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What sort of man is King Charles III, and what sort of king will he be?
A brilliant conversationalist, a cracking host and, surprisingly, an excellent actor, Charles III genuinely cares for people and strives to make a difference to their lives. Anna Tyzack speaks to some of those who have crossed his path.
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Curious Questions: Can you really live off the grid in 2022?
The pandemic forced millions of us to re-evaluate where and how we live — and what's important to us. The answer for many was to live off the grid. But can it really be compatible with modern life? Adam Hay-Nicholls tried it out — and spoke to some of those who have made it work.
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Curious Questions: Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?
The rows upon rows of ghoulish, glowing squash down your street can only mean one thing: it’s Halloween. But have you ever stopped to wonder whether a pumpkin is a fruit or a vegetable? Alexandra Fraser investigates.
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Curious Questions: What is a barrow? The burial mounds that pre-date Stonehenge by seven centuries
Long or round, large or small, prehistoric tumuli dot the countryside. Vicky Liddell explores the history, folklore and literary influence of burial mounds or barrows and reveals how they were nearly lost to the 18th-century digging mania.
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Curious Questions: How do sycamore seeds spin?
A chance encounter with Nature's answer to the helicopter prompts Martin Fone to ponder how sycamore seeds managed to fall to earth so gracefully.
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Curious Questions: How did a Swedish lighthouse genius and the 'father of advertising' make the Aga a country house must-have?
No English country house is complete, or so it sometimes seems, without an Aga at the heart of the kitchen — yet it's a Swedish invention whose roots are rooted in a tragic explosion, as Martin Fone discovers.
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Curious Questions: Is there any such thing as coincidence?
Just when you were musing about the nature of coincidences, along comes Martin Fone to explain exactly what they are — and what they aren't.
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Curious Questions: Why is the pork pie associated with Melton Mowbray?
Martin Fone tells the tale of a true British culinary classic: the pork pie.
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Curious Questions: Can ancient technology of wind, water and hot springs help make a sustainable future?
The UK is switching on to a future of home-grown, greener power — and yet this future is drawing on the past. Jonathan Lee revisits the renewable revolution that started right here.
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Curious Questions: Why do the British love to queue?
After a summer of stoic queuing in planes, trains and automobiles, Country Life has identified five reasons why patient queueing is the British tradition that we secretly love to love.
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Curious Questions: Was Captain Webb the first to swim the channel?
Captain Matthew Webb was famously the first man to successfully swim the English Channel — or was he? Martin Fone investigates.
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Curious Questions: What is the world's oldest extant rowing race?
The annual Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race has been a fixture on the sporting calendar of Britain for almost two centuries — but there is a far older example still going, Doggett's Coat and Badge, which boasts an unbroken record of winners for more than three centuries examples. Martin Fone explains.
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Curious Questions: Which came first — the plastic flower pot or the garden centre?
Martin Fone takes a look at the curiously intriguing tale of the evolution of nurseries in Britain.
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Curious Questions: Should you get rid of wasps?
Yes, they're a pain at your summer barbecue, but wasps are also voracious predators of other insects — and some of Nature’s most important pest controllers. Seirian Sumner, author of ‘Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps’, explains a few of the reasons that you might want to hold off calling the pest controller — and, indeed, why you it might be time to start providing wasp nesting houses in your garden, alongside that designer bee hotel.
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Curious Questions: How did the strawberry become the ultimate summer fruit?
Martin Fone tells a tale of fruit, sensuality and espionage as he digs in to the tale of the strawberry we know and love.
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Curious Questions: When did the first passenger jet take off?
'Nowadays we travel to all parts of the globe, often within a day and often without changing planes,' says Martin Fone, as he muses on the birth of commercial air travel exactly 70 years ago.
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Curious Questions: What is it like to sing at a royal coronation in Westminster Abbey?
The choristers at the Coronation are now in their eighties, but recall vividly the day they sang for The Queen, as Andrew Green discovers.
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Curious Questions: What is a crinkle-crankle wall?
The mysterious term crinkle-crankle wall is something you'll see scattered in to architecture books and even property listings. But what are crinkle-crankle walls? Why are they shaped as they are? And who first came up with the idea? Martin Fone explains all.
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What it's like to live in the world's most famous crooked house
A few months ago this irresistibly pretty house in Lavenham, Suffolk, featured on the cover of Country Life. We caught up with Alex and Oli Khalil-Martin, the couple who own and live there, to find out what it's like living in one of the country's — and indeed the world's — most photographed homes.
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Curious Questions: Who invented the Ploughman's Lunch?
Unimaginable as it seems in the era of the gastropub, in the relatively recent past the ploughman's lunch was the only food served at most British pubs — and it was so much a part of agricultural labourers' lives that some even went to court for their right to bread, cheese and pickles. Martin Fone takes a look at the curious tale of the ploughman's lunch.
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Curious Question: Why was the tomato considered to be poisonous?
Martin Fone takes a look at the history of one of our mealtime staples, from its first introduction into Europe in the early 16th century as an exotic plant, to how it ended up on our plates.
