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

The cover of Country Life February 4, 2026, featuring Sango Sands at Durness in Sutherland, Scotland, photographed by Kav Dadfar/AWL Images.

(Image credit: Future)

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Country Life February 4, 2026 is our annual travel special, looking at the best places to go around the world — plus features on Chillingham Castle, a garden full of poets, and rugby shirts.

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

Country-house treasure

A fallen ceiling pendant tells the tale of the remarkable rescue of Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, finds John Goodall

Chemistry? Set…

Deborah Nicholls-Lee uncovers chemical warfare in the animal kingdom, from the bombardier beetle’s noxious gas to the sea hare’s purple-ink ‘smokescreen’

Try and try again

Tom Howells tackles the rugby shirt’s amazing transformation from mud-spattered sports kit to 21st-century sartorial staple

Spread from Country Life February 4, 2026

Luxury

Amie Elizabeth White eyes elegant office essentials and reveals the inspiring styles in season at Men’s Fashion Week

Is this England’s year?

An 11-match winning run has the Twickenham faithful dreaming of Grand Slam glory. Owain Jones looks ahead to the Six Nations

A rock-solid legacy

George Plumptre explores Penns in the Rocks in East Sussex — a garden that was 140 million years in the making

Travel

Rosie Paterson unpacks all the latest travel news and explores Canada’s last great wilderness, Emma Love rounds up the newcomers of 2026, Country life writers check into the world’s best hotels, Rupert Uloth experiences the magic of Madagascar, Teresa Levonian Cole climbs aboard the Orient Express and Pamela Goodman enjoys an educational excursion

Veronica Henry’s favourite painting

The novelist chooses a work that evokes nostalgia and anticipation

A house to dote on

In the first of two articles, Jeremy Musson charts the remarkable evolution of historic Ampthill Park House in Bedfordshire

The legacy

Where would we be without Harry Beck’s peerless 1930s map of the London Under-ground, asks Octavia Pollock

Winging it

Mark Cocker sheds light on the short-eared owl, a breed apart that eschews darkness in favour of hunting in broad daylight

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe trips the lights fantastic with a selection of the latest designs and accessories sure to brighten up the home

London Life

Will Hosie paints the town red, yellow and blue and unearths the real story about the Cheapside Hoard, plus our writers have all you need to know this month

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino investigates the seeds of cultural exchange between Britain and China

For all the tree on China

Lucien de Guise examines how our love of Far Eastern motifs led to the 19th-century creation of Coalport’s Indian Tree ware

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.