty. She isn't — but there was that one time....
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Curious Questions: Can ancient technology of wind, water and hot springs help make a sustainable future?
The UK is switching on to a future of home-grown, greener power — and yet this future is drawing on the past. Jonathan Lee revisits the renewable revolution that started right here.
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Curious Questions: Why do the British love to queue?
After a summer of stoic queuing in planes, trains and automobiles, Country Life has identified five reasons why patient queueing is the British tradition that we secretly love to love.
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16 things which make Scotland the beautiful place we know and love
From highland cattle to Annie Lennox, we celebrate the very best that Scotland has to offer.
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Lucy Baring on the joy of a lost passport: 'I'll stay at home, enjoy the sweet peas in full throttle, read a thriller, drink cold wine and watch films that nobody else likes'
Lucy Baring loses her passport and finds a very different kind of holiday.
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Jonathan Self: 'To be in a foreign country is thrilling. Everything is new. One is constantly on one’s mettle. It is like being a child again'
Jonathan Self's scuppered plans force him to reflect on how the joy of travel mixes with the delicious ambivalence of wanting to go home.
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Is it ever okay to put ice in your wine? How can you fix a broken friendship? And which cutlery do you use for fish? — Country Life's agony aunt Mrs Hudson tells all
Each week, Country Life's agony aunt Mrs Hudson answers readers' queries on everything from house parties and cutlery conundrums to wild pets and affairs of the heart.
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Carla Carlisle: 'Nixon had a conscience. He experienced shame. I doubt if Trump does'
Carla Carlisle was a fledgling journalist when a piece of Watergate history came her way. Half a century later, she considers the parallels between Richard Nixon and Donald Trump.
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The Duchess of Cornwall names her all-time favourite books
An avid reader, The Duchess of Cornwall has long promoted the importance of literacy via her patronages of the National Literacy Trust and BookAid International — among many other bodies — as well as her popular literary hub, The Reading Room. Here, she selects her three favourite books.
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Jonathan Self: 'In Ireland, summer smells sweet, effervescent and damp. In Tuscany, one almost has to push one’s way through it'
Jonathan Self's recent move to Italy has brought a fresh challenge. Or rather, a hot and heavy one.
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'Russia must be isolated. Utterly walled off,' said the Russian. 'When Putin falls, the new regime will be the same as the old'
Jason Goodwin heads east and meets an exiled Russian with an eye-opening perspective.
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Curious Questions: When did the first passenger jet take off?
'Nowadays we travel to all parts of the globe, often within a day and often without changing planes,' says Martin Fone, as he muses on the birth of commercial air travel exactly 70 years ago.
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'The monarchy is not a cold, rational, legal structure, but a living, vibrant, human creation with human weaknesses and human strengths'
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee has been and gone, but it's left an indelible memory and reminded Britain that it still has some things to be proud of, says our columnist Agromenes.
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Curious Questions: Did a mining disaster lead to the invention of Father’s Day?
This weekend marks Father's Day across the world, prompting Martin Fone to take a look at the origins of this day of celebration. The tale he discovered is not what he expected....
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Curious Questions: What is it like to sing at a royal coronation in Westminster Abbey?
The choristers at the Coronation are now in their eighties, but recall vividly the day they sang for The Queen, as Andrew Green discovers.
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Jonathan Self on switching banks after 50 years: 'I was in such a fury that it was fully an hour before I came to my senses'
Oh dear — poor Jonathan has had a bit of a time of it. We'll leave him to explain more.
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Riling up the FBI, riding motorbikes through pubs and hosing-down amorous couples with a fire extinguisher: Farewell to a true legend of the West Highlands
Joe Gibbs waves goodbye to Chris Main, an unforgettable character who, you feel, could have a book written about him. And it's a book that would make an amazing TV series.
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The double-decker bus specially-built to pass beneath a medieval bridge
We take a look at some of the most extraordinary letters sent to the editors of Country Life over the past 125 years.
