Curious Questions: Who wrote the Happy Birthday song?
There are few things less pleasurable than a tuneless public rendition of Happy Birthday To You, says Rob Crossan, a century after the little ditty came into being
There are few things less pleasurable than a tuneless public rendition of Happy Birthday To You, says Rob Crossan, a century after the little ditty came into being
Burns Night has been celebrated for well over 200 years – here's everything you need to know about celebrating Scotland's national poet.
Once a time of merriment when rules were subverted, Twelfth Night has long since lost its sparkle, says Vicky Liddell, as she digs into the colourful past of the Feast of Fools and finds that some traditions live on.
Ian Morton explores the runaway success of the Dickens Christmas classic and reveals the 'real' Ebenezer Scrooge, who was far from a mean man.
Aled Jones speaks to Country Life about his favourite Christmas carols and Christmas traditions.
Patrick Galbraith has a night to remember.
The Country Life Index of articles is all articles published by Country Life, since 1897, in one place.
Country Life's cultural crusader Athena takes a look at the thorny issue of live music ticket prices — and how the habits of concert-goers today show that the struggles of classical music and opera to find an audience run far deeper than mere cost.
Not all heroes wear capes, some are more likely to put on the wrong trousers and ask their dog if he wants ‘more cheese’. Harry Pearson meets Wallace and Gromit, two of our best-loved Plasticine characters.
The Proms are a great British institution and a remarkable success story, says Country Life's cultural commentator Athena.
Revellers in ball gowns and dinner jackets, turning up on board £200,000 boats to dance and party while knocking back magnums of vintage champagne? It can only be the extraordinary Henley Festival, the high-end musical extravaganza that's a sort of Glastonbury-on-Thames for the (very) well heeled. We sent Emma Earnshaw along to see what it was like.
Amid the sweet chestnuts, walnuts and cobnuts of a Suffolk farm, a natural amphitheatre has been transformed into a glorious sylvan venue for touring companies to tread Nature’s boards. Jo Cairdv pays a visit to the mesmerising Thorington Theatre, and picks out three more of the finest outdoor performance venues in Britain.
Amid the sweet chestnuts, walnuts and cobnuts of a Suffolk farm, a natural amphitheatre has been transformed into a glorious sylvan venue for touring companies to tread Nature’s boards, finds Jo Caird.
William Shakespeare wasn’t only the greatest playwright of our history, he was an avid ornithophile, a green man and a master of transposing the true power of Nature onto the page, says John Lewis-Stempel.
Henrietta Bredin, deputy editor of Opera magazine, shares her tips on how to make the most of the outdoor opera season in Britain this summer.
As Elton John’s Rocket Records celebrates its 50th anniversary, former NME editor Steve Sutherland remembers the very boozy launch party, held in the unlikely, but charming Cotswolds setting of Moreton-in-Marsh.
From a sentence born of an exhausting teaching job, J. R. R. Tolkien crafted a series of fantastical novels that, 50 years on from his death, still loom as large in our imagination as Sauron’s all-seeing eye, says Matthew Dennison.
London and the South of England have long been the primary beneficiaries of Arts funding, but is the Government’s latest plan to ‘level up’ actually doing the opposite? Claire Jackson investigates.