Book Review: Living in London

published 1 September 2003

Living in London by Karen Howes, with photographs by Simon Upton is different - better - than those coffee table profiles of our capital.

The reason is twofold: it is published by a French house, so it has a foreign slant, and it takes us inside the houses of the stylish and famous. Thus, there is Olga Polizzi's small garden designed by George Carter, and Lord Snowdon's green space; Diane Berger's Georgian house (true to period) and Hugo Vickers's library to lust over. I have enjoyed visiting a few of these houses - Christophe Gollut's grand apartment, Keith Skeel's eccentric space and Min Hogg's charming one.

Otherwise, the book plunges into London's villages and mens' clubs, artists' studios and small museums. Not just a treat, it is a fine portrait of a wonderful city.

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH 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.