Country Life 12 February 2025
Country Life 12 February 2025 looks at fine art, garden rooms and how animals fall in love.


Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:
A man among men
Michael Prodger consults great painters and great paintings as he seeks a response to one of art’s unanswered questions: what is it that makes a master?
Let the art rule the head
The UK’s status as a world leader in creative industries will be in peril if we fail to nurture art-and-design skills in our schools, argues Tristram Hunt
Let’s fall in love
Laura Parker investigates the boxing, croaking, crooning, dad dancing and even murder that passes for courtship ritual in the animal kingdom
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Beauty and the blimp
Could a new airship designed in Britain deliver eco-friendly aviation, asks Charles Harris
Interiors
Amelia Thorpe picks out glass acts in world of garden rooms, greenhouses and orangeries
Soup-er charged
Tom Parker Bowles reveals how to beef up a boozy, hot-as-Hades French onion soup
A leap in the dark
The play of light and shade has long defined Western art. Michael Hall examines what Constable called ‘the chiaroscuro of nature’
The Duke of Richmond’s favourite painting
The owner of Goodwood picks a work that reflects the sporting history of the West Sussex estate
Three wishes for food and farming
Minette Batters calls for the UK to set a self-sufficiency target for producing its own food
Nature and nurture
In the final article of a three-part series, Tim Richardson ponders the innovation and imagination behind the wonderful grounds at Bramham Park, West Yorkshire
The legacy
Amie Elizabeth White applauds altruistic John Ritchie Findlay, who paved the way for Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell backs a winner with a range of horseshoe jewellery
Light work
Tiffany Daneff is dazzled by the transformation of a dark London garden into a light-filled oasis
Foraging
Winter mushrooms are a rarity, but the striking velvet shank earns John Wright’s approval as a welcome addition to game pie
Arts & antiques
Carla Passino marvels at the masterpieces amassed by Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart as the works go on show in London
Wick me up before you go-go
The wick trimmer’s work was never done in candlelit times, discovers Matthew Dennison
And much more
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.
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The great house that's 'a magnificent scrapbook of cherry-picked ideas', and 'one of the most compelling products of Britain’s 18th-century love affair with Antiquity'
John Goodall looks at the sources of inspiration behind the design for the magnificently idiosyncratic West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire.
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Rock stars and the country house: Liam Gallagher's life in the Cotswolds is in the finest tradition of music A-listers, from the Beatles to Beyoncé
What is it about the British countryside that draws A-listers from every walk of life? With Liam Gallagher's Cotswold former home on the market, Toby Keel takes a look.
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What connects Brutalism and fancy pink diamonds? The Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 17, 2025
Featuring more questions on collective nouns. The perfect way to start a weekend.
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In which country does the Royal Company of Archers act as The King's ceremonial bodyguard? It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 16, 2025
Test your general knowledge in today's wide-ranging quiz.
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Guinness, The Beatles and Beckham's first game for England? It can only be the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 15, 2025
Test your general knowledge in Wednesday's quiz.
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Where in the world is this? — and other pressing questions. It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 14, 2025
Test your general knowledge in Tuesday's quiz.
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How good is your Claudia Winkleman trivia? Find out in The Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 13, 2025
What secrets lurk beneath that fringe?
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Release the beasts! The Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 10, 2025
But where?
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Which English city has more miles of canal than Venice — and other pressing questions. It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 9, 2025
Test your general knowledge in Thursday's quiz.
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Jilly's Cooper's first book in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 8 2025
Test your general knowledge with today's quiz.