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Unputdownable: The books you wish you had been given for Christmas
Country Life's reviewers name the books that have most absorbed them this year, with topics ranging from grey partridges to cricket, rock music, wolves and medieval history, plus the most diverting fiction.
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The racehorse trainer: 'Christmas Day is the only day of the year that I actually ride a horse'
Kate Green meets Philip Hobbs and Johnson White, in our series on the people who make Christmas in the country the joy it is, to discover how racehorses are looked after even when everyone else is inside with turkey and mince pies.
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The award-winning cook who makes 5,000 Christmas puddings a year, every single one of them by hand
Kate Green talks to Wizz Gambier, the woman who lives and breathes Christmas puddings, in our series on the people who make Christmas in the country the joy it is.
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The cathedral choirmaster: 'The thing I love about the Christmas repertoire is the mix of modern and ancient'
Today's piece in our series on the people who make Christmas in the country sees Kate Green meet Tim Parsons at Wells Cathedral.
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La Fantaisie hotel review: A boutique hotel in the atmospheric Faubourg Montmartre area of Paris
Kate Green enjoys the charming ambience of La Fantaisie, the perfect spot from which to explore the hip 9th arrondissement.
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The Christmas Carol songbook that changed the sound of Christmas
Kate Green takes a look at the musical legacy of Sir David Willcocks through his book Carols for Choirs.
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John McCrae: The solider, surgeon and poet whose words inspired the Poppy Appeal
John McCrae's beautiful words written amid the horrifying bloodshed of the First World War linked the poppy and remembrance for ever more. Kate Green tells his story.
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Opinion: The doom-laden terminology of conservation campaigners is dragging us down — it's time we embraced some optimism
We’re not perfect, says Kate Green, but nor are we bottom of the class — and it's time we embraced that.
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The Legacy: Arthur Hobhouse and the creation of our national parks
Legendarily beautiful, Hobhouse chaired the committee that prepared the legislation to create national parks in 1949, with the first, the Peak District, established in 1951.
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Burghley Horse Trials preview: From Paris, with love
British equestrian sport is riding high post-Olympics and next month’s Defender Burghley Horse Trials, which has attracted an illustrious entry, should show it in its best light.
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Rarer than pandas: Meet the native breeds that have a crucial role to play in food security and conservation
Some treasured native farm animals have fallen dangerously low in numbers. Kate Green meets the breeders keeping the flame alive.
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The Legacy: Godfred Baseley, the man who invented The Archers
We take a brief look at the life and inspiration of the man behind the world's longest running radio serial.
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Reaching Olympian heights: 10 moments which define the original spirit of The Olympics
As the Olympic games begins this weekend, Country Life looks back to moments that were inspired by the ideals of Faster, Higher, Stronger and Together.
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The world's most beautiful theatre, and the visionary who created it with manual labour 'plus a few sticks of dynamite'
Kate Green tells the story of the extraordinary Minack Theatre, carved by hand into a Cornish cliffside.
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The key countryside issues in the 2024 general election — and what all the main parties say about them
Promises, promises... With a week to go to the General Election, we compare and contrast the party manifestos on some of the issues that affect rural life. Kate Green reports.
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Sir Peter Scott: the Olympic sailor, national glider-flying champion and Second World War veteran who became the father of wildfowl conservation
As well as helping found the WWF and designing its panda logo, he also took part in a hunt to find the Loch Ness Monster.
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The seven greatest winners in the history of the Badminton Horse Trials
The Badminton Horse Trials, the oldest competition of its kind in the world, celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2024. Kate Green chooses seven heroic winners in its history.
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Everything you could ever want to know about Badminton, 'the most important and most typically English' eventing competition in the world
In the latest edition of The Legacy, we look at the 10th Duke of Beaufort who, so disgusted at Britain's eventing performance at the 1948 Olympics, decided to set up his own competition at his home at Badminton.
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Rare-breed poultry and pigs on the decline according to latest Rare Breed Survival Trust Watchlist
Avian flu combined with higher input prices has had a damaging effect on Britain's native poultry populations, according to the RBST.
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The Legacy: Philip Wayre, the man who saved the otter
The heartwarming tale of how this film-maker and naturalist restored the otter to English rivers.
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The woodpecker's maracas and the duets of owls: Why Nature is the unbeatable soundtrack of Spring
The unmistakable sounds of the world coming awake after winter are enough to put a smile on our faces, even when the skies are still grey and the fields still damp.
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Who was the original Jack Russell who gave his name to one of Britain's favourite dog breeds?
Kate Green takes a look at the the legacy of Revd John Russell, the man who gave his name to the Jack Russell and Parson Russell terriers.
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The Legacy: Miriam Rothschild, the pioneer of organic and wildflower gardening
The celebrated entomologist and Bletchley Park codebreaker was also way ahead of the times when it came to gardening.
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The 10 most romantic declarations of love in film and literature
Kate Green takes a look at the ten most romantic movie moments and literary declarations of love.
