Country Life 10 April 2024
Country Life 10 April 2024 looks at how to create the perfect country house interior, otters and property names.


Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:
Interiors Special
- Arabella Youens talks to collectors about making a house a home
- The art of layering
- A revival in decorative painting
- Amelia Thorpe shares new looks for a new season
- Giles Kime reveals why old is gold — and how it’s all about you
My kingdom for The Cottage
There’s a lot more to the name of your house than meets the eye, suggests Eleanor Doughty
The legacy: Philip Wayre
Kate Green hails Philip Wayre, the man who restored otters to rivers in all of England’s counties
Whistle down the wind
Cellist Beatrice Harrison charmed King and country by duetting with a nightingale, but was it fact or fiction, asks Julian Lloyd Webber
The sinner who painted saints
Murder, mayhem and master-pieces — Maev Kennedy looks at the short, but brutal life of the celebrated artist Caravaggio
Jenny Jefferies’s favourite painting
The author selects a captivating bronze statue that forms the focal point of a Devon garden
We need to trade on a level playing field
Now back on her Wiltshire farm, former NFU president Minette Batters is still banging the drum for British farmers
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A marvel revived
Steven Brindle is dazzled by the splendour of Rochdale Town Hall, Greater Manchester, in the wake of a major restoration project
Our incomparable coastline
The battle to safeguard Britain’s natural beauty must not overlook the coast, argues Peter Waine
Happy birthday to whom?
Rob Crossan blows out the candles to mark 100 years of the ditty Happy Birthday To You
Shepherd’s delight
Ian Morton showcases the many medicinal benefits of shepherd’s purse, that most prolific of weeds
Small, but perfectly formed
George Plumptre sizes up the cleverly designed garden at Midsummer House, Oxfordshire
New series: Native herbs
Don’t dismiss the cheerful golden dandelion is John Wright’s plea
A different kettle of fish
Tom Parker Bowles pushes out the boat for a serious fish pie
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell’s magic of mono
A dog’s touch
Jeremy Cassel’s ‘reunion’ with guide dog Grady leaves Mark Hedges with a tear in his eye
Through the looking glass
Matthew Dennison gazes into the glamorous history of the mirror
Upon reflection
An antique mirror can transform a room, reveals Amelia Thorpe
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 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.
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Uniquely unique? The Yorkshire grain silos transformed into a home that's a symphony in glass, steel and curves
Amid the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Castle Howard Estate, The Silos is a property for which the word 'house' simply doesn't cut it. And that's not the only way in which it's made us throw out the dictionary.
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Polluting water executives now face up to two years in prison, but will the new laws make much of a difference?
The Government has announced that water company executives caught covering up illegal sewage spills could now be imprisoned for two years, under new laws — but many still have their doubts.