Country Life 11 May 2022: What you’ll find in the 125th anniversary special issue

Country Life's 125th anniversary special commemorative issue, featuring the houses, the gardens, the people and the animals that have made Country Life what it is over 6,500+ issues since 1897.

Country Life is marking a very special milestone in 2022: it’s 125 years since the first magazine was published.

While much has changed in the 6,500+ issues published since 1897, the magazine still celebrates all that’s best about Britain exactly as it has always done.

Our 125th anniversary special — which is on sale from Wednesday 11 May — looks back at some incredible highlights of those twelve and a half decades. Below is a selection of what you’ll find inside.

You can buy from Wednesday 11 May at newsagents, supermarkets, village shops and the other usual outlets. Should you have trouble finding a copy you can order a single issue of Country Life online — postage is free if you’re in the UK.


125 glorious years

We look back over the highlights of more than 6,500 editions, the houses, the gardens, the people and, of course, the animals that have made Country Life an enduring and eclectic joy, as friends of the magazine reveal why it means so much to them

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An ebodiment of England

Fiona Reynolds follows a poetic trail amid Gloucestershire daffodils

Blenheim Castle: England’s answer to Versailles

The building of the astonishing Baroque edifice of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, is a stirring tale, relates John Goodall

In the footsteps of giants

A masterpiece by Lutyens and Jekyll is thriving at Folly Farm, Berkshire, reveals Tiffany Daneff

The birth of the modern garden

George Plumptre discovers how Country Life changed the look of the British garden forever

The Queen Mother’s garden

Our 125th retrospective includes amazing images of Birkhall

 

Masterpiece

Jack Watkins is chilled by the ever-young Count Dracula


 


Mark Hedges’s favourite painting

The Editor chooses a still life that made him pause

A countrywoman’s notes

Carla Carlisle on tough hope

Raise a glass

Introducing The Hudson, a new cocktail created for Country Life

Generation game

Saluting the famous Frontispiece

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell falls in love with florals

Do you believe in cod?

The simple white fish deserves our care, says Tom Parker Bowles

A mixture of expertise and claptrap

David Profumo looks at changes in angling over 125 years

The cow that went global

Jamie Blackett on the welcome return of the gentle shorthorn

Pure singing

Henrietta Bredin on oratorios

Interiors

Palettes and patterns and paints

Another brick in the wall

Humble bricks can create true works of art, finds Jack Watkins

Property

Beautiful homes that share their birthday with Country Life

In the garden

Charles Quest-Ritson on climate change

Artist of the week

Walter Sickert under the microscope

Books, Art market, bridge and crossword and much more — not least Tottering-by-Gently