From royal favourite to stranger’s heir

Discover how the UK’s country houses defied the odds to survive as historic monuments and cultural centres

When COUNTRY LIFE’s Henry Avray Tipping spotted a 17th-century four poster languishing in a Herefordshire attic in 1911, he set off a chain of events that saw the bed leave its ancestral home and land at The Met in New York

Glamis Castle, Angus, part 2 The seat of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

Glamis Castle, Angus, part 1 The seat of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

“ I met Charles Dickens today, except he had clearly been so busy working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood that he had fallen asleep, so I didn’t get to speak to him!” I laughingly proclaimed to Ro when

This year marks the 625th anniversary of The Canterbury Tales author – and “father of English literature” – Geoffrey Chaucer’s death. He penned this classic, about a merry band of medieval pilgrims te