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The secret lives of the British aristocracy, with Eleanor DoughtyEleanor Doughty has spent years getting to know the aristocracy of Britain — and she joins us on the Country Life Podcast to talk about their lives.
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If chess is 'the supreme board game', then it deserves to be played on boards like theseChess sets and backgammon boards are a familiar sight on drawing-room tables, but one expert Highland woodworker is refashioning their forms in beautiful new ways.
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What is everyone talking about this week: Seasonal depression has struck many of us down, but a bigger problem lies in our misunderstanding of happinessAs winter beckons, many of us will lament the halcyon days where the sun shone all day and we weren't glued to our screens to escape. The grass is always greener...
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‘I cannot bring myself to believe that Emily Brontë would be turning over in her grave at the idea of Jacob Elordi tightening breathless Barbie’s corset’: In defence of radical adaptationsA trailer for the upcoming adaptation of 'Wuthering Heights' has left half of Britain clutching their pearls. What's the fuss, questions Laura Kay, who argues in defence of radical adaptations of classic literature.
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Mark Gatiss: ‘BBC Two turned down The League of Gentlemen six times’The actor and writer tells Lotte Brundle about his latest Christmas ghost story, discovering Benedict Cumberbatch — and his consuming passions.
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A snob's guide: What to buy your dinner party hostYou've just been invited to dinner — or to stay for the whole weekend — but what do you give to your host to say thank you?
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The unbearable lightness of being Matt Damon: Country Life Quiz of the Day, November 25, 2025Test your general knowledge in today's Quiz of the Day.
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Jane Austen's greatest scoundrel: Being Mr Wickham, with Adrian LukisThe actor Adrian Lukis, who played the role of Mr Wickham in the iconic 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, joins the Country Life Podcast.
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‘I 100% always knew that I was going to do something creative’: Petra Palumbo on her design house, love of Scotland and consuming passionsThe London ‘It Girl’ turned Scotland-based designer makes tiles with men’s torsos and Henry hoovers on them, has a pug called Raisin and is married to the 16th Lord Lovat Simon Fraser. She chats to Lotte Brundle.
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The dogs of Country Life, with Agnes StampCountry Life's deputy features editor Agnes Stamp joins the Country Life Podcast to talk all things dogs.
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The sparkling history of the match and why its inventor never got the credit he deservedWe’ve been using matches for 200 years–but, as Rob Crossan discovers, the story of how they came to be is far more colourful (and hair-raising) than we might imagine.
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Madonna, David Bowie, Elizabeth II and me — this is what it’s like to have your photograph taken by RankinThe world-renowned photographer has worked with everyone from acting royalty, to actual royalty. His next subject? Country Life’s wandering scribe, Lotte Brundle.
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The Falconer's Tale: Tommy Durcan on how an ancient art lives on in 21st century IrelandTommy Durcan of Ireland's School of Falcony joins the Country Life podcast.
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‘She was absolutely extraordinary. One of my favourite things, photographing her, was the power that came through the door’: Rankin on capturing Elizabeth II, embracing artificial intelligence and almost becoming an accountantThe world-renowned photographer tells Lotte Brundle about his most memorable meal, with Liam Gallagher, Patsy Kensit, Elvis Costello and the bass player in The Pogues — along with the rest of his consuming passions.
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'People always think that, working on The Telegraph, I'll be told that things aren't right wing enough. But in 37 years, I've never, ever been told that’: The Telegraph’s cartoonist Matt on his consuming passionsThe Daily Telegraph cartoonist Matt — AKA Matthew Pritchett — talks to Lotte Brundle about his career as a cartoonist, his love of Snoopy and how he ‘stole’ his wife from Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen.
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Bunny Mellon: The Truman Capote ‘Swan’, muse and horticulturalist whose creations for The White House were recently lost foreverAs Tiffany & Co. pay homage to Bunny Mellon with a new Bird on a Rock collection, Owen Holmes takes a look at the most iconic garden designs of this heiress-horticulturist, from her Virginia estate to the White House to Versailles.
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'Never has there been a more important time to publicise great Victorian and Edwardian buildings in peril': The importance of saving our historic buildingsFor the 16th year, the Victorian Society is calling on the public to nominate Victorian or Edwardian buildings in England and Wales that are in need of saving.
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Amelia Thomas: The woman who learned to talk to animalsAmelia Thomas, the real-life Dr Dolittle who spent years decoding how animals talk, joins James Fisher on the Country Life podcast.
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‘So many of us look at the world through our screens and forget to pay attention to the world outside’: Katy Hessel on the world’s great female artists, why free entry to museums matters and her consuming passionsThe author of ‘The Story of Art Without Men’ speaks to Lotte Brundle about the dangers of AI, how she fell in love with the art world and why it’s okay that her favourite painting is by a male artist.
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'My family wore wool at a time when everyone else had cast it off in favour of manmade fabrics': The knitwear pioneer who is one of David Beckham's countryside championsJulie Harding speaks to Rachel Carvell-Spedding the founder of British knitwear brand Navygrey, and one of David Beckham's countryside champions.
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What is everyone talking about this week: Why we love period dramaObservers cite a need for escapism, but Will Hosie thinks there's more to our enduring love of a period drama.
