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Think what you got for Christmas was bad? The worst presents in literature will cheer you up...
A diamond-encrusted tortoise, a humble pencil case tied up with string and a cursed jewel: Felicity Day unwraps some of the best and worst presents given in literature
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The Wisdom of Sheep, by Rosamund Young: An exclusive extract for Country Life
Rosamund Young, best-selling author of 'The Secret Life of Cows', has a new book out book called 'The Wisdom of Sheep & Other Animals'. We have an exclusive extract for Country Life readers.
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Carla Carlisle: 'Seamus Heaney deserves a sainthood, as well as his Nobel Prize'
Carla Carlisle applauds The Letters of Seamus Heaney and shares how she couldn't wait until Christmas to devour the collection from the late Irish poet
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Are these the seven best independent bookshops in Britain? A writer makes her case
Our desire to buy online may have blighted many high streets, but, happily, plenty of independent bookshops are still thriving against the odds. Catriona Gray picks seven of her favourite stores off the shelf.
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Carla Carlisle on Martin Amis: The 'passionate, graceful, fierce' writer who scared us, challenged us, and brought us understanding
Carla Carlisle pays tribute to the late Martin Amis, who died last month.
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J.R.R. Tolkien: The life and times of the lord of the books
From a sentence born of an exhausting teaching job, J. R. R. Tolkien crafted a series of fantastical novels that, 50 years on from his death, still loom as large in our imagination as Sauron’s all-seeing eye, says Matthew Dennison.
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Carla Carlisle: 'Edit your one and precious life. Prepare for Judgement Day. Do it Now.'
Carla has been having a bit of a New Year clear-out — albeit one which started last August, and which is NOT going particularly well...
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Jason Goodwin's books of the year 2022
Our columnist Jason Goodwin shares the books that have entertained and enlightened him this year.
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Sir Walter Scott's delightful thatched home just outside Edinburgh has come up for sale
Barony House has changed a lot since the days when the great writer lived here, but it's not hard to see how he was inspired by these beautiful surroundings.
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Christmas gifts for children that don't need screens or take batteries
Don't just pick up the latest plastic toys with lights and noises – take a look at these gifts which kids will love just as much as you do.
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In Focus: How Roald Dahl's love of the countryside shaped his life's work
The countryside filled the Matilda author Roald Dahl with joy and proved a constant source of inspiration, as Matthew Dennison reveals in a new biography of the prolific storyteller.
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The American airman's portrait of 1940s England that portrays a world that's already disappeared
A chance encounter with a book stall opens the eyes of our columnist Agromenes as he sees England through the eyes of an American airman.
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In Focus: T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, the poem of broken modern civilisation that seems more apt than ever
On the 100th anniversary of its publication, Julie Harding asks why T. S. Eliot’s great poem The Waste Land, with its devastating vision of a broken modern civilisation, still resonates so strongly today.
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In Focus: The enduring beauty of Thomas Gray's Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard
Jack Watkins considers the timeless brilliance of Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.'
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The true mark of genius of Jane Austen's Persuasion? Even when its bad, it's still pretty good
Even costume drama fatigue can't rob Jane Austen's Persuasion of its power, says Jack Watkins
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Ruth Manning-Sanders: 'She was certain that it was every child’s birthright to visit a world of enchantment and occasional terrors'
Nursery favourite Ruth Manning-Sanders believed it was every child’s birthright to enter a world of enchantment and occasional terrors, where good always triumphs over evil, discovers Matthew Dennison.
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Curious Questions: Should you get rid of wasps?
Yes, they're a pain at your summer barbecue, but wasps are also voracious predators of other insects — and some of Nature’s most important pest controllers. Seirian Sumner, author of ‘Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps’, explains a few of the reasons that you might want to hold off calling the pest controller — and, indeed, why you it might be time to start providing wasp nesting houses in your garden, alongside that designer bee hotel.
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'Russia must be isolated. Utterly walled off,' said the Russian. 'When Putin falls, the new regime will be the same as the old'
Jason Goodwin heads east and meets an exiled Russian with an eye-opening perspective.
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Thomas Hardy's Wessex vs the real-life Dorset: Which bits are real, which dreams, and which are exact to the last stream and stile
Thomas Hardy’s depictions of a fictional Wessex and his own dear Dorset are more accurate than they may at first appear, says Susan Owens.
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Jonathan Self: What I found out when I finally read a book I'd been meaning to read for 40 years
The author finally plucked up the courage to read Montaigne — here's what he made of it.
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In Focus: Gerald Durrell, the 'pioneer with a marvellous sense of humour'
The author, conservationist and avid nature-lover describes his childhood in Corfu with the 'recollections of a child in a kind of earthy paradise,' in his book, My Family and Other Animals, finds Jack Watkins.
