Country Life 29 January 2025
Country Life 29 January 2025 meets springer spaniels, snakes and ladders, Six Nations rugby and how radio changed the world.

Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:
Full of the joys of spring(ers)
The non-stop English springer is still our number one working spaniel, reveals Matthew Dennison, as he delves into this enthusiastic, energetic breed
Snake, rattle and roll
Rob Crossan investigates the deeply spiritual origins of that enduring family board-game favourite Snakes and Ladders
Heard it on the radio
The wireless broke new ground as the first form of home-based mass entertainment and is still going strong in the age of the smart speaker, finds Ben Lerwill
Friends with benefits
Nematodes are a natural way to halt the march of all manner of garden pests and Charles Quest-Ritson is a convert
Mould and behold
Josiah Wedgwood was a brilliant businessman with a remarkable social conscience. Tristram Hunt assesses his life and legacy
Catch us if you can
Owain Jones sizes up six of the best as he picks out the players to watch in this year’s Guinness Six Nations rugby extravaganza
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Roger Morgan-Grenville’s favourite painting
The conservation campaigner selects a work that inspired his lifelong obsession with seabirds
A Palladian premonition
Richard Hewlings offers a fresh analysis of the architecture at Bramham Park, a highly original West Yorkshire country house
The legacy
Kate Green remembers Robert FitzRoy, the founder of the Met Office whose name lives on in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast
Dear country diary
Paul Fleckney flicks through The Guardian’s Country Diary, which has offered a snapshot of rural life for more than 120 years
Interiors
The best stoves and fireplaces picked by Amelia Thorpe, plus the alternatives to burning logs
Luxury
Hetty Lintell’s top timepieces and James Haskell’s favourite things
Magnificent mahonias
Charles Quest-Ritson makes the case for mahonias, arguing that their pleasantly scented flowers are a seasonal delight
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson pairs peppery horseradish with salmon fillets
Ring-dove beauteous!
John Lewis-Stempel coos over the much-maligned wood pigeon, that canny, keen-eyed and fast-flying stalwart of our countryside
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.
-
Robin Hood's seaside getaway, and who appears on the £20 note?
Our daily quiz features one of the most beautiful spots in Britain... but where is it?
By Toby Keel Published
-
A glorious 17th century home in one of the most exclusive waterside villages in Britain
Orchard House was lucky not to have been sunk beneath the surface of Rutland Water when it was created in the 1970s — but it did, and today this wonderful spot is looking better than ever.
By Toby Keel Last updated