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A walk from Adder’s Copse to Gallows Down, Berkshire: 'I've rarely done a circular walk as perfect as this one'Fiona Reynolds takes a stroll on a quiet part of the North Wessex Downs that is redolent with history and wildlife.
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The remarkable tale of the bathing machineWhen the British fell in love with the seaside, they invented a mobile building to convey them to the water. Kathryn Ferry tells the remarkable tale of the bathing machine.
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Britain's elite fossil hunters on their finds of a lifetimeFrom a kamikaze ichthyosaur to a gigantic shell with sinister tentacles, Britain teems with fascinating fossils. Simon de Bruxelles meets the collectors following in Mary Anning’s footsteps. Photos by Millie Pilkington for Country Life.
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The BBC Proms are the most ambitious, eclectic and successful classical music festival in the world — and we should celebrate themThe Proms are a great British institution and a remarkable success story, says Country Life's cultural commentator Athena.
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Walking the Llŷn Peninsula: A trip to the ends of the earthFiona Reynolds ticks off another extreme point of Britain with a trip to the end of the Llŷn Peninsula in Wales.
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Curious Questions: Who dislodged Britain's most famous balancing rock?A recent trip to Cornwall inspires Martin Fone to tell the rather sad story of the ruin and restoration of one of Cornwall's great 19th century tourist attractions: Logan Rock at Treen, near Land's End.
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Henley Festival: 13 things you'll see at the 'posh Glastonbury'Revellers in ball gowns and dinner jackets, turning up on board £200,000 boats to dance and party while knocking back magnums of vintage champagne? It can only be the extraordinary Henley Festival, the high-end musical extravaganza that's a sort of Glastonbury-on-Thames for the (very) well heeled. We sent Emma Earnshaw along to see what it was like.
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A walk in the footsteps of Evelyn Waugh at Madresfield Court, the real-life inspiration for Brideshead RevisitedFiona Reynolds takes a walk around the home that captured Evelyn Waugh’s imagination, finding a place that is both intriguing and atmospheric.
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Thorington Theatre: How a WW2 bomb crater in Suffolk became one of Britain's most beautiful theatresAmid the sweet chestnuts, walnuts and cobnuts of a Suffolk farm, a natural amphitheatre has been transformed into a glorious sylvan venue for touring companies to tread Nature’s boards, finds Jo Caird.
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William Shakespeare: The original Nature boyWilliam Shakespeare wasn’t only the greatest playwright of our history, he was an avid ornithophile, a green man and a master of transposing the true power of Nature onto the page, says John Lewis-Stempel.
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How a British team of mountaineers conquered Everest, the 'goddess of the sky'Seventy years ago, on the eve of the Queen’s coronation, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest. Octavia Pollock considers the legacy of their achievement and what it meant for British mountaineering.
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Alexandra Palace: How it's survived fires, bankruptcy and even gang warfare in 150 years as London's 'palace of the people'Alexandra Palace has suffered every imaginable disaster, yet remains enduringly popular even a century and a half after its official grand opening. Martin Fone takes a look at the history of one of Britain's great public buildings.
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The 2023 summer outdoor opera season: Where to go, who to watch, and what to put in your picnic hamperHenrietta Bredin, deputy editor of Opera magazine, shares her tips on how to make the most of the outdoor opera season in Britain this summer.
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How the sheep of the Cotswolds outlasted the Roman Empire and the Black Death to help build one of Britain's most beautiful areasFrom warm cloaks for the Roman army to many handsome churches, much of England’s might and wealth once rested on the back of the Cotswold sheep’s ‘golden fleece’, says Charles Harris.
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J.R.R. Tolkien: The life and times of the lord of the booksFrom a sentence born of an exhausting teaching job, J. R. R. Tolkien crafted a series of fantastical novels that, 50 years on from his death, still loom as large in our imagination as Sauron’s all-seeing eye, says Matthew Dennison.
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'The last red squirrel in Dumfries — if it comes to that — is most likely to be predated by a pine marten'The pine marten is proving a mixed blessing in the task of restoring wildlife for Jamie Blackett.
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The A to Z of the Cheltenham Festival, from Arkle to ZarkanderHere is all you need to know about the 2023 Cheltenham National Hunt Festival, one of the greatest sporting occasions on the calendar.
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May Hill: A walk across the summit of GloucestershireMay Hill, with its spectacular views lit by winter sun, has a promise of the spring to come, as in Edward Thomas’s account of an epic walk. Fiona Reynolds follows in his footsteps.
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Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland: The spectacular border town with a castle that changed hands 13 timesBerwick-upon-Tweed spent centuries as a pawn in Anglo-Scottish conflict; today, it's a charming border town with spectacular sights. Clive Aslet takes a look.
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Ewelme, Oxfordshire: The medieval almshouses set up by Chaucer's grand-daughter and still running todayCountry Life's 21st century Grand Tour of Britain stops off at the remarkable church and almshouses at Ewelme, Oxfordshire.
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The Flying Scotsman: How the first 100mph locomotive became the most famous train in the worldThe first train to officially hit 100mph may not even have been the first, and didn't hold the rail speed record for long; yet a century later its legend is undimmed. Jack Watkins celebrates the Flying Scotsman.
