Country Life 9 July 2025
Country Life 9 July 2025 finds Britain's brightest seagull, looks at the country houses that became film sets and gets inside tips and recommendations from Britain's leading designers.

Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:
Meet the coastal superheroes
John Lewis-Stempel celebrates the depth and breadth of sea-birds spotted over British waters, from the dive-bombing gannet to the pick-pocket herring gull
Heavy petal
Catriona Gray meets artist Rachel Dein, whose botanical bas-reliefs really stand out from the crowd
I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying
Tom Parker Bowles savours the ultimate thirst quencher — a fruity and refreshing sorbet
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Arts & antiques
Kenilworth Castle is reliving its central role in the 19-day wooing of Elizabeth I exactly 450 years on, as Carla Passino discovers
Back to Brideshead
Britain’s historic country houses are the much-loved stars of a host of films and television dramas, often leaving big-name actors in the shade, finds Ben Lerwill
The Experts’ Experts
Designers and architects from Country Life’s Top 100 throw open their contacts books to reveal the specialists they turn to when seeking inspiration for a country-house project
Peter Jones’s favourite painting
The chair of the British-Italian Society chooses a compelling and mysterious portrait of Christ
SAVE at 50
Founding trustee Simon Jenkins reflects on 50 years of SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the charity’s battles to safeguard a string of historic buildings
The legacy
Dedication’s what you need and Ross and Norris McWhirter, the twins behind the Guinness World Records, had it in abundance, as Amie Elizabeth White learns
Suits you!
When did the sodden knitwear cossie give way to the glamorous bikini? Deborah Nicholls-Lee dives into the history of swimwear
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell is beach ready with a collection of coastal favourites
Sheer bliss
Caroline Donald hails the blend of love and laissez-faire that has created a spectacular garden on an escarpment overlooking the sea at Ash Park in Devon
A smell by any other name
Ian Morton profiles the flora and fauna causing a stink in the natural world, some to attract a meal or mate, others to repel a predator
Tyger, tyger burning bright
Tipu Sultan threw a spanner in the works of Britain’s Imperial ambition, but the Tiger of Mysore was an inspiration to Blake and Keats, reveals Lucien de Guise
Winging it
Mark Cocker pays tribute to the beauty, elegance and laser-like predatory precision of the kestrel
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'The city has always held an important creative space within our design studio': A luxury townhouse in Tokyo, courtesy of Aston Martin
A new four-storey property in the Omotesandō district is the first single home private residence by the British ultra-luxury performance brand.
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Tuning in with the past: Monk music will ring out for the first time since the Dissolution after medieval manuscript is rediscovered
Buckland Abbey once thronged with monks who sang for hours every day. Now, some of their newly rediscovered medieval music will ring out once more.