Victoria Marston

The 1,000-year-old sweet chestnut tree you'll find in the Cotswolds — and what to do if you have a younger example near your home

Tis the season to roast sweet chestnuts.

A taste of the exotic: the strangest animals roaming the British Isles

Thanks to escapees from private collections and zoos, hitchhikers and releases of inconvenient pets, followed by the breeding efforts of these resilient species, the British Isles are now home to all kinds of exotic fauna not at all native to these shores.

Do you know your apple-catchers from your tittamatorter? Take a crash course in the UK's local languages

With experts warning that regional accents could disappear within decades, our sometimes quaint and, often, bizarre dialect words are becoming ever-more precious.

The changing face of Britain's favourite dogs, decade by decade

Partial to a poodle? Loopy about labradors? Cuckoo for cocker spaniels? You are not alone, says Victoria Marston, as she discovers the nation’s favourite dog breeds, decade by decade, using figures from the Kennel Club.

The 2023 Country Life Editor's Christmas Quiz: The Answers

All the answers to Country Life's 2023 Christmas Quiz.

The 2023 Country Life Editor's Christmas Quiz

Test your festive knowledge with Country Life's biggest quiz of the year, as compiled by Victoria Marston.

F Zeen hotel review: Reconnect, recharge and rejuvenate at this adults-only wellness retreat in Kefalonia

Looking for somewhere to live out your 'New Year; new me' mantra? Then follow in the footsteps of Victoria Marston who discovers a perfect break from reality on the Greek island of Kefalonia.

The Country Life nature picture quiz for Easter: Can you name the animals and their babies?

How is your countryside knowledge? Our nature picture quiz will test you out.

Take the Country Life Editor's Christmas Quiz for 2021

Try your luck at the Editor's Christmas Quiz — the answers will be published in a separate piece on Boxing Day.

A weekend at the Newlyn School of Art: 'You'll find yourself studying breaking waves, changing colours and shifting light in a whole new way'

The famed art school on the tip of Cornwall promises to help anyone improving how they paint. We sent Victoria Marston along to put them to the test.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Winter's least appropriate shoes, a bed of rare glory and an everything-proof mobile for adventurers or the incurably clumsy

Every week in this little slot, we lament the nastiness out in the world and suggest that you alleviate some of that negativity with something to make you smile. This week's selection comes from Victoria Marston and Toby Keel — enjoy.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A watch that's older than planet earth, the ultimate bowl for tasteful dogs and saving the planet via the medium of cashmere

If Nero were alive today, he wouldn't have fiddled while Rome burns — he'd have bought stuff off the internet. And this is the page he'd have come to in order to help make his choices, where he'd have found the weird and wonderful as picked out by Victoria Marston and Toby Keel.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: The ultimate face mask, salvation for bored dogs and saving the world, one coffee capsule at a time

Well all be wearing face masks for a long time yet, so in a shockingly topical twist to Utterly Inessential we have one that fits the brief of design-overkill quite magnificently — as well as our usual mix of wonders. Victoria Marston is your guide.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Tea for one, gin for anyone, and the solution for a ponging pooch

Victoria Marston guides us through this week's collection of wonders, where every whim of fussy humans and even fussier dogs is taken care of.

Utterly Inessential: A pile of dogs, a bee that can open a beer and the bag which fires tennis balls at unwanted intruders (really)

Victoria Marston outdoes herself this week with a collection of quite spectacularly non-critical things which, somehow, you'll still want to buy.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A new take on a 1980s classic, an answer to bad hair days and a foolproof present for an overgrown boy

What not to buy this week. (Unless you really like it.)

The Kent Downs AONB: One of Mother Nature's works of art, from the famous White Cliffs to the wildlife of the Garden of England

Victoria Marston takes a look at the magnificently beautiful Kent Downs AONB.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Pictish gin, Cotswolds veg, and the mice you want in your kitchen

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Cheese by the wheel-load, ducklings by post and sticky ginger pudding

There's a corner of the internet where the only rule is that things must be lovely — and you just found it. Victoria Marston will be your guide.

Curious Questions: Why can women 'only' propose on the 29th February?

It's 2020, and women can propose whenever and wherever they want. But where did this strange tradition come from? Ladies, gather your red petticoats and Poundland rings – Victoria Marston is here to clear things up a bit.