"Summer’s end is eagerly anticipated in ever more gardens," wrote Mark Griffiths in Country Life last year. "Between the garden and nature, autumn is becoming our most magical season of all."
And after a cool, wet summer, autumn colour has come early to many parts of Britain so it's already time to get out and enjoy the best on offer.
Many of the most spectacular trees are not native to British shores. The cellular processes by which leaves turn golden are more pronounced in North American and Asian trees, and it wasn't until the flora explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries brought back specimens that many species were grown here.
Those pioneers brought an explosion of colour to British shores which persists even today: the species they planted continue to thrive, and have made autumnal Britain splendid in a way which would scarcely have been recognised a few hundred years ago.
Autumn colours are normally at their height in November, but with some trees starting to turn already it's time to start planning where best to get out and enjoy the show.
We've teamed up with the National Trust to pick out some wonderful places across the country where you can go and enjoy what Albert Camus once described as "a second Spring where every leaf is a flower." Get more details, including opening times, prices and directions from www.nationaltrust.org.uk.
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This machine is what happens when the Rolls-Royce of motorbikes and the most innovative of watchmakers join forcesBrough Superior and Richard Mille, two brands renowned for perfection, have created something that is exactly that.
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Country Life December 3, 2025Should you let your dog sleep on the bed? Country Life 3 December 2025 weighs in on the debate, as well as looking at winter birds and the Royal Agricultural University.
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I was Jeremy Hunt’s main political adviser and helped put together multiple Autumn Statements and Budgets. This is what I think Rachel Reeves’s Budget means for the countrysideAdam Smith, former chief of staff to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, reflects on what last week's Budget means for the countryside and how we ensure the rural voice is heard loudly inside Budget preparations.
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The Budget: What do we need to fix a broken countryside, and what will we get?With the Autumn Budget looming, countryside and heritage organisations reveal what they are hoping to hear to fix the turmoil — and what they are dreading
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'I’m going to be the first in more than 100 years to sell anything off': How the upcoming budget uncertainty is impacting young farmersChanges to inheritance tax, property relief and Defra budgets will likely change Britian's rural landscape. We ask the next generation of farmers what they think their future will look like.
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An unfenced existence: Philip Larkin's love of the countrysideRichard Barnett pokes at Larkin’s protective carapace of soot-stained gloom and finds a writer with an unillusioned yet tenderly perceptive sense of Nature, in all its beauty and indifference
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Baby, it’s cold outside (even if you have a natural fur coat): How our animals brave the winter chillWhen the temperature drops, how do Britain’s birds, beasts and plants keep the cold at bay? John Lewis-Stempel reveals Nature’s own thermals.
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Retro rubbish: Waste from the 90s unearthed in 97-mile-long beach cleanThe 6,482 volunteers unearthed waste discarded decades ago among the 232,229 pieces of litter recorded during the initiative.
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Dangerous beasts (and where to find them): Britain's animals that are best left aloneJohn Lewis-Stempel provides a miscellany of our otherwise benign land’s more fearsome critters.
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Mystery, muse and metaphor: There's more to fog than meets the eyeSmothering, transformative and beautiful, fog’s close-set shroud has inspired titans of literature, cinema and art — and forces the rest of us to look at the world a little closer.
