Country Life 3 April 2024
Country Life 3 April 2024 revels in the beauty of spring, finds out how to make a maze and enjoys a boozy business lunch.


Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:
Spring fever
The reawakening of Nature has inspired artists from Botticelli to David Hockney and beyond. Michael Prodger revels in the artistic beauty of the season
Prepare to be a-maze-d
Few can match the twists and turns of Adrian Fisher’s stellar career. Deborah Nicholls-Lee meets the maze designer behind the chilling climax of Saltburn
London Life
- Tianna Williams visits a Scottish corner of the capital
- Need to Know has all the latest happenings
- William Sitwell welcomes back the big business lunch
- Richard MacKichan joins the Noisenights crowd
The icing on Nature’s cake
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage celebrates an annual explosion of pink and white blossom with excerpts from his new book
The legacy
Kate Green on how Sir Joseph Banks sowed the seeds of Kew
Leading by example
In the second of two articles, John Goodall puts the spotlight on the superb school buildings of Lancing College, West Sussex
Little April showers
Discover why a thunderous start to the month suggests a good harvest as Lia Leendertz delves into the weather lore of spring
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Interiors
Green is the natural choice for a kitchen, as Amelia Thorpe and Arabella Youens discover
A garden from scratch
Caroline Donald marvels at the rapid transformation of the charming seven-acre garden at Charlton Farm in Wiltshire
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson puts British asparagus — a verdant harbinger of spring — back on the menu
Travel
- Camilla Hewitt raises a glass to Cognac
- Richard MacKichan explores the Alps in summer
- Hetty Lintell falls in love with Mallorca
- Pamela Goodman is in awe of the Alhambra
Gen Sir James Everard’s favourite painting
The president of the Army Bene-volent Fund chooses a wonderful depiction of the Battle of Waterloo
Déjà vu all over again
Carla Carlisle attempts to sort the tragedy from the farce in the baffling world of modern politics
Get the London look
Matthew Dennison charts the rise and fall of fashion label Biba
The good stuff
Mesmerising opals are having a moment — Hetty Lintell dives in
The Arts
150 years of the Impressionists
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.