The sign of four

Explore the age-old tradition of carrying a little magic with you…

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

BOOST your chances of WINNING

Our round-up of the funny, fascinating and unusual stories this fortnight

Galls, which can range from the delicately beautiful to hideously unattractive bulbous growths, are among Nature’s most intriguing phenomena, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee

From its not-so-humble beginnings in London via a stint in the trenches and star turns on the Paris catwalks, the king of the boot room has been on an extraordinary journey, finds Deborah Nicholls-Lee