Latest from Country Life

Nobody bats an eyelid, but a real-life pirate has just sat down next to me at the Big Sur River Inn — all that’s missing is a hook hand and a parrot perched on his shoulder. Perhaps the nonchalance is because this famous stretch of Californian coastline was once the epicentre of American counterculture, where anything goes.

An artistic retreat that became a hippy have...

‘I was working from home recently with Penny asleep at my feet. I popped into the kitchen to fetch a coffee and a biscuit, only to return a few minutes later to find Penny very much awake and standing on my desk,' says Alexander Atkins. 'They’re full of surprises and never cease to entertain.'

Penny is Alexander's four-year-old Gordon setter. Annabel Brook, w...

Is there a more idyllic home in the Cotswolds for sale right now? This Georgian mill set in a dozen acres...

The Brits — and the Irish — have long enjoyed a love affair with cold-water and wild swimming (though we used to just call it ‘swimming’). Some of our greatest writers, including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron and Keats, drew inspiration from their time spent in the water; The King and Queen reportedly swim in the sea most days when they stay at the Rothschild Estate on the i...

When Henry VIII died at Whitehall Palace in the early hours of January 28, 1547, the Crown passed to his nine-year-old son, Edward VI, and power to a council of individuals named in his will. Only three days later, the leading figures in the new administration took advantage of their position to reward themselves. Their acknowledged leader, Edward Seymour, uncle to the new ...