Utterly Inessential Shopping List

Best January sales deals, from winter coats to exquisite jewellery

Not all the best purveyors of luxury hold January sales — but some do, and the Country Life team has picked out some of the most beautiful items on offer.

Best smart speakers for non-techie people: What to expect, what you'll love and what doesn't work

Smart speakers are no longer the preserve of tech geeks and millennials — these handy speakers are, and (as we'll discover) particularly handy for those living in the countryside. We've looked at three of the main contenders to see which one comes out on top: Google Nest Audio, Amazon Echo Studio and the Apple HomePod Mini.

The Utterly Inessential last-minute Christmas gift shopping list, from £15 to £9,600

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Headphones for wannabe rock gods, an indoor jungle and notebook nirvana

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Winter's least appropriate shoes, a bed of rare glory and an everything-proof mobile for adventurers or the incurably clumsy

Every week in this little slot, we lament the nastiness out in the world and suggest that you alleviate some of that negativity with something to make you smile. This week's selection comes from Victoria Marston and Toby Keel — enjoy.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A watch that's older than planet earth, the ultimate bowl for tasteful dogs and saving the planet via the medium of cashmere

If Nero were alive today, he wouldn't have fiddled while Rome burns — he'd have bought stuff off the internet. And this is the page he'd have come to in order to help make his choices, where he'd have found the weird and wonderful as picked out by Victoria Marston and Toby Keel.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: The smartwatch equivalent of a 110-blade penknife, time-travelling teddy bears and a sewing kit that's cross-stitch meets clock-stitch

Is it right that we fight off the ennui of 21st century life by buying things we don't really need, but want anyway? Probably not, but that's the world we're in, and Toby Keel and Victoria Marston are here to help you navigate your way through it.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A city girl's guide to surviving the Scottish Highlands

Much of this year, Utterly Inessential has focused on things to make staying in your own home for months on end a more pleasant experience. This week, though, we've handed over the keys to Country Life's luxury editor, Hetty Lintell, who went up to Scotland over the summer — and made these notes on how to make it through in one piece.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: The ultimate face mask, salvation for bored dogs and saving the world, one coffee capsule at a time

Well all be wearing face masks for a long time yet, so in a shockingly topical twist to Utterly Inessential we have one that fits the brief of design-overkill quite magnificently — as well as our usual mix of wonders. Victoria Marston is your guide.

Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Defying the end of summer, a clock that doesn't tick and a dinner party in a box (N.B. dinner not included)

Time to forget the necessities and indulge in this week's nice-to-haves. Victoria Marston and Toby Keel are your guides.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Back to university special, featuring eight creative ways to blow through your student loans

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Tea for one, gin for anyone, and the solution for a ponging pooch

Victoria Marston guides us through this week's collection of wonders, where every whim of fussy humans and even fussier dogs is taken care of.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Cute cups, posh pants, and a secret snooker table

After a few weeks of sipping cocktails beside a hotel bar in Cap d'Antibes, albeit sadly only in their dreams, Victoria Marston and Toby Keel get our Utterly Inessential shopping guide back up and running.

The Utterly Inessential Travel Shopping List: Staycations, luggage and a £45,000 private jet trip to the Maldives

Country Life's travel editor Rosie Paterson shares some ideas as we all start thinking once more about holidays.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: How to do country walking in proper style

The Utterly Inessential Father's Day Shopping List, from super-luxury to a big old box of beer

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Pictish gin, Cotswolds veg, and the mice you want in your kitchen

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Dressing for dinner, lockdown-style

Let's be honest: we've all let standards slip a bit (well, a lot) since lockdown began. That ends here.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Glorious garden furniture, from perfect parasols to a love seat for a ménage a trois

One of the great frustrations of the 2020 lockdown has been the extraordinary good weather. The answer to making the most of it is, of course, garden furniture.

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: The finest lounging-around-the house clothes money can buy