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  • Some time between the formation of the earth, and now, some human beings decided to draw some lines on the sand somewhere to define ‘our bit’ of the earth and ‘their bit’ of the earth. We now refer to these lines as borders.

     

    Journalist and author Jonn Elledge has always been fascinated by why and how this happens, and in this episode he joins the Country Life Podcast to talk about borders and his new book, The History of the World in 47 Borders.

     

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     Jonn's fascination with borders made him think that the smart thing to do would be to write a book about them. 47 of them, specifically, which he claims can tell us ‘the history of the world’. We invited him on to the Country Life podcast to discuss just how the border came to be, what they mean, some weird ones, and the somewhat disturbing truth about why a lot of them are simply just straight lines.

     

    We answer important questions such as ‘why does Wales exist’, what happened during the partition of India, and why most borders are a bit nonsensical, when you think about it.

     

    And at the heart of it all lies the great question: are national identities defined by their borders, or vice versa? To find out the answer, you’ll just have to listen — and if you get to the end and still want to know more (including the answer to the question ‘why does landlocked Bolivia still have a navy?’), you can buy his book, which is available at all good bookshops (and some bad ones).

     

    'The History of the World in 47 Borders' can be bought online here. Follow Jonn on X/Twitter here

     

    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Jonn Elledge

    Editor and Producer: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


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  • On May 10, 1824, Britain's National Gallery opened its doors for the first time. This year, to celebrate its bicentenary, the gallery is hosting a whole string of events and celebrations to market the occasion.


    Of all these, perhaps the boldest and most eye-catching is National Treasures, a selection of just 12 from among the thousands of masterpieces in the National Gallery's collection. The 12 paintings will be on display at 12 galleries around Britain, bringing art to people across the land, and making the National Gallery truly national.

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    But how do you go about choosing the 12 most famous paintings from such an astonishing collection? It's an almost impossible task, and one that fell to one of the gallery's curators, Dr Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, who led the team that whittled down the almost countless options to the final 12.


    Francesca joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about how it was done. She also shares the story of her life and career, how she came to be at the gallery, what art really means to us — and, of course, the practicalities and philosophy that underlies the idea of sending a string of artworks worth tens of millions of pounds across the country to be seen by fresh eyes.


    You can find out more about the National Gallery, and the NG200 celebrations, at the gallery's website, nationalgallery.org.uk. And you can see the 12 paintings that made the cut for the National Treasures exhibitions at nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/across-the-uk/national-treasures


    Episode credits:

    Host: James FisherGuest: Dr Francesca Whitlum-CooperEditor and Producer: Toby KeelMusic: JuliusH via PixabaySpecial thanks: Adam Wilbourn

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  • James Alexander-Sinclair is one of Britain's foremost garden designers and writers. He's a regular contributor to Country Life magazine and many other titles, and a regular presence on television screens talking about gardening.


    He is also one of the top judges at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show — and we're absolutely delighted that he joins us to give a full behind-the-scenes account of the entire judging process.


    James doesn't shy away from any of the issues — or the controversies which have raged in recent years over the unconventional winners that have had many lovers of traditional gardens up in arms.


    You can find out more about James Alexander-Sinclair at his website or follow him on Instagram.

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    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher Guest: James Alexander-Sinclair

    Editor and producer: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • At the turn of the millennium, Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell faced a crisis. They were £1.5 million in debt after spending 17 years trying to run a farm that simply wouldn't grow the crops they needed for it to be sustainable.


    With all their efforts to effect change and introduce diversification failing, they took a drastic decision: to return the farm to Nature — a decision which Isabella tells James Fisher all about on the Country Life Podcast.

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    Rewilding might be a buzzword in the 2020s, but at the time was almost unheard of in Britain. Only a few projects on the Continent showed that there might be a potential alternative that could save the estate. Charlie and Isabella pushed ahead — and were staggered at how, within months, Nature began to recover and restore this heavy clay farmland that simply refused their attempts at agriculture.


    'Suddenly it felt like the land was breathing a sigh of relief, and everything was coming to live,' Isabella tells James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast. Even things which scientists had told them could take a century began happening within the first year, and they've never looked back.


    'We knew we were on to something,' she adds, 'and it's just got better and better.'


    Isabella went on to write a bestselling book about her experiences — a book which has now been turned into a documentary film, out in June 2024 (you can watch the trailer at the Country Life website).


    You can find out more about Isabella, Charlie and the Knepp Estate at knepp.co.uk

    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Isabella Tree

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Paula Lester has been running the features desk at Country Life magazine for over a decade. So when His Majesty The King — Prince Charles, as he was at the time — agreed to guest edit the magazine, she was the obvious choice to guide him and his team through the process.


    The result, as Paula tells James Fisher on this week's Country Life Podcast, could never have been foreseen: after months of work and literally thousands of emails, the magazine became Country Life's best-selling issue of all time. A second guest edit came; then The Princess Royal took the helm as well; and in 2022, it was the turn of Queen Camilla, while still Duchess of Cornwall, to try her hand at it.


    Paula talks through those extraordinary experiences, and what it was like to work with His Majesty and Their Royal Highnesses on putting together an issue of the magazine. Everything from commissioning features to arrange a photo shoot carried out by none other than The Duchess of Cambridge (now Princess of Wales) — who phoned Paula while she was at the hairdresser!


    As well as the royal guest edits, Paula explains how the magazine's features come together each week, looking at where ideas come from, how they're brought to life, and the amazing team around her who make sure that it happens 52 weeks a year.


    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Paula Lester

    Editor and Producer: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn



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  • The housing crisis in Britain has gone on for decades almost unchecked — but it's only thanks to voices such as Nicholas Boys Smith that we can use the word 'almost' in that sentence.


    Nicholas is the founder of Create Streets, a think tank and consultancy which looks at property development and town planning across Britain. He joins host James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to explain what has been going wrong, why we've lost faith in planners, architects and developers, and what we can do to put things right.


    Striking a balance between preservation and progress is right at the heart of what Nicholas has to say — for there is no reason at all why we can't make buildings which are modern and practical while also preserving the beauty of our villages, towns and cities.

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    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Nicholas Boys Smith

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Beyond the Monarchy and the Church, there is only one building in Britain which is designated with word 'palace': Blenheim Palace.


    This UNESCO World Heritage Site is beyond any doubt one of the world's greatest, and most famous buildings. It was built to commemorate a famous battle 320 years ago: the victory in the Battle of Blenheim led by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, in which the army of Louis XIV was beaten in what was France's first major military defeat in half a century.


    Queen Anne was delighted by the outcome, and granted Churchill both the land and the funds to create a grand house which, from the start, was planned as both ancestral home and national monument.


    Three centuries later, the house and gardens — designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and Capability Brown respectively — are just as magnificent today, and one of the most visited buildings in Britain, with as many as 6,000 people a day visiting.


    Keeping a great house like this running is no easy feat, as Blenheim's director of operations Emily Spencer explains in this episode of the Country Life Podcast.


    "It's an ongoing battle," Emily explains of the need to balance restoration, conservation and the needs of visitors, from the £40 million project in place to keep the building standing to towing visitors' cars out of muddy fields.


    But the efforts are all worthwhile, Emily adds.


    "The second you step across the landscape, it's everything — it all has such a power over you."


    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Emily Spencer

    Producer and editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn



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  • How important an interior designer is Emma Sims-Hilditch? 'In my view, she has almost completely turned the country house aesthetic on its head, and reinvented it for the 21st century,' says Giles Kime, Country Life's Executive Editor and our resident interiors guru.

     

    'She's a great believer in creating houses which are not just elegant, but also function brilliantly and are perfectly configured for family life.' 


    Emma joined Giles for this special episode of the Country Life Podcast to discuss her ideas on design, architecture and making historic houses fit for 21st century living.

     

    She talks through several of the projects she's worked on — not least her own. It's a former schoolhouse which she and husband — the designer John Sims-Hilditch of Neptune — took on as a complete wreck while they were still in their 20s, and turned it into a magnificent home.

     

    At Country Life, we’ve covered many of Emma's projects over the years — this boot room, for example, and this bedroom — but you can see more of her work at the Sims Hilditch website or on Emma’s Instagram page.


    Episode credits

    Interviewer: Giles Kime

    Guest: Emma Sims-Hilditch

    Host: James Fisher

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay


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  • Kate Green isn't just the Deputy Editor of Country Life magazine. She's also one of the country's foremost equestrian journalists, having worked at four Olympic Games as well as countless other top events around the world.


    With her book on the 75th anniversary of the Badminton Horse Trials just launched, Kate tells the tale of how the crushing disappointment of the 1948 Olympics paved the way for a resurgence in the sport on these shores, which has led to Britain becoming the home of eventing.


    Kate joins Country Life Podcast host James Fisher to talk about Badminton, equestrian sport in general and the incomparable magic of the Olympic Games, from being chased by irate security guards while walking the showjumping course in Atlanta to the outpouring of joy shared by fans and competitors alike during the golden weeks of London 2012.


    Kate's book, Badminton Horse Trials at 75, is published by Quiller (£40) — find out more about it here.


    Episode credits:

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Kate Green

    Editor and Producer: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • What is it all about? It's the question that Man has been struggling to answer since the dawn if human consciousness. And while we all have to figure out our own answer, it's never less than fascinating to hear of others who've found theirs.


    And in that light, this week's guest on the Country Life podcast is Colin Heber-Percy, a successful screenwriter for film and TV who, in his 40s, stepped away from a lucrative career and retrained to become an ordained minister in the Church of England. Today, Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy is a rural vicar in Wiltshire, and while he still writes — his book Tales of a Country Parish became a bestseller — his main concern now


    Colin joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about that change of gear in his life, and how hiw foray into the world of the clergy was less a career change and more a way of tying together all the threads of his life. Religion and ‘The Big Questions’ had long permeated his life and his work and, by becoming a vicar, he could truly focus on all of them.


    Somewhat controversially, he still describes himself as an agnostic — which for a vicar, is quite the claim. Ask him why, and the answer is intriguing — how can you have faith if you claim to know everything? Is not knowing what Easter is really about?


    Colin also speaks about what he would do if made Archbishop of Canterbury for a day, ponders the questions of medieval metaphysics — really — and, perhaps best of all, explains how the packaging of a Bounty Bar makes for an ideal emergency dog collar.

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    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • The award-winning architect Richard Hawkes is no ordinary designer of buildings. He has made his name and forged a career by creating some of the most astonishing new homes build in Britain in the past two decades.


    He joins James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about the homes he designs, many of which are built under the Paragraph 84 rules, which allow the creation of new homes in rural areas where development would otherwise be forbidden.


    Richard's own house, centred beneath and around a magnificent arch, was featured in a memorable episode of the Channel 4 TV programme Grand Designs, and he talks about how appearing on the programme played its part in building his reputation.


    He also tells James about the many factors that come in to play with creating such houses in the countryside — and why he regularly turns potential clients away if he feels the land in question is simply too important, ecologically speaking, to build on.


    The greatest tribute of all? Not a single one of the homes he and his team have built has ever come back on to the market, each one instead still being lived in by the clients for whom he built it in the first place.


    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Richard Hawkes

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Millie Pilkington is one of Britain's best-known portrait photographers, with her work regularly appearing in Country Life as well as dozens of other publications.


    We were truly delighted that she joined James Fisher on the Country Life podcast this week to talk about life behind the lens.


    She talks about how she turned a hobby in to a dream career, one in which she has dealt with everything from incorrigible dogs to taking private family pictures for the Prince and Princess of Wales.


    The secret of a good photograph, she explains, isn't just technical — it's emotional. 'Yes, you want to have nice light, you want to have a nice composition, you want to think about how all of this marries together, how it's going to draw people in,' she says.


    'But actually the real thing that takes a photograph to a different level is this mood, this emotion, this spirit. And if you can connect with whoever you're photographing, you might not have the perfect crop, or the perfect light, or the perfect something. But that photograph, if it talks to you in some way, if it brings an emotion to you, then you've got some home of someone else feeling that too.'


    You can see more of Millie's work on Instagram and at her website, milliepilkington.co.uk.


    Episode credits

    Host : James Fisher

    Guest: Millie Pilkington

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Country Life's Gardens Editor Tiffany Daneff is one of Britain's foremost gardening journalists, having worked at titles including The English Garden and The Daily Telegraph, where she launched the gardening supplement.


    But while she's spent years writing about other people's gardens, this time she talks about her own outside spaces in this very special episode of the Country Life Podcast. From the people who influenced her love of plants and gardening in her formative years to the friends and colleagues who she now relies on to help her create her own perfect garden, she tells host James Fisher all about this great passion of her life.


    You can read Tiffany's writing about gardens on the website at countrylife.co.uk/gardens, where you'll also find tips and advice from Alan Titchmarsh, Mark Diacono and many other wonderful plantsmen and women.


    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Tiffany Daneff

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH on Pixabay

    Special Thanks: Adam Wilbourn



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • For the past eight years, the Country Life Top 100 has been the essential list when it comes to finding the best architects, builders, interior and garden designers in the UK. The list is the brainchild of our Interiors Editor Giles Kime, who has used his decades of experience to showcase two of our nation’s great talents — architecture and design.


    Giles joins James on the podcast for a second time, becoming the first returning guest, to discuss the history of the Top 100, what it takes to be included, who chooses what and, most importantly, why a list such as this one matters.


    Country Life has had a rich tradition of promoting and maintaining our built heritage, dating from the magazine’s inception in 1897, when we were early champions of now-legendary names such as Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. As Giles points out, the Top 100 is more than just a directory, it’s a list designed to inspire and elevate the next generation of artisans and craftspeople. Perhaps someone in our list will be the next Edwin Lutyens or Gertrude Jekyll? 


    While a lot has changed between 1897 and now (materials, sustainability implications, styles), one thing will always remain, says Giles, and that is timelessness. Not to be confused with ‘tradition’, Giles adds that ‘what is exciting about the best houses being built or restored today is that, increasingly, they combine desirable qualities both from the past and the present’. It’s that principle that has guided the best country house design and, by extension, those included on our list.


    By beginning with functionality, with things that work for people in terms of comfort and practicality, timeless design grows outwards into a style and approach that is less likely to date. Timelessness is creating and restoring buildings ‘with a capacity to evolve as needs change’. You can find the Country Life Top 100 in the magazine on March 6, 2024, or on our website at www.countrylife.co.uk


    Episode Credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Giles Kime

    Producer and editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay



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  • We tend to think of the British countryside as rural idyll, a patchwork of fields, farms and forests, rolling on through time until rudely interrupted by the building of a new housing estate, a dual-carriageway or some other man-man incursion.


    But the landscape around us is changing constantly, has always been doing so, and always will. Fiona Stafford, professor of English at Oxford University, joins the Country Life podcast this week to talk about how, and why, we fail to recognise those shifts. Even in the space of a generation or two, vast changes can take place that we scarcely think about: from swamps drained and reservoirs created to the hundreds of Second World War airfields which once dotted so much of Britain, and which how have mostly been turned to other purposes. And how about the River Humber, crossed by a mighty suspension bridge which feels as if it will be there forever; yet the Solway Firth was once spanned by a spectacular Victorian viaduct of which almost nothing now remains.

    When we talk about conservation, then, what are we conserving? If the landscape is being constantly made and re-made, how are we to say which particular moment in time we're trying to return it to? The countryside, after all, is a workplace, not a museum. Fiona tackles these ideas in her new book, Time and Tide: The Long, Long History of Landscape, and we're delighted that she was able to join our podcast host James Fisher to discuss this fascinating topic.


    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Professor Fiona Stafford

    Producer and editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Helen Rebanks went from farmer, wife and mother to publishing sensation last year when her first book, The Farmer's Wife, earned huge success and a legion of fans — not least the likes of bestselling author Raynor Winn and Times columnist Caitlin Moran. Her bestselling tale of everyday life on the Cumbrian farm which she runs alongside husband James is a wonderfully honest look at the ups and downs of what it means to raise — and feed — a family while keeping a roof over everyone's heads.


    In this edition of the Country Life podcast, Helen joins host James Fisher to talk about her life in the country, and how her youthful ideals were shaped and changed as her life unfolded. She is completely candid about how she swapped a life in the city that was 'quite often very lonely, quite often very empty', to return to the country and live a quieter life which has proven immeasurably meaningful. 'I've been very proud, happy, content, fulfilled doing the work I do,' she says. 'Not to say it's easy, or that there aren't hard times... but I think writing it was reflecting on the choices I've made.'


    Helen also talks with huge passion about the importance of farming, sustainability and the environment, particularly as farmers themselves are squeezed by supermarkets, government policy and a market saturated with low-quality, imported produce. 'After Brexit we had an opportunity to make things better in this country, but it's got worse and worse and worse,' she says. 'There isn't enough value put on the importance of healthy food and healthy environment together.'


    Helen's book, The Farmer's Wife, is out in paperback on 29 February, 2024, (Faber, £10.99). 


    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Helen Rebanks

    Produced and editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • What is a stone circle? Who made them, and how? And just as importantly, why?


    This week's guest joining James Fisher on the Country Life podcast is one of Britain's foremost experts on stone circles and henges: Professor Vicki Cummings, the archaeologist who is head of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University.


    Vicki explains all you could wish to know about the most extraordinary stone circles in the country, from the world-famous sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury to beautiful and remote spots such as Castlerigg in Cumbria and Sunhoney in Aberdeenshire.


    The result is a fascinating and entertaining chat looking at the latest knowledge we have about stone circles and henges (not to mention the difference between the two). While many of these ancient marvels had religious or celestial roles, we now believe that stone circles were, to most people who used them, the entertainment multiplexes of their day, meeting places for people to congregate from miles around to come together and share their lives with each other.


    Vicki is the co-author, with Professor Colin Richards of the University of the Highlands and Islands, of the forthcoming book The Stone Circles: A Field Guide, published in April 2024 by Yale University Press.


    Episode credits:

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Professor Vicki Cummings

    Editor and Producer: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Clive Nichols is Britain's top garden photographer.


    After originally starting his career in travel photography, Clive switched his focus to gardens — despite, by his own admission, knowing almost nothing about them at the time. It proved a brilliant move, however: he has since photographed thousands of gardens for publications including Country Life and The Sunday Times, to institutions such as the National Trust and the RHS, and individuals including Lord Heseltine and Hus Majesty King Charles III.


    Clive joins James Fisher on this episode of the Country Life podcast to talk about his life, his photography, and his favourite gardens from around Britain — and indeed the world.


    From getting the right gear to the best season for taking pictures, he shares his wisdom, experience and plenty of his tips for taking great images — among them a tolerance for early mornings, cold weather, and a car capable of being driven almost half a million miles.


    You can find out more about Clive Nichols, including his photography, books and teaching, at his website, clivenichols.com — and don't forget to follow him on @clivenichols, surely one of the most beautiful accounts on Instagram.


    Episode credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Clive Nichols

    Producer and Editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Norman Foster is unarguably one of the greatest architects of the last half century. We're delighted that he joins Country Life magazine for a very special episode of the podcast.


    Speaking to Country Life's Carla Passino, Lord Foster describes how he left school in Manchester at 16 before eventually working his way through university in order to forge a career as an architect, a role in which he has reshaped countless cities — not least London.


    He shares his view on what makes London the city that it is, how it is a city that 'is essentially organic', and how its informality, copious green spaces and thriving neighbourhoods model can help popularise the concept of the 15-minute city across the world, and what he has to say to those who criticise how he, and his imitators, have reshaped the skyline of the British capital.


    The architect also talks about his other key passion in life: flying. The 89-year-old has flown 75 different types of aircraft, including helicopters and jets.


    Lord Foster also talks about the work of the Norman Foster Foundation, and how he is trying to help tomorrow's architects to plan and create cities which are as sustainable as they are vibrant and liveable.

    Episode Credits

    Host: James Fisher

    Interviewer: Carla Passino:

    Guest: Lord Foster

    Editor/Producer: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Country Life magazine's Rosie Paterson has the enviable task of travelling the world in order to report on where to go, when and why. She's also — and she probably won't mind us saying this — developed something of a reputation for being incident prone.


    Rosie speaks to Country Life podcast host James Fisher to share her tips on everything from the world's greatest hotels and destinations to the reason it's almost always worth trying to get an upgrade — along with a few hints on how you can manage to do so. She also explains how she's managed to fall foul of everything from natural disasters to armed insurrections in her efforts to trot the globe.

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    Episode credits:

    Host: James Fisher

    Guest: Rosie Paterson

    Producer and editor: Toby Keel

    Music: JuliusH via Pixabay / Epidemic Sound

    Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.