
Toby Keel
Toby Keel is Country Life's Digital Director, and has been running the website and social media channels since 2016. A former sports journalist, he writes about property, cars, lifestyle, travel, nature and more.
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Secrets from the world of whisky, from the 60-year-old bottle that sold for £650,000 to the tipple you get at the supermarket
In our last episode of 2025, James Fisher is joined on the Country Life Podcast by Kevin Balmforth and Andrew Simpson.
By Toby Keel Published
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Country Life's top 10 property articles of 2025, from the homes of JFK and Alan Titchmarsh to the castle for sale for the first time in 700 years
We look back at the most popular property articles of 2025 on the Country Life website.
By Toby Keel Published
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Four homes fit for Father Christmas, from dream chimneys and reindeer stables to a house — with sleigh parking — on North Pole Road
It's the time of year when we stop and wonder what Father Christmas is doing to get ready for his big day — and just as importantly, the sort of house he'd need to live in to prepare.
By Toby Keel Published
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The Christmas sales reach the property market: Six beautiful houses that have had their prices reduced
From the Kent coast and the hills of Dorset to a bona fide country house just 20 minutes from central London, these fine homes have all had recent price cuts.
By Toby Keel Published
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New Place Manor is actually 700 years old — look inside this magnificent medieval home in Sussex
Never has a descriptor been so inaptly used as the 'new' in New Place Manor, a glorious old home in the countryside on the edge of Pulborough.
By Toby Keel Published
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A Cotswolds cottage so perfect it's the stuff of movie fantasy — with a Hollywood A-list asking price to match
This gorgeous, 14th century home is probably the prettiest cottage we've seen all year. It's also one of the most expensive — though there's a very good reason for that, as Toby Keel found out.
By Toby Keel Published
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Spectacular Scottish castles and estates for sale
A look at the finest castles, country houses and estates for sale in Scotland today.
By Toby Keel Last updated
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Where should you go in 2026? Anywhere that you can just kick back and relax
Country Life's Rosie Paterson joins the podcast.
By Toby Keel Published
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An immaculate Georgian rectory where the halls really have been decked in boughs of holly
Stour Provost Manor is a gorgeous riverside home for sale in Dorset that's been dressed for Christmas.
By Toby Keel Published
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18 beautiful houses for sale, from a home counties dream to a private island with its own castle, as seen in Country Life
We take a look at some of the best houses to come to market via Country Life this week.
By Toby Keel Published
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Turn left at the most remote village on the British mainland
This self-sufficient dream home is for sale at £395,000, and if you don't fall in love with it too then I don't know if we can ever be friends.
By Toby Keel Published
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'We’re in the golden era of family life': The rather lovely accidental up-side of the wildly spiralling cost of housing
House prices have massively outstripped rises in average income in the last few years, according to new research — yet it's not all bad news. Toby Keel reports.
By Toby Keel Published
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Property with potential: Renovation projects for sale, starting from just £170,000
From Cumbrian cottages and grand country houses down on their luck, these homes will fire your imagination.
By Toby Keel Published
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The King, The Queen, David Beckham and me: Paula Minchin on Country Life's best guest edits
Country Life's Paula Minchin talks about the magazine's high-profile guest edits on the Country Life Podcast.
By Toby Keel Published
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18 country houses across Britain, from £400,000 to £4 million, as seen in Country Life
Our look at the homes to come to the market via Country Life this week picks out a charming Kent cottage and an Arts and Crafts house in Leicestershire.
By Toby Keel Published
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Can you buy happiness? The latest list of Britain's happiest places, and what you could end up with if you moved there
Can you buy happiness? Of course not, but you can buy a nicer house in a better town... and, well, that's probably going to help quite a bit.
By Toby Keel Published
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It'd be crazy to buy this 500-year-old farmhouse just because of its utterly gorgeous Aga — so thank goodness that the rest of this place is also really nice
Perry Mill Farm is an immaculate yet characterful four-bedroom dream home in the country at a price that will make city dwellers immediately start Googling 'working from Worcestershire'.
By Toby Keel Published
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Why don't more of us live in brightly coloured homes?
It's not often that you see a home sporting the colour palette that you'd get if you hired a four-year old as your interior designer. But why not? The Blue House in Bethnal Green asks this and many more questions.
By Toby Keel Published
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Five magnificent mansions, from a former monastery to an Art Deco wonder in the South Downs, as seen in Country Life
Wonderful homes, including a superb beach home in Cornwall, all fresh on the market via Country Life.
By Toby Keel Published
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A 14-bedroom 'miniature Downton Abbey' to call your own — and there's not a penny of Mansion Tax to be paid
Norton Manor is an incredible period home that's on the market for £1.3 million.
By Toby Keel Published
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A country home that comes with a perfect lifestyle business: one of Britain's oldest vineyards
Astley Vineyard in Worcestershire, and the lovely house that it comes with, are looking for a new owner.
By Toby Keel Published
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Magna Carta Island for sale on the Thames, complete with the stone tablet on which Magna Carta itself is said to have been sealed
This beautiful house on a private island on the River Thames isn't just a charming home — it's one with an extraordinary tale to tell.
By Toby Keel Published
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The Mansion Tax is here: Who will be hit, when and for how much
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has announced that the mansion tax will come into force in England and Wales from April 2028.
By Toby Keel Published
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Jane Austen's greatest scoundrel: Being Mr Wickham, with Adrian Lukis
The actor Adrian Lukis, who played the role of Mr Wickham in the iconic 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, joins the Country Life Podcast.
By Toby Keel Published
