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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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A new rose named after The Princess of Wales highlights our near-universal obsession with the flower
No flower is more entwined with myth, religion, politics and the human form than the humble rose.
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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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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 12 architecture books you should read in 2025, by our architectural editor John Goodall
John Goodall assembles a shortlist of his favourite architecture books published recently.
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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.
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The 'holy grail' of JRR Tolkien's letters are up for sale, showing his anger at his editors and the 'priggery' of Sherlock Holmes
Bayliss Books are selling the biggest collection of Tolkien first editions and personal letters to come up for sale in twenty years. Annunciata Elwes takes a look.
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Patrick Galbraith: We are a brilliant and terrible species who messed it up a long time ago — and that means we have to do things we don't want to
Our columnist laments the painful decisions on culling wild animals which he argues have to be taken if we're to manage the countryside and maintain biodiversity.
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The Badminton Horse trials at 75
Country Life's Kate Green joins the podcast to talk about the tale of how the world's best three-day eventing competition came to be.
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A look inside Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage
A new book by the photographer Gilbert McCarragher will give readers a first-look inside Derek Jarman's famous home on the shingle of Dungeness.
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'From the first page until the last, I was in another country, another world... It was like falling in love'
'There is beauty and there is poverty, order and corruption' — Carla Carlisle on Karen Blixen and Kenya.
