Country Life April 1, 2026

Cover of Country Life 1 April 2026, featuring Karel Gallas's picture of lambs — The cover of Country Life 1 April 2026, featuring Karel Gallas's picture of lambs.

(Image credit: Future / Karel Gallas / Getty)

Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside.

It is a time for love and laughter

What the nation needs most is a good laugh, suggests the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie, as he examines some of our wackiest Easter traditions

Hat’s the spirit!

Deborah Nicholls-Lee dons an Easter bonnet as she explores the history of this colourful and often outlandish headgear

Making small talk

The marvellous miniature world of the dolls’ house is becoming big business, finds Gavin Plumley

Major-General Sarah Johansen’s favourite painting

The deputy chief of defence intelligence picks a work reflecting women’s wartime bravery

Never a frown with Burford Browns

Arthur Parkinson investigates the allure of a breed favoured across the land, from Chatsworth House to Cluckingham Palace

The Editor’s Easter quiz

Can you crack the eggs-acting seasonal questions posed by Agnes Stamp and Kate Green?

Stout hearted

Now that one in every nine pints poured in the UK is a Guinness, David Ellis wonders what made drinkers go back to black

Country-house treasure

John Goodall wagers that you’ve never seen a coat quite like the speedily created concoction at Coughton Court, Warwickshire

Creative Gothic

John Goodall explores the church at Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire, one of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s lesser-known creations

The legacy

Tiffany Daneff salutes the Revd George Engleheart, creator of more than 700 types of daffodil

Luxury

Amie Elizabeth White reveals how Elsa Schiaparelli fused fashion and art. Plus how to stay in the pink

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe admires a very English château kitchen and shares illuminating new lighting

London Life

Rupert Clague floats into the world of John C. Lilly, Will Hosie showcases seven of the best on the property market and Jack Watkins finds the lungs of the city in good shape, plus our writers have all you need to know this month

Pretty little things

Charles Quest-Ritson is capti-vated by the cottage-garden charm of the double primrose

Travel

Do you know your sirocco from your meltemi? The answer is blowing in the wind, as globe-trotter Pamela Goodman learns

Arts & antiques

All is not what it seems on this April Fool’s Day, warns Carla Passino, as she reveals the tricks and smokescreens employed by artists of old

House of the rising sun

Sunsets and sunrises inspired many an artist, but the latter gave rise to an entire art movement. Michael Prodger investigates

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 His Majesty 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.