Country Life 16 October 2024
Country Life 16 October 2024 visits Holyrood Palace, tells the 90-million-year tale of the South Downs and looks at carnivorous plants.


Murder on the palace floor
John Goodall charts the rise, fall and rise again of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the Edinburgh landmark’s 900-year history
A nose for Nature
Harnessing the power of a dog’s snout can play a crucial role in protecting curlew, newts and red squirrels, discovers Alexa Phillips
England at its best
Kate Green celebrates the 70th birthday of Exmoor National Park, famed for a beguiling blend of wild beauty and farmed landscape
The hunger games
Find out what happens when the greenery bites back as Deborah Nicholls-Lee develops a taste for Britain’s carnivorous plants
Sarah Bardwell’s favourite painting
The managing director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra chooses a vibrant, glowing work
The legacy
Conservation owes much to Dr Dick Potts, says Kate Green
This perfumed arcadia
The smooth flanks of the Downs are our oldest manmade habitat, suggests John Lewis-Stempel from a lofty perch on Caburn hill
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Meet the tusk force
Paula Lester puts her stalking skills to the test as she sets out in pursuit of Chinese water deer on a Bedfordshire farm
Duck and cover
Harry Pearson hails the dandy, diving eider duck, safeguarded since the time of St Cuthbert
Once upon a time in the west
David Profumo relives the days when the fabled waters of Lewis were seemingly ‘paved with fish’
The good stuff
The advent of autumn calls for richer hues, advises Hetty Lintell
100 Interiors
Matthew Dennison recommends a pediment for a grand flourish
Where her tears fell, asters grew
Michaelmas daisies are among the shining stars of the autumn garden, declares John Hoyland
Natural beauty
Amelia Thorpe selects sculptures to adorn any outside space
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson on parsnips
Foraging
John Wright goes rooting around for the subtle, subterranean flavour of Britain’s native truffles
Gone fishing
This piscatorial profession and pastime has kept artists hooked for centuries, finds Carla Passino
Not to be sneezed at
Snuff taking is nothing to get sniffy about, argues Harry Pearson
She’s got the key, she’s got the secret
James Clarke examines The Secret Garden’s enduring appeal a century after the author’s death
Moving with the times
Michael Billington is spoilt for choice with a run of first nights
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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