Paula Lester has been running the features desk at Country Life magazine for over a decade. So when His Majesty The King — Prince Charles, as he was at the time — agreed to guest edit the magazine, she was the obvious choice to guide him and his team through the process.
The result, as Paula tells James Fisher on this week's Country Life Podcast, could never have been foreseen: after months of work and literally thousands of emails, the magazine became Country Life's best-selling issue of all time.
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A second guest edit came, and couple of years later The Princess Royal took the helm as well.
Then in 2022, it was the turn of Queen Camilla, while still Duchess of Cornwall, to try her hand at it — and she was desperate to outsell her husband.
Paula talks through those extraordinary experiences, and what it was like to work with His Majesty and Their Royal Highnesses on putting together an issue of the magazine. Everything from commissioning features to arrange a photo shoot carried out by none other than The Duchess of Cambridge (now Princess of Wales) — who phoned Paula while she was at the hairdresser!
As well as the royal guest edits, Paula explains how the magazine's features come together each week, looking at where ideas come from, how they're brought to life, and the amazing team around her who make sure that it happens 52 weeks a year.
Episode credits
- Host: James Fisher
- Guest: Paula Lester
- Editor and Producer: Toby Keel
- Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
- Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn
The behind-the-scenes story of The Duchess of Cornwall's guest-edit of Country Life
The 13 July 2022 edition of Country Life, guest-edited by HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has been a huge effort
Princess Anne's Country Life guest edit: The inside story of putting together a magazine with The Princess Royal
Country Life magazine's Managing Editor Paula Lester worked closely with HRH The Princess Royal to put together the Princess's guest-edited
The Duchess of Cornwall, as photographed by The Duchess of Cambridge for Country Life
The upcoming 13 July 2022 issue of Country Life is being guest-edited by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall — and
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