Country Life December 9 2015

published 9 December 2015

Horses are intertwined with our history, and not only that but they've inspired some of our favourite literature too, so this week Kate Green remembers our favourite equine characters.

Also in County Life this week, it's the most wonderful time of the year for wildfowlers, finds John Lewis-Stempel, while we mourn the end of an era as the Land Rover Defender goes out of production.

Returning inside to the warm we visit the thrilling Prestat chocolate factory, which inspired Roald Dahl, and take a turn around the V&A’s new European galleries.

Turning to the kitchen, Simon Hopkinson roasts a teal and stews a partridge, and in the property section we ask the dreade question: when is it time to downsize?

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty 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.