'I've sent at least a thousand emails': Country Life's features editor on working with The Prince of Wales

HRH Prince of Wales working with Mark Hedges and Paula Lester

(Image credit: Country Life Picture Library)

published 14 November 2018

Paula was the co-ordinating editor of the special issue, which was guest edited by the Prince to mark his 70th birthday – a 244-page issue of the magazine highlighting the Prince's deep love of the countryside.

Since the guest editor has neither phone nor computer nor email address, Country Life's team worked closely with Clarence House to pass on updates about how the various articles were shaping up.

'I've sent at least a thousand emails,' Paula told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning.

'I would deal with them and they would send a missive to him, on paper in a red box, overnight, and then he would come back and tell me exactly what he wanted me to do... It was very detailed. There's nothing in [the magazine] that he hasn't seen or requested us to do.'

You can watch the entire interview below (footage courtesy of the BBC).

The special November 14 issue of Country Life is on sale now – you can also try a subscription to Country Life at £6 for six issues.

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.