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.

Cover of Country Life 9 July 2025
Snowshill in the Cotswolds, photographed by Mark Nicholson, graces the cover of Country Life 9 July 2025.
(Image credit: Mark Nicholson / Future)

Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:

9 July 2025 GIF image

(Image credit: Future)

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

Magazine spread from Country Life 9 July 2025

(Image credit: Future)

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

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

Magazine spread from Country Life 9 July 2025

(Image credit: Future)

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

Magazine spread from Country Life 9 July 2025

(Image credit: Future)

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

Magazine spread from Country Life 9 July 2025

(Image credit: Future)

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

Magazine spread from Country Life 9 July 2025

(Image credit: Future)

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