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For as long as he can remember, the writer and illustrator Aidan Meighan has been inspired by Nature. His early exploits might not have been entirely welcomed by those around him — collecting and storing slugs and snails in a cupboard at school, and stashing a dead adder in a drawer at his parents' home — but they paved the way for a career illustrating the beauty of the natural world, both in words and pictures. Subscribe to the Country Life podcast on Apple PodcastsSubscribe to the Country Life podcast on SpotifySubscribe to the Country Life podcast on Audible We're delighted, then, that with his new book The Folklore of Trees about to appear, Aidan came to join James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast. He talks about some of the 36 varieties of tree that he discusses in his book, the creative freedom of working as both writer and illustrator on a project, and how trees have left their mark on human history — not least in the form of the hill in Rome that owes its existence to the Ancient Roman habit of discarding empty olive oil containers. 'We absolutely could not survive without trees,' says Aidan, 'but trees would easily prosper, if not flourish, without us.. They're like guardians, arboreal guardians, to us, and I really think we ought to show them respect.' Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Aidan Meighan Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Hilder was born to a life in the country. Born in rural Scotland but raised in Hampshire, he went through school always thinking – and being told — that he needed to find a life, and a career, out in the countryside, working with his hands. A chance meeting with a lecturer at Sparsholt College changed his life for good, and put him on a pathway to become (deep breath) the 'Senior Nature-Based Solutions Officer — Practical Delivery' at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. It's comfortably the longest job title of anyone who's yet joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast, but the aim is clear: to make the world around us a better, greener place. Tom talks to James about his life, how he ended up working in the field (literally), and the challenges he's faced — from Shetland ponies and landowners suspicious of his tender years to the 'charismatic adders' found on Hook Common, in north Hampshire. You can find out more about the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust here, and to nominate someone for the 2026 edition of the award Tom won, visit the Schoffel Countryside Awards website. Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Tom Hilder Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

In the heady days of mid-1990s Britain, the actor Adrian Lukis went to a screen test for a glossy new drama: an adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. To an actor, auditions come and go — most don't work out — and having hated the book while at school, he didn't have high hopes. They fell even lower when he bumped in to his rival for the part of Mr Wickham, a dashing man at least 10 years his junior. But Adrian got the part, and his life changed forever thanks to his starring role as Jane Austen's charming rogue — and decades later, he still gets stopped by fans wanting to talk about the greatest adaptation of what is arguably Austen's best novel (and one which quickly won Adrian over upon re-reading it). In the course of those conversations a seed was planted: was Wickham really that bad? How did he get that way, if he was? And are we trusting Mr Darcy's assessment, which might easily be horribly skewed? The result was Being Mr Wickham, Adrian's self-penned one-man show that shares the untold tale of the suave but slippery army officer. Adrian talks about his life, his career and the challenges of writing one of literature's most enduring characters — which even saw him poring over a dictionary Regency-era slang — as well as the perennial appeal of Jane Austen. It's funny, clever and enlightening in equal measure and we hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed talking to him. Being Mr Wickham is on in the Minerva Theatre at the Chichester Festival Theatre from January 20-24 — find out more and get tickets at the theatre's website. Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Adrian Lukis Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What makes Country Life? Country houses, gardens, nature, fine art — and dogs. Right from the first issue of the print magazine in 1897, Man's Best Friend has been right at the heart of Country Life — with that original edition featuring an article on Princess Alexandra and her Borzois. Almost 130 years later, dogs are just as important as ever, and September 2025 saw the publication of Country Life's Book of Dogs, written by our deputy features editor Agnes Stamp. We're delighted that Agnes — who has worked for Country Life for over a decade —was able to join James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about some of the dogs featured in the pages of this handsome tome, from labradors and bull terriers to Great Danes and Dalmatians. Country Life's Book of Dogs is out now (Rizzoli, £50) — and you can read more of Country Life's stories about dogs on the website. Episode Credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Agnes Stamp Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The ancient and noble art of falconry has been practised for thousands of years, but it's rarely been more easily accessible to the curious. Today, there are places across Britain, Ireland and the rest of the world where you can go on a hawk walk — or an an owl prowl — accompanied by an expert guide and a bird of prey, to see for yourself how these majestic creatures fly and hunt. One such expert is Tommy Durcan, a falconer at Ireland's School of Falconry at Ashford Castle — once a home of the Guinness family — and we're delighted that he joined the Country Life podcast to talk to James Fisher about his life and work. From the devastating energy of the hawks to the eerie silence of an owl in full flight, Tommy talks through how he came to work with these amazing creatures. Their astonishing skills and eyesight that goes far beyond that of any human are mixed with surprising fragility, where the slightest mistake during a hunt could cost them their lives. It's fascinating stuff. You can find out more about Tommy and his colleagues — both avian and human — at the Ireland's School of Falconry website. Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Tommy Durcan Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few years ago, Amelia Thomas and her husband packed up their fast-paced lives and moved to a remote farm in Nova Scotia. Faced with a desolate landscape, appalling weather and a husband who — like most Finns — abhorred small-talk, she found herself spending more and more time listening to the animals she cared for in her house and on her farm. And at that point, something magical began to happen: she began to notice and, eventually, understand the many ways in which they were communicating with her. Amelia joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast this week to tell her tale, and explain how she honed her skills — from interviewing world-renowned animal behaviourists, to simply understanding that sitting quietly among animals for a prolonged period can be enough to really begin to understand the messages that we, as constantly on-the-go humans, almost always miss, from the twitch of a horse's ear to the quiet stare of a cat. It's a tale that is fascinating, inspiring and entertaining — and also a little sad, as in the case of one of Amelia's beloved pets who communicated with her as he reached the end of his life. Learning to listen to animals, it turns out, can mean hearing things that you won't always like. Amelia's book about her experience, What Sheep Think about the Weather, is out on November 13 (Elliott & Thompson, £16.99), and is a fascinating read. You can find out more and order a copy here. Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Amelia Thomas Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ten years ago, Stefan Pitman set up SPASE Architects. Right from the start, he realised many of his clients were coming to him with one big problem: they might own beautiful old buildings, but they cost a fortune to run. 'We have really close connections with our clients,' he tells James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast, 'and we talked about what is it like to actually have the responsibility and the upkeep of these old buildings? And that's when, certainly for a number of owners and clients, we very quickly realised that there is a vast cost to keeping these buildings in use, and comfortable, and many of them aren't comfortable because of that. And because of that they fall into a state where they begin to get damp, and then you get some timber decay, and it all starts to snowball a little bit.' Fixing those problems began to become one of the firm's specialities, until one key project which made a huge impact: their work on Athelhampton Manor, where they cut a monthly energy bill that was well into six figures to between £0 and £500, saving over 100 tons of CO2 annually. We're delighted that Stefan was able to join James on the podcast to talk about that project — which won them a string of architecture awards — as well as how the landscape of preserving and insulating old buildings has changed in the last five years, and how the same principles can be applied to almost any building, 'from a two-bed terrace to Hampton Court'. Find out more about SPASE Architects at their website. Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Stefan Pitman Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'When they came to me and said, "do you want to do a book on the Guinness houses?" I leapt at the chance. Because, I've got to tell you, they have some astonishing houses. I mean, some really amazing places.' So says Adrian Tinniswood, who — like the Guinness family houses — is also amazing and astonishing. He's a historian and writer who has enjoyed a fifty-year career writing books about the greatest houses in Britain which manage to be simultaneously scholarly, fascinating and wildly entertaining. Adrian's new book, The Houses of Guinness (Scala, £34), is out at the beginning of November, tying in nicely with the new Netflix series about the Guinness family. 'I don't know if you've seen it, James,' Adrian tells the podcast host, James Fisher. 'It's fascinating. There's very little truth in it, but it's a fascinating piece of TV.' Adrian tells James about how his early studies in literature fell away as he began his career, first with a temporary job working at Sudbury Hall, and then when he read Mark Girouard's Life in the English Country House. 'Still, 50 years later, that book is a bible for me,' Adrian says. 'That just changed the game as far as country houses were concerned.' • Listen to Country Life podcast on Apple Podcasts • Listen to Country Life podcast on Spotify • Listen to Country Life podcast on Audible Adrian goes on to talk through his work, his favourite places and some of the most extraordinary tales of the Guinness family's houses and the colourful characters who inhabited them. He takes us through the early days of cunning business decisions, the wild success of the stout that bears the family name and the philanthropy which ushered them into the corridors of power, right through to the wild parties where the later generations of Guinness heirs rubbed shoulders with The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. It's a wonderful episode, and we hope you enjoy it. Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Adrian Tinniswood Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up in the cityscape of Huddersfield, Amanda Owen was inspired by tales of farming life, from the adventures of James Herriot to the classic Hill Shepherd by John Forder, painting a picture of fell farming that became all she wanted to do. Fast forward to the 2020s and Amanda has become one of the best-known farmers in the country, starting with her Instagram account — where she has over half a million followers as @yorkshireshepherdess — and progressing on to television documentaries and more. While doing all this she has somehow found the time (and energy) to have nine children, keep the farm thriving, write a children's book about farming life, and appear on the Country Life Podcast with James Fisher. Amanda talks to James about her life, her inspiration, her philosophy and what she'd change if she ruled the countryside for a day — and also tells the tale of her new book, Christmas Tales from the Farm, which is out now (Penguin, RRP £14.99). Episode Credits Host: James Fisher Guest: Amanda Owen Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'It's often the most glorious job in the world,' says James Robinson, a farmer in Cumbria whose family have been working the same piece of land since the 19th century. The bad days, though, can be bleak, and when 'you're life's work is disappearing before your eyes' there are days when 'you wish you'd never started farming at all,' James tells the Country Life Podcast this week. • Listen to Country Life podcast on Apple Podcasts • Listen to Country Life podcast on Spotify • Listen to Country Life podcast on Audible It's an utterly fascinating look at the life of a farmer in modern Britain — full of joy and wonder, the beauty of nature and the satisfaction of working organically, with the land, yet also realistic, honest and at times heart-wrenching. Honesty like this — and especially when it comes to facing up to the mental health challenges of being a farmer in Britain in the 21st century — have seen James grow a following online as he works the land with his father and son. And he's now working with the World Wildflife Fund's Prescription for Nature campaign, to help share his story to help others. It's a wonderful episode of the podcast, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. You can find out more about A Prescription For Nature at wwf.org.uk/prescription-for-nature Episode credits Host: James Fisher Guest: James Robinson Editor and producer: Toby Keel Music: JuliusH via Pixabay Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.