The Country Life Top 100
Our seventh annual guide to the leading country-house interior designers, garden designers, architects and specialist firms
Inspired by birds, informed by science
The British Trust for Ornithology is still flying high in its 90th year, as Jack Watkins discovers
The lord of the books
Matthew Dennison heads for the Shire to immerse himself in the incredible fantasy world of Hobbit creator J. R. R. Tolkien
Growth factors
Mary Keen marvels at the revival of William Robinson’s wonderful walled garden at Gravetye Manor, West Sussex
Alistair Smith’s favourite painting
The editor of The Stage selects a mysterious, troubling work never intended for public view
Aberystwyth is so bracing
The clifftops of Ceredigion give Fiona Reynolds an urge to tackle the 870-mile Wales Coastal Path
Masterpiece
Only Graham Greene could have penned the noir-ish Brighton Rock, suggests Jack Watkins
Style with sympathy
John Goodall falls for the charms of the sympathetically restored Chandler’s House in Wiltshire
Native breeds
High-profile support is helping to revive the fortunes of rare Albion cattle, finds Kate Green
Not to be sniffed at
Claire Jackson is on the scent of the intelligent dogs trained to seek out Japanese knotweed
From Arkle to Zarkander
Everything you need to know about the Cheltenham Festival
The good stuff
It’s green for go—Hetty Lintell has a stylish spring in her step
The glory of the gratin
Tom Parker Bowles is soothed and seduced by the classic dish
Nothing to get in a flap about
Rats with wings or intelligent, brave birds? Vicky Liddell homes in on the much-maligned pigeon
Away with the fairies
Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairies enchant Claire Jackson