Country Life April 22, 2026

Cover of Country Life 22 April 2026, featuring a leaping red squirrel photographed by Terry Donnelly.

(Image credit: Terry Donnelly / Future)

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

Be my (royal) guest

A visit from a reigning monarch can be at once onerous and an honour. Bronwen Riley delves into the history of royal retinues

Tails of the unexpected

The much-loved red squirrel has long been in decline, but Vicky Liddell reports on a welcome resurgence for Sciurus vulgaris

Magazine spreads from Country Life 22 April 2026

Manners maketh the fisherman

Leave a lasting impression with David Profumo’s tongue-in-cheek tips for the upcoming season

Blast to the past

If you could turn back the clock, would you see Stonehenge being built or chat to Hieronymus Bosch? Carla Passino talks time travel

Madeleine Bessborough’s favourite painting

The art-centre founder chooses a seaside scene that is the best of British landscape painting

Country-house treasure

John Goodall is warmed by the roaring blaze of Bloomsbury artist Duncan Grant’s flaming firescreen at Knole in Kent

The Knight and his castle

John Goodall chronicles the colourful history of the Knights of Glin and the construction of Glin Castle in Co Limerick

The legacy

Kate Green salutes Sir Patrick Abercrombie, the driving force in the founding of the CPRE

Come fly with me

A pilot’s licence is a ticket to freedom and adventure most can only imagine. Freda Lewis-Stempel takes to the skies

Luxury

Be a good sport with essential, but stylish workout accessories selected by Amie Elizabeth White

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe seeks out the latest choices in paints and wall coverings and Giles Kime explores the complexity of creating a simple, pared-back look

To give dew praise

Deborah Nicholls-Lee drinks in delicate early-morning droplets that have long drawn the attention of poets and scientists alike

The unlikely conservationist

A bluebell wood deep in Kew’s botanic gardens — saved for the nation by a royal bequest — is now teeming with new life, as Kendra Wilson discovers

Not so intelligent after all

Caroline Donald hankers for human expertise after asking chatbots to design a flowerbed

Travel

Beautiful Burford offers the ideal base to explore the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, as Richard MacKichan discovers

Art & antiques

Thomas Gainsborough’s love of landscapes paved the way for both Turner and Constable, as Carla Passino reveals

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.