Country mouse takes the hotseat

Interviews for the Prince of Wales issue of Country Life saw Mark doing rounds of TV interviews in various studios around London

Country mouse, Country Life magazine
country mouse new

I am a radio listener in the morning, so when I found myself doing the rounds of breakfast television on the day that the issue edited by The Prince of Wales came out, I wasn't sure what to expect. At ITV Studios, they took one look at me and rushed me to makeup, where a kind lady did her best with my sallow complexion. Another layer was added at the next interview and so, by the time the Sky make-up artists had finished with me, I had three layers of blusher and of other substances I know not what.

* Subscribe to Country Life this Christmas and receive a bottle of single malt

My face and cheeks were beaming like burnished tangerines, old scars had been airbrushed into history and I looked a decade younger. The only problem was that, every time I spoke, I felt as if my face was going to fracture into a million pieces.

At the weekend, I drove a pig to Cardiff. My eldest son and his university housemates greeted the arrival of the carcass, an off-cut of Mrs Country Mouse's cheese business, with the sort of glee a toddler has for Father Christmas. If nothing else, university has taught them to appreciate the cost of food.

* Follow Country Life magazine on Twitter

Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.