The Countryside
The beauty of the British countryside and country life, from the experts at Country Life.
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Storm overflow plan 'needs flushing down the lavatory once and for all' say angling groups as perilous state of English rivers revealedThe recently published Cunliffe Report shows that 'waterways are suffering from chronic neglect, corporate greed and useless regulation'.
By Kate Green Published
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Killer whales: The perilously rare and super-smart predator we risk loosing from British waters foreverThey’ve recently made headlines for interfering with boats, but intelligent, family-focused and remarkably long-lived orcas–better known as killer whales–contain multitudes.
By Helen Scales Last updated
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From Queen bees to Queen Camilla, how one woman built a multi-million pound beauty empire out of bee venomDeborah Mitchell's skincare range has generated quite a buzz among celebrities including HRH and Victoria Beckham.
By Jane Wheatley Published
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‘Though she be but little, she is fierce’: Everything you didn't know about sparrowhawksScourge of the bird feeder and a master of ‘shock and awe’ assassinations, the sparrowhawk pursues its quarry with such tenacity and unpredictability that it often blindsides its prey.
By Mark Cocker Published
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An ode to Britain's wildflowers, from the London bloom which grew in the craters of the Blitz, to the weather-predicting scarlet pimpernelDecorating the land with their brilliant and varied hues, our native flora which operate as clocks, calendars and Nature’s medicine cabinet are blooming brilliant, says John Lewis-Stempel.
By John Lewis-Stempel Published
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Is there enough beauty and hope left in the natural world to counter the current state of global despair?Trees are dying, our food is covered in chemicals and we are stuck in a deteriorating international security situation.
By Joe Gibbs Published
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The pine marten is a predatory force to be reckoned withThe pine marten may have a taste for jam sandwiches, but its razor-sharp claws and appetite for eggs and grey squirrels makes it a predatory force to be reckoned with.
By Patrick Galbraith Published
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Roger Morgan-Grenville: We need to reset our children's connection to nature — and it starts at schoolOur schools can — and must — lead the way in teaching the next generation the incalculable value of the natural world.
By Roger Morgan-Grenville Published
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Insectageddon delayed for another year at least, as warm and wet spring leads to bumper crop of bugsA warm and wet spring has provided the perfect conditions for our insects, which is even better news for the bats and birds.
By Patrick Galbraith Published
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No job too big: Britain's native breeds can save our countrysideBritain’s native breeds and their grazing talents are an integral part of the drive to balance food production with biodiversity recovery. We should look closer to home in the quest to re-create the natural habitats of the past
By Kate Green Published
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What everyone is talking about this week: How Wimbledon is repurposing its 55,000 used tennis ballsWeek in, week out, Will Hosie rounds up the hottest topics on everyone's lips, in London and beyond.
By Will Hosie Published
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Arthur Parkinson: Chicken Licken isn’t just a children’s story about a chicken who believes the sky is falling, it tells us everything we need to know about keeping hens happyToo many people think chickens only need shelter when it's hot, but the truth is much more complex.
By Arthur Parkinson Published
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A wing and a prayer: saving our farmland bird populationsBy bridging ‘the hungry gap’ with supplementary feeding, we can breathe life into our declining farmland bird populations, but farming practices must be changed to secure their future.
By Hannah Bourne-Taylor Published
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William Kendall: 'We need to build a lot more solar farms and some wind turbines, too'The thought of losing of productive arable land to renewable-energy developments can be dispiriting and alarming, but informed local knowledge may be the key to their successful design.
By William Kendall Published
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The 'greatest battle for 300 years': England's great estates face up to a green futureThe climate crisis will affect us all. All over Britain, major landowners are stepping up to tackle a warming world and biodiversity loss.
By Jane Wheatley Published
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'He unleashed a series of war cries, then intercepted the vole mid-air': There's nothing remotely common about the common kestrelKnown in Orkney as ‘moosie-haak’, kestrels are fierce hunters but have seriously declined and are now an amber-listed species.
By Mark Cocker Published
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The truth about P.G. Wodehouse: Robert Daws on playing England's greatest comic writerThe actor Robert Daws starred alongside Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in Jeeves and Wooster back in the 1990s, and the work of P.G. Wodehouse has been part of his decades-long career ever since. He joined the Country Life Podcast.
By Toby Keel Published
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Don't judge a plant by its smell: Why 'the little stinkers of the natural world' are just doing their jobReminiscent of love and with an unmistakable odour of death, the little stinkers of the natural world might incite repulsion, but they are only doing their job, pleads Ian Morton
By Ian Morton Published
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Puffins and shearwaters, skuas and terns, gannets and gulls and guillemots and wings, these are a few of our favourite things (seabirds)From a heroic long-distance swimmer to a producer of spectacularly eerie sound effects, the seabirds seen swooping and diving over British waters have all manner of singular skills.
By John Lewis-Stempel Published
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The red kite is a soaraway success story, having escaped extinction to become a familiar sight in our skies againUnhurried in flight and with a sideline in stolen goods, the handsome red kite is the gentleman thief of the raptor world, writes Mark Cocker.
By Mark Cocker Published
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‘This isn't just silver — it's a story of a man who fell in love with a woman who society deemed unworthy': The large silver sculpture of rutting stags that scandalised Victorian societyGeorge Harry Grey, the 7th Earl of Stamford, was shunned when he married a circus performer. This sculpture was his way of showing the world that he was a fighter — and it's now been acquired by the National Trust.
By Annunciata Elwes Published


