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December 2024 Archive

125 articles

31 December
The biggest property sales of 2024, from the 'Grade A house in a Grade A location' to James Dyson's house in Bath
30 December
Highlights, delights and lowlights: The best (and worst) shows of 2024
John Lewis-Stempel: Why silence is golden
29 December
A magnificent waterside penthouse in a converted mill on one of Britain's most beautiful stretches of water
Alan Titchmarsh: 'A stately pile in my part of Hampshire has been on the market for years — but one buyer didn't even make it to the door before getting back in his helicopter'
Driving Land Rovers blindfolded, cricket in the corridors and sword-fights in suits of armour: The unusual games of the country house
Country Life's top 10 architecture stories of 2024, from the palace that's 'the stuff of dreams' to a Palladian masterpiece you can rent by the weekend
28 December
Beach house? Country house? A spectacular West Sussex home that does both, with views to die for and a private gate on to the shore
'Squopping and squidging': Who invented tiddlywinks?
Country Life's top 10 arts stories of 2024
27 December
Toyota Land Cruiser 2025: You can't put a price on cool
Yes, mince pies used to contain meat — and this Victorian recipe will convince you that they should to this day
Country Life's top 20 properties of 2024
26 December
Unputdownable: The books you wish you had been given for Christmas
Five bedrooms and an indoor pool nestled into the sought after slopes of England's fourth-highest mountain
The 2024 Country Life Editor's Christmas Quiz: The Answers
25 December
The 2024 Country Life Editor's Christmas quiz
The Country Life Christmas message by Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy: ‘The most powerful person in the world’ is not an emperor, high priest or CEO, but a helpless baby in the arms of a loving mother
24 December
14 of the greatest movie posters in cinema
An absurdly perfect thatched country cottage, surrounded by a 6,000-acre estate in the heart of Devon, is for sale at just £650,000
Country Life 25 December 2024
Country Life's 20 favourite stories of 2024, from elephants and explorers to the country house that came with a free Harrier Jump Jet
23 December
The greatest pies of Christmas past, including 300lb whopper that included 20 rabbits, 15 woodcock, a curlew and 46 yellowhammers
A Victorian reservoir transformed into a sprawling underground home that's part Roman villa and part Hobbit house
Country Life's top 10 gardens articles of 2024
22 December
13 country homes for sale, starting from under £375,000, as seen in Country Life
Charles Quest-Ritson: Walnuts are one of the gardener's greatest pleasures — but you'll have to be ready for the squirrels
How the humble potato became the most important part of Christmas lunch, and how you can make them crunchier than ever
'A robin redbreast in a cage puts all Heaven in a rage': Why this charming little bird is the nation's favourite
Thomas Hardy and the country house: 'Irregularity is the genius of Gothic architecture'
21 December
A fisherman's cottage in Port Isaac in which you can write the next Great American Novel
‘Look out! Look out! Jack Frost is about!’
The Cavendish Hotel review: An artsy haven on the Chatsworth Estate
The wine merchant: 'We’re all shattered by the time we close at 3pm on Christmas Eve'
The special magic of a frozen garden in winter
20 December
The racehorse trainer: 'Christmas Day is the only day of the year that I actually ride a horse'
Going up? The property market's top experts on what will happen to house prices in 2025
Tom Parker Bowles: Forget turkey and pigs-in-blankets — the Christmas ham is the king of the yuletide feast
Code8: Beauty on Burlington Arcade
Dawn Chorus: The Secret of GK Chesterton, the owl-saving hero who's breaking the internet, and our Quiz of the Day
19 December
The award-winning cook who makes 5,000 Christmas puddings a year, every single one of them by hand
'Conflict, back-stabbing, vendettas, false promises and the taking of malicious glee in others’ misfortune': Why Risk is exactly what Christmas is all about
The interiors of this converted church in Oundle might be all the proof you need that there is a God
'The most beautiful car in the world' made both better, and worse, all at once
18 December
Christmas gift ideas for children
Seven perfect Christmas gifts for people who just love beautiful, functional things
The cathedral choirmaster: 'The thing I love about the Christmas repertoire is the mix of modern and ancient'
Are posh mince pies worth it? Four of the best on test, from Daylesford, The Newt and more
The most-viewed house of 2024 is a completely ordinary three-bed semi... with a literally fantastical interior
The best wedding pictures you'll ever see, what's the point of a law you don't enforce and talking about gin with James May
17 December
The gamekeeper: ‘I’ve lost count of the school plays that I made by the skin of my teeth’
Mushroom gin, Lego houses, and dull men and women, with James May
Dawn Chorus: Nature's 'wholesale fightback' is an inspiration for us all to keep trying
16 December
Dacia Jogger: Perfection is many things, but most of all it's simplicity
The Christmas wreath-maker: 'They sell quicker than we can make them'
A former nunnery that's now a spectacular home, with statues, stained glass and magnificent gardens
Jason Goodwin: 'When I was 18, I tried playing it cool. I believed next to nothing. I rolled my eyes at solemnity and ceremony. The business of shedding my cool has been years in the making'
Asian hornets losing ground, Britain's most bashed bridge bashed once again and how to buy a dinosaur
15 December
Eight magical homes for sale, from Scotland to London and from £1.25m to £29.5m, as seen in Country Life
Mark Diacono: How to grow savory both summer and winter
Athena: It shouldn't take a blazing fire for us to see the value in our places of worship
14 December
'We're accidentally getting a puppy for Christmas — and we need help!' Ben Randall on helping a dog cope with Christmas
The national average house price is now £300,000 — but that's still enough to find a slice of country life, from Surrey to the Isle of Mull
From the corrugated iron ballroom at Balmoral to the tin tabernacles that dot the landscape of Britain
La Fantaisie hotel review: A boutique hotel in the atmospheric Faubourg Montmartre area of Paris
11 things to look out for on a Nature walk in winter
13 December
'We’ve never experienced anything like this. Nothing has even come close': An incredible home in Wales where you can surf in the morning and go climbing in the afternoon
How 'the best picture in the world' was saved from destruction by a British army officer refused to follow his orders
Thirteen really is lucky for some — and specifically for those paying £36,000 less if they're happy to live at No. 13
The cheetah playing hide-and-seek who's a Far Side cartoon come to life
12 December
'I don't understand why we have gone backwards': Historic country houses take stock after the budget
Timberpride
Minette Batters: 'I don’t believe this Government set out to wipe out the family farm. Yet it will be the consequence'
Santa's making the kids cry, a vast organ finds its voice and letting the saltwater into Gloucestershire
11 December
A spot of Bovaer: The dairy cow additive that's set tongues wagging isn't bad for anyone — and it's just what we need if we want both milk and clean air
A Grade I-listed home in Northumberland that is both round and square, with more bedrooms than I can count
The gift of growing
Dawn Chorus: Symbiosis in action
10 December
Eastern promise: Mandarin Oriental opens a second London hotel on Hanover Square
What you'll find inside Country Life's 2024 Christmas Double issue, the biggest in 128 years of the magazine's history
What you'll find inside the 2024 Country Life Christmas Double Issue
A Brussels sprout recipe that sounds completely bizarre, but will make you glad you didn't wait until Christmas to start eating them
'You need to be able to pull up the drawbridge': How to make multi-generational living work
Dawn Chorus: Santa's sleigh up for sale, the Royal photographs and sketches going on show, plus our Quiz of the Day
9 December
A Cotswolds manor for sale that one of Henry VIII's wives was granted in her divorce settlement
Eyes wide shut: The art of sleeping
A farmhouse and 200 acres of the Lake District for sale at the same price as a two-bedroom flat in Barnet
8 December
12 magical homes for sale, including a £600k cottage which will make you want to drop everything and move to the country
The trees with fruits so sweet and delectable that badgers have been known to batter their way through iron gates to get to them
What to do when your dog is aggressive towards other dogs while out on a walk
Stationers’ Hall, one of London's best-kept secrets: 'The observant pedestrian might briefly glimpse it through an archway. Most pass by oblivious'
7 December
Kate Bush's former home is for sale — and it’s a minor miracle of Georgian beauty and modern engineering
The original ULEZ-style enforcement? How the Victorians taxed all the coal coming in to London
The Country Life guide to North Cornwall: Where to go, what to see, where to stay and what to eat
Rip it up and start again: RHS Wisley's daring reinvention of one of its most famous plantings
6 December
The happiest places to live in Britain, including the gorgeous town that's 'like living in a Constable painting'
'Fractals are everywhere, even within the human body: our nervous system, blood vessels and the structure of our brain and lungs'
A 27-bedroom dream castle dubbed 'one of the loveliest houses in England', with secret doorways, loggia and gorgeous views
Britain has its own rainforests — and they're disappearing even faster than the ones in Brazil
Carla Carlisle: We've diversified, modernised and compromise — but now we're farming at a loss again for the first time since the 'Great Betrayal'
5 December
The Christmas Carol songbook that changed the sound of Christmas
Want to live like the Grinch? You'll need £125,000 and a new roof
A few of my favourite things: Dame Mary Berry
'I could see puffs of condensed breath as he sang. Suddenly, the world felt fine': The wren, a little mite with a mighty heart
The best house for sale in the world right now, and we're furious that it's not in the UK
4 December
John Lewis-Stempel: Heathland, a place of freedom and unconventionality
Less packaging please, we're British: Why it's only fair for producers to pay for their own recycling
The grand master 'paintings' that are actually the most exquisite floral photographs you'll ever see
The gorgeous English city that's seen the nation's biggest house price rises in 2024
3 December
The grandest townhouse in Britain? A majestic home with Art Nouveau billiard room, ballroom and a spectacular glass dome is up for sale at £2.5 million
Can I just shock you? I quite like the new Jaguar
Country Life 4 December 2024
Jonathan Self: November used to be a month of bleak fields and naked trees; this year we had summer flowers in bloom and ate lunch on the terrace
A five-bedroom West Country house with a heart of glass — and it's just down the road from one of the Cornwall's finest beaches
Killer whales with salmon hats, the secret lives of eels, the Nutcracker and some still lifes
2 December
Champagne with fish and chips, and what to drink at Christmas with Oscar Dodd of Fortnum & Mason
The ultimate Canadian train journey
Georgian precision and symmetry with eight bedrooms in one of Somerset's best villages
PoB Hotels
Dawn Chorus: Churchill's swimming pool, the end of puppy smuggling, Quiz of the Day, and a two tropical islands for the price of one
1 December
11 magical homes, from under £400,000 to £11.5 million, as seen in Country Life
Alan Titchmarsh: Terracotta has been used for flowerpots for 2,500 years — and it's still by far the best thing to pot your plants in
What to do when your dog gets attacked by another dog out on a walk
Into the Woods: The cabins set amid the treetops above the city of Cork
James I's love affair with Apethorpe, the great country house that 'surpasses all belief'