Country Life's 20 favourite stories of 2024, from elephants and explorers to the country house that came with a free Harrier Jump Jet

Over the Christmas period we'll be featuring some of the best stories of the year from the Country Life website.

Horsepower with go-faster stripes: Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild (1868-1937) pictured with his zebra-drawn carriage.
Horsepower with go-faster stripes: Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild (1868-1937) pictured with his zebra-drawn carriage.
(Image credit: The Natural History Museum / Alamy)

Most of these will be based on the number of our readers who read each individual article — but this piece is our team's selection of our favourite articles: the ones that made us smile, or laugh out loud, or count our blessings, or sprang a surprise. Enjoy!

How (not) to fix up a country house, by our interiors guru Giles Kime

'Ignore your friends, take a long view and steer clear of anything that smacks of being fashionable'. Sage advice.

Read the full article.


A country house that comes with a parking space for a Harrier jump jet

It really did. Honestly.

Read the full article.


Alan Titchmarsh: Wordsworth was dead wrong about lonely clouds — but he was on to something with daffodils

'As any resident of Cumberland and Westmorland knows only too well, no cloud in the Lake District is ever lonely.'

Read the full article.


Norman Foster on the Country Life podcast: 'The Green Belt is one of our greatest inventions'

A true legend — and a true gentleman.

Read the full article.


Room with a cru

How an 'enduring legacy of lockdown' became a must-have in interior design.

Read the full article.


Inside Madresfield Court, the house that inspired Evelyn Waugh’s 'Brideshead Revisited'

Amazing.

Read the full article.


Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc: The world's most photographed hotel

'The stuff of legend'.

Read the full article.

Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc, Antibes, the timeless destination that is our travel editor Rosie Paterson's favourite hotel in the world. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) .
(Image credit: Getty Images)

'One of the most amazing things in this country'

The tower of thorns that makes salt. Somehow.

Read the full article.


Curious Questions: Was music's famous 'Lady of the Nightingales' nothing more than a hoaxer?

The amazing story of Beatrice Harrison.

Read the full article.


Not cheap... but cheaper than a divorce lawyer'

Why it pays to hire a consultant to choose the perfect paint colour.

Read the full article.


'Sometimes I like to think I have my finger on the pulse when it comes to design and fashion. I am incorrect' 

We sent James Fisher to one of Europe's biggest street parties. Chaos ensued.

Read the full article.


'If you get 12 great photographs a year, you're doing well'

(Image credit: Charlie Waite)

Charlie Waite on the secrets of landscape photography

Read the full article.


The ship that was in two different centuries, two different years, two different months, two different days and two different seasons, all at the same time

Mind-bending.

Read the full article.


I loved it like a best friend, and shed a tear when it was finally consigned to the great junkyard in the sky'

Country Life's team on our first cars.

Read the full article.


Lucy Shepherd: Britain's most intrepid young explorer

The adventurer on how she went from rural Suffolk to trekking the Amazon.

Read the full article.


What it's really like to live in your own castle

Epic beauty, sweeping grandeur and water pouring through the ceiling.

Read the full article.


Curious Questions: We used to fly cars across the English Channel in 20 minutes — why did we stop?

Martin Fone on the long-forgotten cross-channel air service.

Read the full article.


Breaking the fourth wall: How Country Life's interiors editor redesigned and restored his own home

Nothing like seeing a design journalist who has put his money where his keyboard is.

Read the full article.


Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen: Changing rooms, mixing leather and velvet, and the joy of growing old disgracefully

Our favourite podcast of the year, bar none.

Read the full article.


St Moritz and the slopes of hazard: How a Victorian bet sparked the Swiss resort's love affair with adrenaline-pumping winter sports

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday snow.

Read the full article.


Zebras, lobsters, lions and Ronald Reagan's baby elephant: The strangest pets in history

'The sales assistant answered Reagan’s call, listened politely to the request, then without skipping a beat enquired, "And would that be African or Indian, sir?"'

Read the full article.

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.

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