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.
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.
A country house that comes with a parking space for a Harrier jump jet
It really did. Honestly.
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.'
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Norman Foster on the Country Life podcast: 'The Green Belt is one of our greatest inventions'
A true legend — and a true gentleman.
Room with a cru
How an 'enduring legacy of lockdown' became a must-have in interior design.
Inside Madresfield Court, the house that inspired Evelyn Waugh’s 'Brideshead Revisited'
Amazing.
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc: The world's most photographed hotel
'The stuff of legend'.
'One of the most amazing things in this country'
The tower of thorns that makes salt. Somehow.
Curious Questions: Was music's famous 'Lady of the Nightingales' nothing more than a hoaxer?
The amazing story of Beatrice Harrison.
Not cheap... but cheaper than a divorce lawyer'
Why it pays to hire a consultant to choose the perfect paint colour.
'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.
'If you get 12 great photographs a year, you're doing well'
Charlie Waite on the secrets of landscape photography
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.
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.
Lucy Shepherd: Britain's most intrepid young explorer
The adventurer on how she went from rural Suffolk to trekking the Amazon.
What it's really like to live in your own castle
Epic beauty, sweeping grandeur and water pouring through the ceiling.
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.

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.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen: Changing rooms, mixing leather and velvet, and the joy of growing old disgracefully
Our favourite podcast of the year, bar none.
- Listen to Country Life podcast on Apple Podcasts
- Listen to Country Life podcast on Spotify
- Listen to Country Life podcast on Audible
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.
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?"'
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.
-
Picture round: Guess the animal in today's Country Life Quiz of the Day, November 6, 2025In today's quiz we're asking you to guess the names of these lesser-known animals.
-
Bunny Mellon: The Truman Capote ‘Swan’, muse and horticulturalist whose creations for The White House were recently lost foreverAs Tiffany & Co. pay homage to Bunny Mellon with a new Bird on a Rock collection, Owen Holmes takes a look at the most iconic garden designs of this heiress-horticulturist, from her Virginia estate to the White House to Versailles.
-
Picture round: Guess the animal in today's Country Life Quiz of the Day, November 6, 2025In today's quiz we're asking you to guess the names of these lesser-known animals.
-
Remember, remember to take the Country Life Quiz of the Day, November 5, 2025It's a banger.
-
Are you a true gentleman? Take the Country Life quiz to find outManners maketh man. How are yours?
-
This bear welcomes you to the Country Life Quiz of the Day, November 4, 2025Put your mind to the test.
-
By what name is the shallow nest of the hare known? It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, November 3, 2025It's Monday which means we're back with the first Country Life quiz of the week.
-
Get ready to get spooky in the Halloween edition of the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 31, 2025Ghosts, ghouls and ghastly questions lurk in today's quivering quiz.
-
Biscuits, beavers and Bond. It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 30, 2025Test your general knowledge in our penultimate quiz of the week.
-
When did the Titanic sink and other questions. It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 29, 2025Test your general knowledge in Wednesday's quiz.
