Country Life January 14, 2026
Country Life January 14, 2026 looks at Blenheim, H.M. Bateman's cartoons, the resurrection of the dodo and the diminutive little owl.
Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside.
Artificial sweeteners
Do the benefits of generative artificial intelligence outweigh the social and environmental costs, asks Emma Hughes
Going, going… gone?
Extinction elevated it to near-mythical status, but there are hopes it will if not fly again, than at least walk. Emma Hughes delves into the past, and the possible future, of the dodo
A genius of the first class
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire has long split opinion. Charles Saumarez Smith reassesses Sir John Vanbrugh’s grand creation
Blenheim, the only non-royal or ecclesiastical building in Britain to officially be designated a palace, features in Country Life this week.
The legacy
H. M. Bateman was an inventive cartoonist who cocked a snook at convention, finds Kate Green
Winging it
The little owl is aptly named, standing barely 9in tall, but this miniature marvel can be a feisty character, reveals Mark Cocker
Yes, it IS a big mushroom. But it's also a really tiny owl.
Easel come, easel go
Have brush, will travel. Maev Kennedy goes globe-trotting to assemble a collection of 10 remarkable artworks reflecting all the corners of the world
Henrietta Billings’s favourite painting
The director of SAVE Britain’s Heritage chooses a fresco and mosaic emitting a golden glow
Country-house treasure
John Goodall studies the peaceful Victorian ancestral portrait watching over Norton Conyers in North Yorkshire
Step change
Sweeping staircases are central to the ups and downs of life in our country houses, reveals Melanie Cable-Alexander
Mary Poppins' bannister-sliding would have come to a sticky end if she'd tried it at Petworth.
The generation game
The spirit of noblesse oblige lives on with the aristocracy’s contribution to rural communities, as Eleanor Doughty discovers
Interiors
Arabella Youens admires a make-over with a Moroccan flavour and Giles Kime brings a touch of glass to broken-plan design
The good stuff
Gold and silver make the perfect match for Amie Elizabeth White
Flowers of the desert
Kirsty Fergusson hails the glorious gardens of Riad Nouria as a new chapter in the long horticultural history of Marrakech, Morocco
Clive Nichols's pictures elevate Kirsty's piece.
Peak performance
Tom Parker Bowles savours tartiflette, an après-ski avalanche of cheese, pancetta and potato
We’ve got beef
Rob Crossan imbibes a cup of Bovril, the famously bovine brew hailed in the war years as ‘British to the backbone’
Arts & antiques
Carla Passino explores the story of our long-standing links with the island of Hawaii, a close relationship that is the subject of a British Museum exhibition
