Country Life July 8, 2026

Country Life July 8, 2026, asks Britain's top experts who they trust to work on their own homes, visits a clifftop garden in Cornwall and delves into the Queen's suitcase.

Cover of Country Life 8 July 2026, featuring a house in the South Downs designed by Ian Adam-Smith Architects, as photographed by Noah Russell
Cover of Country Life 8 July 2026, featuring a house in the South Downs designed by Ian Adam-Smith Architects, as photographed by Noah Russell.
(Image credit: Country Life / Future)

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

The Experts’ Experts

Country Life asks architects, designers and specialists on its Top 100 list to delve into their little black books to reveal the talented craftspeople and suppliers they turn to for inspira-tion on their own projects  

Latest Videos From

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

(Image credit: Future)

Why haste creates waste

Hold off on that online-shopping impulse buy — there’s no substitute for carefully crafted quality 

It’s getting hot in here

Ben Lerwill sets his tastebuds a-tingling as he meets the British chilli-sauce makers adding to the spice of life  

Luxury

If you only buy one suitcase, make it a classic GlobeTrotter, suggests Amie Elizabeth White

Winging it

Mark Cocker looks beyond the raven’s grim reputation to seek the truth about our largest corvid

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

(Image credit: Drew Buckley / Future)

Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s favourite painting

The Speaker of the House of Commons is captivated by the Westminster riverfront in a work with a photographic quality  

On top of the world

Kirsty Fergusson applauds the stamina of the hardy souls who tend the spectacular clifftop gardens at Chygurno, Cornwall 

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

(Image credit: Mark Bolton / Future)

Country-house treasure

John Goodall stands in the stead of William Tyndale behind a preacher’s pulpit at Bucklebury House in Berkshire  

The legacy

Agnes Stamp salutes Agnes Marshall, the Queen of Ices 

While the cat’s away…

David Glasper lifts the lid on the cat flap, the means by which the regal feline can come and go precisely as it pleases  

An architectural evolution

Jeremy Musson charts the rise of Selwyn College, Cambridge, from its origins as a memorial to a 19th-century missionary  

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

(Image credit: Future)

The raw deal

Tom Parker Bowles savours the lip-smacking summer freshness of that Peruvian classic ceviche 

Travel

Rosie Paterson unpacks the latest in luxury-yacht looks and follows in Frida Kahlo’s footsteps 

Arts & antiques

Beauty and function were fused in the form of the sedan chair, the conveyance of choice for the upper echelons of Georgian society, reveals Carla Passino 

Art to dine for

Intriguing art can be a meal-time conversation starter in country-house dining rooms, as Melanie Cable-Alexander discovers 

Catch of the day

Collector Paul Martin shares his tips on amassing a school of exquisite antiquarian fish prints 

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.