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The Houses of Guinness: A real-life 'Succession' with privileged characters, living extravagant lifestyles 'and revelling in their extraordinary lives'
The Guinness family has garnered more headlines, column inches and pages written about them than they've seen for many years. Adrian Tinniswood's book, centred on the country houses they built in the British Isles, is the best of the lot, says Timothy Mowl.
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'Real children like it… I think it frightens some adults, but very few children': 75 years of The Chronicles of Narnia
As C. S. Lewis’s enchanting children’s classic 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' turns 75, Matthew Dennison pulls back the coats to explore its evergreen spell.
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The Old Rectory for sale in a village up the road from Jane Austen's home, where the family lived that might have inspired some of her most memorable characters
In the village of Dummer, close to Jane Austen's family home at Steventon, a beautiful old rectory has cone to the market. Penny Churchill takes a look.
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Books: In the Footsteps of the Great Artists and the Life and Work of Sir Lawrence Weaver
Michael Prodger looks at Nick Trend's art-themed Italian travelogue, while John Goodall enjoys the biography of one of his predecessors in the role of architectural editor for Country Life.
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'You have to work hand in hand with the author — like a dancer has to work with the music': Illustrating Homer's epic poems
Artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, faced with the colossal challenge of illustrating Homer's 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey', eschewed grandstand views of monumental battles, looking instead for what he calls the little cracks in the paving stones.
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‘They remain, really, the property of all of those who love them, know them, and tell them. They are our stories, the inheritance of the people of Scotland’: The Anthology of Scottish Folk Tales
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‘The perfect hostess, he called her’: A five minute guide to Virgina Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’
To mark its centenary, Lotte Brundle delves into the lauded writer’s strange and poignant classic, set across a single summer’s day in 1920’s London.
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Simon Armitage: 'I've tried getting AI to write poems — and they've all been reassuringly awful'
The poet laureate Simon Armitage joins the Country Life Podcast.
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'To exist in this world relies on the hands of others': Roger Powell and modern British bookbinding
An exhibition on the legendary bookbinder Roger Powell reveals not only his great skill, but serves to reconnect us with the joy, power and importance of real craftsmanship.
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The five minute guide to 'The Great Gatsby', a century on from its publication
'The Great Gatsby' sold poorly the year it was published, but, in the following century, it went on to become a cornerstone of world literature.
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Why size doesn't matter if you've got some decorating derring-do
A small space can be just as appealing as a large one — as long as you decorate with confidence, says a new book.
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Dawn Chorus: How to travel around the world in 19 flowers and the Mini Moke that took St Moritz by storm
What do Charles Dickens, Henry VIII and Ellen Willmott all have in common? They all appear in a new book chronicling 19 flowers and the people responsible for bringing them to the UK. Find out how to get your hands on it, plus, we reveal why a rare Beach Boys-inspired Mini Moke turned up in a Swiss ski resort and a few of India Knight’s favourite things.
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When London was beginning to establish itself as modern cultural powerhouse: The 1980s according to David Bailey
In his new book ‘Eighties Bailey’, ‘era-defining’ photographer David Bailey explores a time when London and the UK were at the centre of the fashion, art and publishing worlds.
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The life and times of P. G. Wodehouse, 50 years on from his death
Bertie Wooster, Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set: P. G. Wodehouse’s creations made him one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century, but he was denounced as a traitor and a Nazi.
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Prophet, playboy, and provocateur: How meeting Peter Beard changed my life
Peter Beard's dramatic, bloody artwork and drug-fuelled partying might've shocked American society, but is was 'desperately important' to his biographer who recounts meeting him, aged 78, at the artist and diarist's Montauk home.
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How to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen
2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth. Here are exhibitions, events and more — happening across the UK — that mark the occasion.
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Unputdownable: 12 page turners to see you through the rest of the winter
From cookbooks to cricket, biographies to Sunday Times bestsellers, Country Life contributors name some of their favourite books from last year.
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The story of how 007 creator Ian Fleming came to write Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, our fine four-fendered friend, turns 60 on October 22nd. Mary Miers relives the adventures of the magical flying car and reveals the little-known story of its creation by Ian Fleming, as the writer turned his attention from the world of 007 to a children's tale.
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London as you've never seen it — and as you'll never see it again
The East End of London has changed rapidly in recent years, but photographer Paul Trevor chronicled it from the 1970s to the 1990s. His images have been collected in a new book, Market Day.
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'It may be vain to think that the past was a cleaner, quieter and kinder place, but it felt pretty decent when you knew your GP and your GP knew you, and milk in glass bottles was delivered every morning'
Carla Carlisle is homesick for the olden days, when we didn’t know we had it so good.
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Poems about pies, the foul-mouthed parrot upstaging Margaret Atwood and starting World War III via Desert Island Discs: Ian McMillan on the Country Life Podcast
Poet, broadcaster and writer Ian McMillan joins the Country Life Podcast.
