Country Life 24 January 2024

Country Life 24 January 2024 looks at the chaos pets can cause, wine rooms, national parks and the best podcasts to try.

 

Here’s a look at some of what you’ll find inside:

So much more than a walk in the park

Before creating a new national park, we need to be crystal clear on how existing parks should be governed and their role in Nature recovery, argues Julian Glover

Country-house Clawdo

Whodunnit? The pony in the parlour or the labrador in the lounge? Bronwen Riley investigates tales of pets behaving exceedingly badly

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Where grace is laced with muscle

Black Beauty shares a paddock with Red Rum and Frankel as Paul Hayward conjures up his top 12 equine superstars

Rooms with a cru

A growing number of people are putting their wine on show — as they would a work of art — with the addition of a bespoke room, finds Amelia Thorpe

The evidence of your eyes and ears

James Fisher ponders the meteoric rise of the podcast and points your ears in the direction of some of the best offerings on the airwaves

Ashley Campbell’s favourite painting

The West End actor chooses a vivid, colourful mixed-media work that dances off the canvas

Nationhood and corporation

The imposing, attention-seeking Australia House in London is a striking celebration of union with Britain and national self worth, suggests G. A. Bremner

All bark and some bite

The beauty and benefit of tree bark is more than skin deep— John Lewis-Stempel reveals its versatile role as food source, pharmacy and haven for wildlife

The good stuff

Red is the colour this season and Hetty Lintell is all fired up by a selection of scarlet accessories

Wall to wall abundance

Tiffany Daneff is wowed by the remarkable walled kitchen garden that has been created from scratch at Whithurst Park, a manor house in West Sussex

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson celebrates the delicate and distinct flavour of purple-sprouting broccoli

In matters vegetable, animal and mineral

At one time it was deemed the Devil’s work, so how did opera come to occupy such an exalted position in British culture, asks John F. Mueller

Spin when you’re winning

England’s swashbuckling style has turned heads the world over, but James Fisher fears the worst for the tourists as they face cricketing titans India

And much more