Christmas stamps, as featured on this year’s COUNTRY LIFE Advent calendar cover, are a cherished annual event– but how did they become one? Emma Hughes investigates

Technological improvements have unrecognisably changed much of the global economy in the last 30 years. But one area that remained steadfastly stuck in the past is one of the most fundamental parts of

“All government leaders know what to do. They just don’t know how to get re-elected if they do it.” Jean-Claude Juncker, the former president of the European Commission, said little of note in his pol

Throughout history, the “workings of money have rarely been understood”, says Stephen Pimentel. The Medici of Florence, the family that ruled the city and, later, Tuscany for most of the period from 1

If a foreign power – or aliens – wanted to wreck our economy, why waste time and money on firepower? All they would have to do is cut off our access to funny-money credit. Auto sales would stop. House

Q What is the coldest winter the UK has experienced? A In more recent times the Met Office points to the winter of 1963, which was the coldest since 1740, with temperatures dropping to as low as -20°C