BY SEAN WALSH Just to be clear, it is not the people who brought the truth to the Arday situation who are responsible for his death. That is an absurd, back-to-front claim. It is like blaming the specialist who spots the cancer for not saving the patient, even though he is the only one who tried. But precisely because it is an absurd and back-to-front … Continue reading The Cruel Mercy of Truth
BY ALLISON LEE To many people, bees and wasps are nothing more than annoying stingers that ruin summer barbecues and seem intent on causing pain. But in reality, these insects are environmental powerhouses. Most are vital pollinators or highly effective pest controllers, so before you reach for the swatter, it’s worth pausing to consider their value. We all know the importance of the honey bee, … Continue reading Beyond the Sting
BY DR ALEX BARATTA As George Bernard Shaw famously said, “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him”. In 2026, this quote still has arguable validity, though it’s perhaps not about hatred per se. Rather, accent bias is more to do with believing that certain accents are a bad fit for specific professions and … Continue reading Accent – The Last Taboo in Britain
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There is a madness peculiar to the over-educated, chronically online progressive—a psychosis of over-correction, not always malice, though the post-Widdicombe-Kirk strain is real and includes those capable of more than mere cruelty. It is the fever of a machine built to measure injustice, running so hot it melts its own circuitry. Thankfully, we are hearing its death rattle. But death rattles can … Continue reading The Eradication of Difference
BY JAMIE FOSTER For devotees of sporting art and country life, the arrival of autumn in London brings a notable highlight. From 29 September to 16 October 2026, the Rountree Tryon Gallery in St James’s will host Hound & Horse, a selling exhibition that celebrates the enduring bond between man and his two most loyal companions through the lens of artistic genius. This is no ordinary … Continue reading Hound & Horse: A Sporting Art Exhibition at Rountree Tryon
BY JOHN MUSGRAVE Wednesday 12th August 2026 marks the start of the shooting season – the Glorious Twelfth. A fulsome fusillade heralds a country sports bonanza of traditional hunting. Plumped-up plumage, early harvests, golden fields and runaway support look set to make this a stonker of a season. The message is clear: get up and get after it. The struggle to save hunting – whether … Continue reading The Glorious Twelfth
BY MANRAJ ATWAL The King is dead; Long live the King! Or so the media declare as Britain faces up to its seventh Prime minister in a decade. The seemingly ritualistic axing of our head of government has been accompanied by all the usual rites. The choir of voices declaring “The grownups are back in charge”, the scuttling of MPs as they preach the virtues … Continue reading Devolution Is a Deflection, Not a Diagnosis
BY JOHN MACNAB Following the excellent Country Squire writer Roger Watson’s entertaining column on Urban Fox Hunting in these pages, I was inspired to share two of my favourite fox recipes—braised leg of fox and fox stew. I received so many queries via direct message on Twitter (as it was then) for further recipes and information on how I obtained my foxes. The editor of Country Squire—not himself a hunter of foxes—declined … Continue reading For Fox Sake
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, there is a particular gift in the quiet moments of rural life that so often pass us by. Not the showy ones—not the blazing sunsets or the dramatic thunderstorms—but the quiet, steady ones. The countryside does not rush. It has its rhythms, its seasons, its own unhurried pace. But I have also been thinking, this week, about the treasure … Continue reading A Prayer for the Wisdom of the Elders
BY ALLISON LEE We are all familiar with the ways in which aches and pains can disrupt daily life, and I understand the work that chiropractors do—using hands-on, non-invasive therapies to relieve pain and improve mobility. However, until recently, I had no idea that chiropractors could also treat animals. Living on a smallholding with a variety of animals, I was intrigued to learn about the … Continue reading From Stables to Clinic
BY NICHOLAS ENGERT Few can deny that living in Britain today is a profoundly depressing experience. The country is in a parlous state – broken, bankrupt and with no sense of direction for the future. The culmination of twenty plus years of government by a progressive, credentialed class steeped in woke ideology which combines stupidity with gross incompetence has dragged the country down to a … Continue reading The Kiftsgate Antidote
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Albert Speer, Hitler’s armaments minister, escaped the gallows at Nuremberg by convincing the court he had known nothing of the Holocaust. It was in his 1971 BBC interview, where his evasions were most apparent. What does Speer’s later life reveal about the gap between public performance and private torment? Drawing on historical scholarship and the testimony of those closest to Speer, the … Continue reading The Architecture of a Lie
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I have been thinking, this week, about the invisible threads that stitch our communities together. The cup of sugar borrowed and returned with thanks. The gate left open for the postman. The nod of recognition from the tractor driver as he passes. The fruit left on the wall for whoever might pass by. These are the small, unspoken covenants … Continue reading A Prayer for Good Neighbours
BY ALLISON LEE I had the pleasure of visiting the Great Yorkshire Show again this year, and it was another fantastic experience. Due to high demand, the number of tickets increased from 35,000 per day to 37,500, and all four days sold out. Despite the lengthy queues to enter the showground, our usual hour-long journey took almost three times as long. The event was well … Continue reading The Great Yorkshire Show
BY SEAN WALSH It strikes me as strange that people can believe in God but at the same time say that they are sceptical about or indifferent to the existence of angels and demons – purely spiritual beings (composed exclusively of intellect and will), the former being His messengers, the latter in permanent rebellion against Him. Why have God without the supernatural trimmings, the bits … Continue reading Believing God, Doubting Angels
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There is a silence that falls over a Devon wood in high summer. Not an absence of noise, but an absence of argument. The oaks on the Taw Valley do not hold referenda on whether to unfurl their leaves. The badgers on Dartmoor do not form working groups to reconsider the velocity of their digging. The River Exe does not consult a … Continue reading Nature’s Unwritten Constitution
BY NICK PEARCE Adam Watson stands in the East Tennessee morning with the kind of stillness that comes from years spent around horses and emergency scenes. The light catches the gate behind him—a simple farm gate, unremarkable to most. But Watson sees it differently now. He sees the hidden labour, the assumed two hands, the quiet transfer of risk that happens when a person with … Continue reading Two Hands, One Arm
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, there is a particular gift in the quiet moments of rural life that so often pass us by. Not the showy ones—not the blazing sunsets or the dramatic thunderstorms—but the quiet, steady ones. The way the light lingers at the end of the day, as if reluctant to leave. The sound of the greenfinch in the ash tree, singing … Continue reading A Prayer for the Living Earth
BY DAVID CAMPBELL (And has the scars to prove it) I love rugby. I loved playing it, and I love watching it now that my body has wisely retired from active service. My introduction to the game came during my final year at Carnegie Mellon University. A friend who played for a local club asked if I had ever played. I admitted I hadn’t—and, more … Continue reading An American Who Played Rugby
BY JAMIE FOSTER Barclay Price’s Nature’s Great Masterpiece, published by Amberley Books, is a delightfully esoteric and meticulously researched gem that unearths a truly surprising strand of British social history. As the subtitle clarifies, this is not a pastoral ramble through the countryside, but a captivating chronicle of the pachyderms that have walked, trumpeted, and occasionally rampaged through our island story. Price takes the reader on … Continue reading Nature’s Great Masterpiece
