Country Life

Beyond the Monarchy and the Church, there is only one building in Britain which is designated with word 'palace': Blenheim Palace.This UNESCO World Heritage Site is beyond any doubt one of the world's greatest, and most famous buildings. It was built to commemorate a famous battle 320 years ago: the victory in the Battle of Blenheim led by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, in which the army of Louis XIV was beaten in what was France's first major military defeat in half a century.Queen Anne was delighted by the outcome, and granted Churchill both the land and the funds to create a grand house which, from the start, was planned as both ancestral home and national monument.Three centuries later, the house and gardens — designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and Capability Brown respectively — are just as magnificent today, and one of the most visited buildings in Britain, with as many as 6,000 people a day visiting.Keeping a great house like this running is no easy feat, as Blenheim's director of operations Emily Spencer explains in this episode of the Country Life Podcast. "It's an ongoing battle," Emily explains of the need to balance restoration, conservation and the needs of visitors, from the £40 million project in place to keep the building standing to towing visitors' cars out of muddy fields.But the efforts are all worthwhile, Emily adds."The second you step across the landscape, it's everything — it all has such a power over you."Episode creditsHost: James FisherGuest: Emily SpencerProducer and editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via PixabaySpecial thanks: Adam Wilbourn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How important an interior designer is Emma Sims-Hilditch? 'In my view, she has almost completely turned the country house aesthetic on its head, and reinvented it for the 21st century,' says Giles Kime, Country Life's Executive Editor and our resident interiors guru. 'She's a great believer in creating houses which are not just elegant, but also function brilliantly and are perfectly configured for family life.' Emma joined Giles for this special episode of the Country Life Podcast to discuss her ideas on design, architecture and making historic houses fit for 21st century living. She talks through several of the projects she's worked on — not least her own. It's a former schoolhouse which she and husband — the designer John Sims-Hilditch of Neptune — took on as a complete wreck while they were still in their 20s, and turned it into a magnificent home. At Country Life, we’ve covered many of Emma's projects over the years — this boot room, for example, and this bedroom — but you can see more of her work at the Sims Hilditch website or on Emma’s Instagram page.Episode creditsInterviewer: Giles KimeGuest: Emma Sims-HilditchHost: James FisherProducer and Editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Green isn't just the Deputy Editor of Country Life magazine. She's also one of the country's foremost equestrian journalists, having worked at four Olympic Games as well as countless other top events around the world.With her book on the 75th anniversary of the Badminton Horse Trials just launched, Kate tells the tale of how the crushing disappointment of the 1948 Olympics paved the way for a resurgence in the sport on these shores, which has led to Britain becoming the home of eventing.Kate joins Country Life Podcast host James Fisher to talk about Badminton, equestrian sport in general and the incomparable magic of the Olympic Games, from being chased by irate security guards while walking the showjumping course in Atlanta to the outpouring of joy shared by fans and competitors alike during the golden weeks of London 2012.Kate's book, Badminton Horse Trials at 75, is published by Quiller (£40) — find out more about it here.Episode credits:Host: James FisherGuest: Kate GreenEditor and Producer: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via PixabaySpecial thanks: Adam Wilbourn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is it all about? It's the question that Man has been struggling to answer since the dawn if human consciousness. And while we all have to figure out our own answer, it's never less than fascinating to hear of others who've found theirs.And in that light, this week's guest on the Country Life podcast is Colin Heber-Percy, a successful screenwriter for film and TV who, in his 40s, stepped away from a lucrative career and retrained to become an ordained minister in the Church of England. Today, Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy is a rural vicar in Wiltshire, and while he still writes — his book Tales of a Country Parish became a bestseller — his main concern nowColin joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about that change of gear in his life, and how hiw foray into the world of the clergy was less a career change and more a way of tying together all the threads of his life. Religion and ‘The Big Questions’ had long permeated his life and his work and, by becoming a vicar, he could truly focus on all of them.Somewhat controversially, he still describes himself as an agnostic — which for a vicar, is quite the claim. Ask him why, and the answer is intriguing — how can you have faith if you claim to know everything? Is not knowing what Easter is really about?Colin also speaks about what he would do if made Archbishop of Canterbury for a day, ponders the questions of medieval metaphysics — really — and, perhaps best of all, explains how the packaging of a Bounty Bar makes for an ideal emergency dog collar.Listen to Country Life podcast on Apple PodcastsListen to Country Life podcast on SpotifyListen to Country Life podcast on Google PodcastsListen to Country Life podcast on AudibleEpisode creditsHost: James FisherGuest: Revd Dr Colin Heber-PercyProducer and Editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via PixabaySpecial thanks: Adam Wilbourn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The award-winning architect Richard Hawkes is no ordinary designer of buildings. He has made his name and forged a career by creating some of the most astonishing new homes build in Britain in the past two decades.He joins James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about the homes he designs, many of which are built under the Paragraph 84 rules, which allow the creation of new homes in rural areas where development would otherwise be forbidden.Richard's own house, centred beneath and around a magnificent arch, was featured in a memorable episode of the Channel 4 TV programme Grand Designs, and he talks about how appearing on the programme played its part in building his reputation.He also tells James about the many factors that come in to play with creating such houses in the countryside — and why he regularly turns potential clients away if he feels the land in question is simply too important, ecologically speaking, to build on.The greatest tribute of all? Not a single one of the homes he and his team have built has ever come back on to the market, each one instead still being lived in by the clients for whom he built it in the first place.Episode creditsHost: James FisherGuest: Richard HawkesProducer and Editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via PixabaySpecial thanks: Adam Wilbourn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Millie Pilkington is one of Britain's best-known portrait photographers, with her work regularly appearing in Country Life as well as dozens of other publications.We were truly delighted that she joined James Fisher on the Country Life podcast this week to talk about life behind the lens. She talks about how she turned a hobby in to a dream career, one in which she has dealt with everything from incorrigible dogs to taking private family pictures for the Prince and Princess of Wales.The secret of a good photograph, she explains, isn't just technical — it's emotional. 'Yes, you want to have nice light, you want to have a nice composition, you want to think about how all of this marries together, how it's going to draw people in,' she says. 'But actually the real thing that takes a photograph to a different level is this mood, this emotion, this spirit. And if you can connect with whoever you're photographing, you might not have the perfect crop, or the perfect light, or the perfect something. But that photograph, if it talks to you in some way, if it brings an emotion to you, then you've got some home of someone else feeling that too.'You can see more of Millie's work on Instagram and at her website, milliepilkington.co.uk.Episode creditsHost : James FisherGuest: Millie PilkingtonProducer and Editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via PixabaySpecial thanks: Adam Wilbourn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Country Life's Gardens Editor Tiffany Daneff is one of Britain's foremost gardening journalists, having worked at titles including The English Garden and The Daily Telegraph, where she launched the gardening supplement.But while she's spent years writing about other people's gardens, this time she talks about her own outside spaces in this very special episode of the Country Life Podcast. From the people who influenced her love of plants and gardening in her formative years to the friends and colleagues who she now relies on to help her create her own perfect garden, she tells host James Fisher all about this great passion of her life.You can read Tiffany's writing about gardens on the website at countrylife.co.uk/gardens, where you'll also find tips and advice from Alan Titchmarsh, Mark Diacono and many other wonderful plantsmen and women.Episode creditsHost: James FisherGuest: Tiffany DaneffProducer and Editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH on PixabaySpecial Thanks: Adam Wilbourn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the past eight years, the Country Life Top 100 has been the essential list when it comes to finding the best architects, builders, interior and garden designers in the UK. The list is the brainchild of our Interiors Editor Giles Kime, who has used his decades of experience to showcase two of our nation’s great talents — architecture and design.Giles joins James on the podcast for a second time, becoming the first returning guest, to discuss the history of the Top 100, what it takes to be included, who chooses what and, most importantly, why a list such as this one matters.Country Life has had a rich tradition of promoting and maintaining our built heritage, dating from the magazine’s inception in 1897, when we were early champions of now-legendary names such as Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. As Giles points out, the Top 100 is more than just a directory, it’s a list designed to inspire and elevate the next generation of artisans and craftspeople. Perhaps someone in our list will be the next Edwin Lutyens or Gertrude Jekyll? While a lot has changed between 1897 and now (materials, sustainability implications, styles), one thing will always remain, says Giles, and that is timelessness. Not to be confused with ‘tradition’, Giles adds that ‘what is exciting about the best houses being built or restored today is that, increasingly, they combine desirable qualities both from the past and the present’. It’s that principle that has guided the best country house design and, by extension, those included on our list.By beginning with functionality, with things that work for people in terms of comfort and practicality, timeless design grows outwards into a style and approach that is less likely to date. Timelessness is creating and restoring buildings ‘with a capacity to evolve as needs change’. You can find the Country Life Top 100 in the magazine on March 6, 2024, or on our website at www.countrylife.co.ukEpisode CreditsHost: James FisherGuest: Giles KimeProducer and editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We tend to think of the British countryside as rural idyll, a patchwork of fields, farms and forests, rolling on through time until rudely interrupted by the building of a new housing estate, a dual-carriageway or some other man-man incursion. But the landscape around us is changing constantly, has always been doing so, and always will. Fiona Stafford, professor of English at Oxford University, joins the Country Life podcast this week to talk about how, and why, we fail to recognise those shifts. Even in the space of a generation or two, vast changes can take place that we scarcely think about: from swamps drained and reservoirs created to the hundreds of Second World War airfields which once dotted so much of Britain, and which how have mostly been turned to other purposes. And how about the River Humber, crossed by a mighty suspension bridge which feels as if it will be there forever; yet the Solway Firth was once spanned by a spectacular Victorian viaduct of which almost nothing now remains. When we talk about conservation, then, what are we conserving? If the landscape is being constantly made and re-made, how are we to say which particular moment in time we're trying to return it to? The countryside, after all, is a workplace, not a museum. Fiona tackles these ideas in her new book, Time and Tide: The Long, Long History of Landscape, and we're delighted that she was able to join our podcast host James Fisher to discuss this fascinating topic.Episode creditsHost: James FisherGuest: Professor Fiona StaffordProducer and editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via PixabaySpecial thanks: Adam Wilbourn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Helen Rebanks went from farmer, wife and mother to publishing sensation last year when her first book, The Farmer's Wife, earned huge success and a legion of fans — not least the likes of bestselling author Raynor Winn and Times columnist Caitlin Moran. Her bestselling tale of everyday life on the Cumbrian farm which she runs alongside husband James is a wonderfully honest look at the ups and downs of what it means to raise — and feed — a family while keeping a roof over everyone's heads. In this edition of the Country Life podcast, Helen joins host James Fisher to talk about her life in the country, and how her youthful ideals were shaped and changed as her life unfolded. She is completely candid about how she swapped a life in the city that was 'quite often very lonely, quite often very empty', to return to the country and live a quieter life which has proven immeasurably meaningful. 'I've been very proud, happy, content, fulfilled doing the work I do,' she says. 'Not to say it's easy, or that there aren't hard times... but I think writing it was reflecting on the choices I've made.'Helen also talks with huge passion about the importance of farming, sustainability and the environment, particularly as farmers themselves are squeezed by supermarkets, government policy and a market saturated with low-quality, imported produce. 'After Brexit we had an opportunity to make things better in this country, but it's got worse and worse and worse,' she says. 'There isn't enough value put on the importance of healthy food and healthy environment together.' Helen's book, The Farmer's Wife, is out in paperback on 29 February, 2024, (Faber, £10.99). Episode creditsHost: James FisherGuest: Helen RebanksProduced and editor: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.