Was it five years ago already?
The pandemic was a period we’re told we’d all rather forget. Yet half a decade after the end of the first lockdown (July 2020), many look back on those eerie times with an odd sense of nostalgia. For those living in the countryside, especially, quarantine allowed us to rekindle the pastoral idyll and rediscover the quiet joys of a smaller, homelier life before a summer of staycations. Although the sight of a deserted Trafalgar Square might have inspired a kind of post-apocalyptic malaise, that of empty rolling hills under cloudless skies felt — and still feels — irresistibly peaceful.
In the current political climate, I daresay it sounds rather inviting. Still, as partygoers continue to recover from Glastonbury, a sense that ‘people need people’ — pervasive by the end of lockdown — is equally compelling.
A quiet reckoning is sweeping the national conversation — although it’s largely happening behind closed doors, at small family dinners or catch-ups between close friends. Even the chattering classes are coming around to the idea that perhaps we went too far in closing, I don’t know… primary schools?
The question everyone seems to ask as they embark upon the topic of lockdowns is this: although it would have been criminal for me to flout the rules, was I no less of a sheep for dutifully following them? From speaking to friends and colleagues of all ages, one thing I’ve realised is that people who tended to be more obedient about lockdown are now its fiercest critics, whereas those who were looser and more liberal with their interpretation of the rules tend to defend its merits — much like Boris Johnson.
It’s hard to tell whether the damage inflicted by lockdown — the erosion of trust in our leaders or the mental-health crisis — will outdo that which would have been inflicted by the virus had it not been contained. Yet two years out from the final publication of the covid inquiry (expected in 2027), the mood of the nation is revealing. In my orbit, at least, even political moderates no longer hesitate to describe our covid policy as totalitarian.
Anyone for tennis?
Wimbledon caps at the ready: sports merch is having a moment. If every Tom, Dick and Harry you know is cosplaying as an athlete, it’s because fashion and lifestyle brands are doing an excellent job of building hype for the ‘sporty and rich’ aesthetic. I use inverted commas because that is, literally, the name of a label doing exactly this. The minds behind Orlebar Brown, for their part, have partnered with hotel group Byblos on a line of blue and orange polo shirts (€250 — about £210 — apiece) and Aman Resorts is selling monogrammed courtside apparel.
Merch is as good a status symbol as any in the online era, where luxury lifestyles appear more pervasive than they actually are. Not all merch is created equal, however. Since London’s most hedonistic hotel, Chiltern Firehouse, suffered a poetic injustice after a pizza oven malfunctioned and caught fire in February, guests who had happened to hold onto their Chiltern-branded dressing gowns have seen their value surge.
One building’s demise is another wardrobe’s gain.
Long live print!
In good news for those working in print media, magazines are trending again. Last month, Chanel launched its own Arts & Culture journal to celebrate the fashion house’s long-standing collaborations with artists and institutions.
Across the pond, teenagers in Montauk, US, have given local reporting a makeover by launching The Ditch Weekly, a seasonal newspaper about local life in The Hamptons (it’s not all billionaires and landing pads). Niche fashion magazines — or, as art-school students call them, ‘zines’ — are also back with a vengeance: names such as Cultured, L’Etiquette and Polyester are sating appetites for striking editorial in an increasingly homogenous environment led by social-media algorithms.
Long live difference, I say.
This feature originally appeared in the July 2, 2025, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe
-
A new gilded age: Sir David Attenborough christens a rare golden eagletThe first golden eagle to fledge from the nest of a translocated bird has been rewarded with a name selected by Sir David Attenborough.
-
Sophia Money-Coutts: Can I get away with flying Business Class if my other half is in Economy?Sophia Money-Coutts is the new Debrett's and she's here every Wednesday to set some modern etiquette wrongs, right.
-
A new gilded age: Sir David Attenborough christens a rare golden eaglet
The first golden eagle to fledge from the nest of a translocated bird has been rewarded with a name selected by Sir David Attenborough.
-
How Sir Walter Scott made the Dandie Dinmont terrier a legendThis week marked Sir Walter Scott’s birthday — and so it seemed the right moment to celebrate the terrier that owes its fame, and its name, to his pen.
-
'Two months to the Moon, three for rest and refreshment and two more for the return': The English stork success storyLong unseen on British shores, white stork chicks are hatching once again in the UK and a colony is now flourishing in West Sussex thanks to a pioneering restoration project.
-
How the acrobatic buzzard survived persecution to become one of Britain's best avian huntersIt may appear lethargic, but no one could argue with the hunting prowess of the common buzzard when it transforms into a surging missile intent on an unsuspecting victim.
-
From Lincoln to London, the crosses of Eleanor are a legacy of loveA grief-stricken Edward I built a legacy to love across the middle of England in memory of his adored Queen Consort, marked by 12 Eleanor Crosses. The historian Alice Loxton walks in the footsteps of the epic funerary procession.
-
Pier today, gone tomorrow: Blackpool pleasure pier up for saleA product of Victorian entertainment, piers are synonymous with the British seaside. But they need our help to survive.
-
Sophia Money-Coutts: Can my dog sit with me at the table when I’m eating out?'Admittedly, I did once offer Dennis a small piece of truffled arancini in a Mayfair restaurant, but I felt it was important that he try his first truffle.'
-
A hoover for goose droppings, a tree-planting battle with the Hilton, and a disgusting banana: Inside Buckingham Palace and its gardensThe summer tours of The King’s residence this year include two new state rooms and a peep inside his private gardens.
