Country Life

Published by TI Media Limited Country Life, the quintessential English magazine, is undoubtedly one of the biggest and instantly recognisable brands in the UK today. It has a unique core mix of contemporary country-related editorial and top end property advertising. Editorially, the magazine comments in-depth on a wide variety of subjects, such as architecture, the arts, gardens and gardening, travel, the countryside, field-sports and wildlife. With renowned columnists and superb photography Country Life delivers the very best of British life every week.

Miss Iona Rangeley-Wilson • Iona is a writer and the author of the award-winning children’s series ‘Einstein the Penguin’. She is the daughter of Charles and Dr Victoria Rangeley-Wilson of Thornham, Norfolk, and her new book, Cecily Sawyer: How To Be a Spy, is out tomorrow (June 19).

Take it to art

Country Life

How does your garden grow?

Town & Country Notebook

Stuff & nonsense

Letters to the Editor

Water isn’t everywhere

Athena • Cultural Crusader

My favourite painting Baron Patten of Barnes

God blew the bellows • This year is the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of Northampton. John Goodall looks at the determined response to this disaster and the rebuilding of the town

The legacy Samuel Courtauld and his Institute

Pup goes the easel • Offering unquestioning affection as well as a source of inspiration, the canine muse really is the artist’s best friend, discovers Agnes Stamp

Eat your art out • Paintings have never looked so delicious. Tom Parker Bowles selects five pictures with gastronomic appeal and imagines the recipes to go with them, as Carla Passino investigates the stories behind the art

Sting when you’re winning • After a close encounter with some wasps put him in hospital, William Kendall sought an unlikely remedy

Going for gold • So wondrous to witness that we often simply imagine we have seen one, the golden eagle embodies the spirit of the Highlands, but is happily progressing south once again

The bhais are back in town • India is a constellation of cricketing brilliance. James Fisher wonders how brightly their new stars will shine

Into the blue • Hetty Lintell falls for the allure of azure blue and picks some lapis-lazuli jewellery you’ll want to dive into

Vivat Victoriana! • The restoration of a terraced Cornish cottage offers an insight into a restrained style of 19th-century decoration that is enjoying a renaissance, finds Giles Kime

The lure of the land • Glorious landscapes from Ayrshire to Devon form a backdrop to three versatile estates

Vintage vaults • Wine cellars protect bottles from the destructive elements of heat, light and oxygen. Here is a selection of shapes, sizes and states of decoration, found by Arabella Youens

All rosy in the garden • Val Bourne finds the award winning-roses flourishing at this historic garden, now in the hands of the latest in many generations of the same family

Remember childish things

Put a ring on it • As versatile as it is simple to prepare, squid lends itself to all manner of delicious kitchen globetrotting, as long as you don’t overcook it, says Tom Parker Bowles

It’s all gravy • Homemade might be best, but let’s be honest: we all have a jar of Bisto in the back of the cupboard, says Rob Crossan

En garde! A brief history of duelling • Settling a dispute with swords, pistols and, if legend is to be believed, sausages and guitars, has long been a matter of honour even among modern-day rock stars, discovers John F. Müller

Renaissance (wo)man • Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, bargained, cajoled and went behind her family’s back to get what she...