This week's issue of Country Life — and how to subscribe or get your copy

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Country Life 3 December 2025 looks at winter birds, the Royal Agricultural University and weighs in on the great debate: should you let your dog sleep on the bed?

Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside.

A fate worse than demolition?

A century on from Sir Herbert Baker’s enlargement of the Bank of England in London, Clive Aslet reappraises the controversial work

Still caring for the fields and the beasts

Kate Green charts the 180-year history of the Royal Agricultural University and Mary Skipwith talks to students past and present

Let sleeping dogs lie

Do you cuddle up to your canine companions or are they banned from the bedroom? Bethany Stone investigates

Season’s tweetings

Matthew Dennison explores the fowl and game forever linked with the festive period

London Life

Rosie Paterson reveals why London always reigns in the rain, Will Hosie shares his tips on beating the capital’s Christmas crowds and our writers round up all you need to know this month

Let there be light

Carla Passino reflects on Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s intriguing works focusing on the illumination of female subjects

A matter of faith

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells Carla Passino his theory on the identity of Vermeer’s enigmatic Girl with a Pearl Earring

Giorgio Locatelli’s favourite painting

The chef and restaurateur picks a work of incredible imagination

Country-house treasures

John Goodall unfurls John Bell’s huge pro-education banner at Thirsk Hall in North Yorkshire

The legacy

Emma Hughes celebrates George Orwell’s dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four

The Editor’s choice

Country Life Editor-in-Chief Mark Hedges reveals the gifts that have given him most joy in 2025

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe seeks out feel-good accessories and Giles Kime sinks into soft furnishings

Flowers in the frame

Photographer Kate Friend’s latest still-life project captures transient wildflowers at the height of their beauty, discovers Tiffany Daneff

Travel

Emma Love reveals the latest from the Caribbean, Rosie Paterson unravels the mysteries of Mustique and Pamela Goodman acts on a gut feeling

That’s my boy-bishop

Matthew Dennison investigates the centuries-old tradition of young choristers standing in for senior clerics at Christmas time

Arts & antiques

Sherree Valentine-Daines tells Carla Passino how forays into the sporting sphere helped to transform her artistic career