Country Life March 5, 2025
Country Life 5 March 2025 looks at Charles Dance, Charles Dickens and rates the best bakeries in London, as well as how we can get the most out of the land.


Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:
How to make land work harder
Plans for a Land Use Framework offer a golden opportunity to make the most of our countryside, argues Fiona Reynolds
The year the stars came out
A host of luminaries that were born in 1775 still shape British identity some 250 years on, as Matthew Dennison discovers
A horse walks into a bar…
Jack Watkins raises a glass to the Cheltenham superstars immortalised in the bars and restaurants at Prestbury Park
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Interiors
Amelia Thorpe cooks up a real treat with the latest inspiration and innovations for the kitchen
London Life
- Amie Elizabeth White celebrates 100 years of the Dickens museum, plus Country Life’s guide to the best baked goods in the capital
Arts & antiques
Charles Dance talks to Carla Passino about Michelangelo, mentoring and why the Sistine chapel is like playing King Lear
The good, the bad and the ugly
Michael Hall delves into the genius of Michelangelo, at once the enfant prodige and enfant terribile of the Renaissance
Simon Martin’s favourite painting
The art-gallery director selects a beguiling 17th-century miniature revealing a connection to Nature
A regal renewal
John Goodall hails the revival of Restoration House in Kent, a magnificent property that welcomed Charles II in 1660
The legacy
Agnes Stamp hails the ‘British Barnum’ Charles Cruft, whose dog show is still best in class
Shiver me timbers
The once-popular black poplar could be our secret weapon in the battle against climate change, finds Vicky Liddell
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell’s top tips on what to wear to the Cheltenham Festival
And it was all yellow
Charles Quest-Ritson brightens his day with the cheerful flowers of the ever-dependable forsythia
Sharp practice
The thorny old issue of pruning roses, with Charles Quest-Ritson
Foraging
Is tapping birch-tree sap worth the bother, asks John Wright
Travel
Emma Love shares the latest cruise news, Imogen West-Knights finds everything shipshape in the South of France, John Niven follows in the wake of Mr Mississippi Mark Twain and Pamela Goodman’s birthday treats take on a life of their own
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 HRH 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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Uniquely unique? The Yorkshire grain silos transformed into a home that's a symphony in glass, steel and curves
Amid the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Castle Howard Estate, The Silos is a property for which the word 'house' simply doesn't cut it. And that's not the only way in which it's made us throw out the dictionary.
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Polluting water executives now face up to two years in prison, but will the new laws make much of a difference?
The Government has announced that water company executives caught covering up illegal sewage spills could now be imprisoned for two years, under new laws — but many still have their doubts.
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Puffins, the world's smelliest fruit and Einstein's socks: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 30, 2025
Wednesday's Quiz of the Day wonders if you know what an 'interrobang' is.
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Lewis Hamilton, Claude Monet and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 29, 2025
Tuesday's Quiz of the Day looks back at Lewis Hamilton's first win and ponders on the meaning of greige.
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Lions, country houses and the killer of a king: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 28, 2025
Monday's Quiz of the Day brings a beautiful Berkshire house, Macbeth and an Old Testament prophet.
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You're having a giraffe: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 25, 2025
Friday's Quiz of the Day brings your opera, marathons and a Spanish landmark.
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Country houses, cream teas and Baywatch: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 24, 2025
Thursday's Quiz of the Day asks exactly how popular Baywatch became.
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The loos of Buckingham Palace: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 23, 2025
Wednesday's Quiz of the Day looks at St George, royal toilets and German alcohol laws.
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The King's favourite tea, conclave and spring flowers: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 22, 2025
Tuesday's Quiz of the Day blows smoke, tells the time and more.
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Chocolate eggs, bunnies and the Resurrection: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 18, 2025
Friday's quiz is an Easter special.