Country Life 5 February 2025
Country Life 5 February 2025 is our travel special with the best places to go in 2025 — plus urban foxes, PG Wodehouse and more.


Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside:
Where foxes are streets ahead
The once-rural Reynard is now thriving in urban Britain and Patrick Galbraith investigates how evolution could be giving Vulpes vulpes a helping hand
The inimitable Wodehouse
Roderick Easdale marvels at the ‘pure word music’ of P. G. Wodehouse, whose aristocratic comedies are still treasured as English-language classics
All I have to do is dream
Nod off with Tree Carr as she investigates what it means when our sleeping hours are filled with enchanting visions of wildlife and the natural world
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London Life
· Giles Kime admires The Goring’s stylish new look
· All you need to know in the capital this month
· Arabella Youens visits the best second-hand markets
Travel
· Richard MacKichan dives into Canada
· Kate Eshelby treks across Pakistan
· Rosie Paterson takes a chance on Italy
· Adam Hay-Nicholls follows in Bond’s tyre tracks in the Swiss Alps
· Rosie Paterson ventures into the US wilderness
· Hetty Lintell selects top travel accessories
· Christopher Wallace relives a Cape Town-to-Cairo adventure
· Pamela Goodman visits a faithful old geyser
Jason Goodwin’s favourite painting
The writer and historian selects a pencil drawing alive with energy
Ruin and rebirth
In the second of three articles, John Goodall tells how Bramham Park in West Yorkshire rose from the ashes of an 1828 fire
The legacy
Octavia Pollock places David Garrick centre stage for his role in revolutionising the theatre
Interiors
The latest lamps and lighting options, with Amelia Thorpe
Pottery winners
Tiffany Daneff talks terracotta with Beth Tarling, a Cornish collector with a passion for flowerpots
Foraging
All flash and no flavour — John Wright pans the scarlet elfcup
Arts & antiques
Carla Passino reveals the tale of the Royal Academy’s Prince and ponders the identity of the sitter for a 16th-century Venus
Let there be light
Matthew Dennison enlightens us on the history of the chandelier from its origins as a candlelit ‘crown of shimmering gold’
Alright, petal
Catriona Gray meets the talented botanical illustrators celebrating 30 years of chronicling Chelsea Physic Garden’s plant collection
And much more
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.
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This elegant Greek villa offers would-be buyers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in the shadow of the Acropolis
Athenian Legacy consists of two houses in walking —and almost touching — distance of one of the world’s most famous and precious landmarks.
By Rosie Paterson Published
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Go Dutch: Understanding the Duke of Wellington’s passion for Dutch art and how to view his collection
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was a terrible Prime Minister, but made up for it by being a sophisticated collector.
By Carla Passino Published