Country Life

Here at Country Life, we love the Chelsea Flower Show — and we know you do too.

So we're absolutely delighted to bring you this very special edition of the Country Life Podcast, recorded live in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, with Clive Nichols and Kathryn Bradley-Hole.

Kathryn was Country Life's gardens editor for 18 years until moving on to concentrate on writing, and has a lifetime of experience in the horticultural world — and it's also the 40th anniversary of her first trip to the Chelsea Flower Show.

Coincidentally, Clive has also been coming to SW3 for exactly 40 years. The man dubbed 'the king of garden photography' is a regular contributor to Country Life, and we're thrilled that he's not only taken all our pictures from the show this year, but also appeared on this episode of the Country Life Podcast.

Episode credits
Host: Toby Keel
Guests: Kathryn Bradley-Hole and Clive Nichols
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Back next time: James Fisher
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Britain is full of architectural talent and ideas. So why is our affordable housing in such a state?

'We need to think of unusual sites and then do something special with them,' says the architecture critic and writer Jonathan Glancey, who joins James Fisher on this week's Country Life Podcast.

Making housing better for all of us — not just the privileged few — is at the heart of the discussion between James and Jonathan, just as it's one of the key issues in Jonathan's latest book, Where We Live: The Fractured Art of British Housebuilding and How to Build the Homes We Need, which is out in June 2026.

Jonathan's years of experience and expertise — from his first job at the The Architectural Review to his many years as The Guardian's architecture and design editor — shines through as he talks about everything from the model villages built by the great railway companies of Victorian Britain through to the huge mistakes made in social housing between 1945 and 1990.

He illuminates the topic in fascinating detail, in a talk which is by turns inspiring, depressing and forward-looking. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Where We Live: The Fractured Art of British Housebuilding and How to Build the Homes We Need is published by Icon Books on June 20, 2026 — you can order a copy now from all good bookshops.

Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Jonathan Glancey
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bethany Handley was always an outdoorsy kid. Climbing mountains, crossing rivers or surfing in the sea near her home in South Wales, she lived and worked in the wild, with a job as an outdoor activity instructor.

All that changed in the matter of a few months as illness left her in a wheelchair. Instead of being out and about, she found herself in a rural home where all the paths she once walked were blocked off to her by stiles whose existence she'd once barely noticed.

Yet she has been determined not to let that stop her enjoying nature, doing everything she can to get out in the great outdoors — from surfing on a special board adapted for her by her brother, to getting her partner's help to climb ridges in the Black Mountains.

We're absolutely delighted that Bethany joined James Fisher for this week's instalment of the Country Life Podcast. She tells her story with grace, honesty and humour — a story she's also shared in a new book, My Body is a Meadow: Finding Freedom in the Outdoors, published on May 7, 2026.

Bethany talks about everything from the thoughts that ran through her head as she lay in her hospital bed to the efforts she makes today to campaign for better access to the countryside for the huge number of people in Britain who face problems getting around. It's a fascinating and salutary glimpse into a different life; you'll never take your legs for granted again.

My Body is a Meadow: Finding Freedom in the Outdoors by Bethany Handley is published by Headline — you can order a copy here.

Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Bethany Handley
Producer and Editor: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your grandmother was right: going for a walk really does do you a power of good.

Just how much, though, is something that we're only just beginning to discover — a point made beautifully by the writer and researcher Annabel Streets, who joins James Fisher on this week's Country Life Podcast.

Annabel's book The Walking Cure has been hugely successful, and she spoke to us on the eve of its paperback publication. It's a fascinating talk, ranging from psychological impact of getting up off the sofa to the very real difference that where you walk can make. A walk along the sea front brings a completely different feel to a walk through the woods — and scientists are also discovering that a walk through a city, though stressful in terms of dealing with traffic, can be enormously stimulating in an entirely different way, something which new scientific techniques are beginning to show for the first time.

Annabel also talks about her own walking journeys across the world, and how they've changed her. It's a fascinating talk — and the ideal thing to listen to as you get out and about for a walk near where you live.

Annabel's book The Walking Cure is out now in paperback — see more details. Annabel Streets also writes, and posts on Instagram, as Annabel Abbs — you can follow her here.

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

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

A wise man once said to me, about buying a house, that you ‘have to remember that this is the most money you will spend on anything, ever, so you want to make sure you get it right’. It’s probably best, therefore, to make sure that the people advising you know a thing or two about the market and property, and come loaded with bags of experience about the finer workings of buying and selling your home.

This week, on the Country Life Podcast, I sat down with Oli Custance Baker, head of Strutt & Parker’s National Country House Department, and Sarah Brown, director of Strutt & Parker’s south west region, to chat about houses. Considering this is Country Life, the time felt right.

Boasting decades of experience between them on buying and selling the finest homes in the country, they seemed like the obvious choice to break through the noise and get
some answers on the finer workings of property.

We discussed their careers to date, chuckled at anecdotes on some of the stranger things that have happened during sales, put some myths to the test about the best ways to buy and sell a house, and locked in on why, exactly, having an expert in your corner is the most important thing when it comes to moving home.

This episode of the Country Life Podcast is sponsored by Strutt & Parker. It is produced, as normal, by Country Life and Future. You can watch the video version of the podcast at countrylife.co.uk/podcast
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