What you'll find in this week's issue of Country Life — and how to subscribe or get your copy

Cover of Country Life May 27, 2026 — The cover of Country Life May 27, 2026, featuring St Peter’s Church as seen from the kitchen garden at Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire. Photo by Paul Highnam for Country Life.

(Image credit: Country Life / Future)

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Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside our most recent issue.

Taking the sylvan path

Gardens with a woodland slant caught the eye of judges at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, reports Kathryn Bradley-Hole

A lawyer’s fortune

In the first of two articles, John Goodall traces the history of Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire, an eminent Elizabethan creation

Swing low, sweet chukkas

Rupert Uloth meets patrons, players and ponies as he examines the widespread attraction of low-goal polo

Running notes

Never mind walking on water, the delightful dipper can amble underwater, as John Lewis-Stempel will happily testify

A lot of bottle

Gabriel Stone toasts the rise and rise of independent wine merchants serving rural areas

Maurice Gran’s favourite painting

The playwright and author picks a fruit-laden still life that looks good enough to eat

Country-house treasure

John Goodall marvels at a gang of grotesques holding up the roof of Baron’s Hall at Penshurst, Kent

The legacy

Will Hosie lauds Princess Sophia Duleep Singh and her fight for women’s financial independence

Playing with time

Anyone for knurr and spell? Harry Pearson laments the loss of traditional pub games from our rural sporting landscape

Interiors

Giles Kime reveals how George Saumarez Smith’s Country Life garden lover’s library blossomed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Out and about

Country Life hosts a celebration of its award-winning stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Winging it

Hitchcock’s The Birds gave the black-backed gull a bad name. Mark Cocker profiles the unloved, but efficient predator of our coast

Luxury

Amie Elizabeth White seeks out the very best in hotels, holdalls and more, plus a few of designer Simon Holloway’s favourite things

Three is a magic number

Tilly Ware applauds the revival of the walled garden at Holme Hale Hall in Norfolk, where Arne Maynard has worked his magic

Travel

With the Kent coastline under-going an Arts-led revival, Ben Olsen visits Margate, the home town of Dame Tracey Emin

All the world’s a canvas

Theatrical luminaries from David Garrick to Nell Gwyn and Ellen Terry took centre stage in the art of their day, finds Michael Prodger

Arts & antiques

Art dealer James Mitchell is at his happiest behind the wheel of his treasured Austin Healey 3000, as he tells Carla Passino

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 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.