Country Life

It's just over two years ago that the journalist Katharine Hay, a year into her new job as rural affairs correspondent for The Scotsman newspaper, had an epiphany.

'98% of Scotland is rural,' she recalls thinking, 'and here I am sitting in the two per cent urban area. It really doesn't feel like I'm doing the role justice.'

What Katharine decided next changed her life: she decided to walk the length and breadth of the country. Armed with a tent, a camping stove, solid support from her editor and a hot water bottle from her mother ('I thought she was mad — it honestly turned out to be the single best thing I took with me'), she set off on what was supposed to be a six-month trek.

2,000 miles and almost two years later, 'Hay's Way' is still going — and probably will be for at least another six months.

'For a woman, or indeed anyone walking alone like this, you're in a very vulnerable situation,' she tells James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast. 'But I've been blown away by the Scottish hospitality everywhere I've been.'

On this wonderful episode Katharine recounts some of her adventures, from the joys of birdsong and red squirrels on sunny, summers day to a terrifying near-death experience climbing back up a cliff after visiting The Old Man of Hoy, and from coming face-to-face with an otter (adorable, if smelly) to a fishing boat trip in the Outer Hebrides that left her with sea legs so bad that she 'couldn't walk in a straight line for two days'.

We can't recommend listening to this episode strongly enough — and to hear more you can sign up for her (free) newsletter on The Scotsman website, read her journalism, or follow her on Instagram or X.

Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Katharine Hay
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's 2006. Tony Blair is the Prime Minister, George W. Bush the US President, the existence of global warming is still up for debate, and a couple of new websites come out of early test versions to open their doors to the world: YouTube and Facebook. Amid all this, in an office on London's South Bank, Mark Hedges takes a new job: Editor of Country Life magazine.

Two decades later, Mark has passed an astonishing milestone: he has edited 1,000 issues of the weekly magazine, the only perfect-bound, weekly glossy magazine in Britain. That's 20 years of magnificent architecture, beautiful houses, exquisite gardens, breathtaking nature, pithy columnists, and lots and lots of dogs — to name but a small selection.

It seemed only fitting, then, that we invite the boss back on to the Country Life Podcast. Mark speaks to James Fisher about his unusual route in to the world of magazines, the unflinching war veteran who taught him the hard way how to polish a headline, the incomparable experience of working alongside HM King Charles, Queen Camilla, The Princess Royal and Sir David Beckham on guest-edited issues of Country Life, and how magazines — and journalism in general — will still have a part to play in an AI-driven future.

It's a fascinating episode which lifts the lid on what it's like to spend decades on a magazine that's become a national institution. We hope you enjoy it.

EPISODE CREDITS
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Mark Hedges
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the last 20 years, the world of whisky has exploded, being transformed beyond recognition.

What was once a croft industry in the Scottish Highlands and Islands has spread around the world. The Scots' craft has spread out across the world, from Ireland and Wales to Japan, India and beyond. In India alone, tens of millions of cases of whisky are made each year. And even the English have been getting on the act.

What's driven the change? How has the craft of whisky-making changed, if at all? And how have we gone from a world where once your grandad laid a few bottles down under the stairs to one in which the world's finest and rarest single malts have become an investment-class commodity?

This week's Country Life Podcast sees James Fisher joined by Kevin Balmforth, cask master at Glenlivet, and Andrew Simpson, international brand ambassador for Chivas Brothers, to talk through all this and more. From the 60-year-old bottle auctioned off at £650,000 to the astonishing image of the six million casks lying in wait for future generations to taste, it's a fascinating listen.

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher
Guests: Kevin Balmforth and Andrew Simpson
Producer and editor: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An off-grid lodge in the Canadian Wilderness? The colourful charm of Germany? A weekend jaunt to New York? Or perhaps a palazzo in Florence?

Rosie Paterson, who is both Country Life's Travel Editor and Digital Content Director, has done all of this and more in 2025, and she joins James Fisher on this week's Country Life Podcast to talk about the best places to go in 2026.

The good news is that Rosie reveals that the new trend in travel — if you can call it that — is actually an anti-trend: instead, it's rejection of 'what you ought to do' in favour of just doing what you want to do.

'We don't really like like the phrase "fly and flop",' says Rosie, 'but everyone should, if they can, take a couple of weeks each year when they can just kick back and do nothing.'

With that in mind, Rosie shares her favourite discoveries, tips and anecdotes from her last 12 months of jetsetting.Enjoy!

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher
Guest: Rosie Paterson
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Country Life's features editor Paula Minchin is a force of nature. Every week she steers her team of editors and writers through the creation of dozens of pages of magazine features, with hardly a glitch and never, ever a missed deadline.

So when Country Life brings in a guest editor — something which has happened five times in the past 12 years — it's Paula who is at the helm alongside our temporary boss. It's a process of helping, guiding, steering, commissioning and editing in tandem with whoever is at the helm, a challenge which has been taken up in the past by Her Majesty Queen Camilla, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, His Majesty The King (twice), and most recently Sir David Beckham.

Paula joins James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast this week to talk about her experiences with these very special issues. The focus is on the eight-month journey with Sir David, from first contact and brainstorming through to the joyous final product, but she also talks about her experiences with our Royal guest editor. It's a fascinating and rare insight into the guest-edits of the magazine that we've been thrilled, delighted and privileged to have worked on.

Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Paula Minchin
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.