VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that you are well. Today, I have written a short prayer for the quiet custodians of this land—the ones whose hands are chapped, whose backs are sore, and whose work so often goes unspoken. Dear Lord,We pray this July for the farmers who rise before the lark, whose first sight of the day is the mist … Continue reading A Prayer for Those Who Tend the Earth
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Reggie stabbed at the bell. “Mrs Daddywood!” “Morning, Mr Reggie. There is a letter here for you, pet. I’ll be there in one sec.” “Oh rather, let’s be having it,” said Reggie as he concealed the Hendrick’s and cucumber behind the Edwardian ‘plum pudding’ mahogany centre table. Reggie was still a tad squiffy after last night’s escapade at the Ath., but … Continue reading Reggie goes to Encaenia
BY ROGER WATSON The sleek black Mercedes S350, summoned on my Uber app, drew up outside our hotel at Heathrow Airport minutes after I entered my request for a car to Terminal 5. Out popped a smartly dressed driver, beaming from ear to ear to assist with our luggage. The car was spacious, immaculate, and the journey was smooth. I detected an accent that was … Continue reading The City Speaks in Small Voices
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There is a certain species of political creature that haunts the Westminster warren, a beast that is best understood not through the lens of constitutional theory or fiscal policy, but through the dusty, half-lit prism of an Irish builder’s breast pocket. I once knew such a builder. A tragic figure, in the end—murdered, as it happens, which is a rather definitive way … Continue reading Ethel
BY BERT BURNETT Why Gamekeepers Are Refusing to Endorse the New Muirburn Code Scotland’s gamekeepers have issued a stark warning: they will not endorse the Scottish Government’s new Muirburn Code, a decision they claim is born not of defiance, but of a desperate need to prevent catastrophic wildfires. They argue that the new regulations, designed to protect peatlands, will ironically create a tinderbox, stripping them … Continue reading The Burning Question
BY SEAN WALSH If only… I don’t know if you’re into the football? I’m not particularly, not since the politicians decided to pretend that they really cared about the “beautiful game” on the assumption that the rest of us did as well. But I was hoping that this year’s World Cup could be used to start waving the flag again, and especially in the face … Continue reading On Niceness Versus Kindness
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, today brings us Father’s Day, and I find myself thinking of fathers not as they appear in greeting cards or sentimental verse, but as they are in the real, unvarnished life of the British countryside. The father who rises before dawn to check the livestock. The father who mends the same gate for the third time and does … Continue reading A Prayer for Fathers on Their Day
BY ALLISON LEE Putting respite at the heart of UK Farming At its core, BZy Shepherd is more than just a livestock contracting and farm-sitting service—it is a movement dedicated to restoring balance to the lives of British farmers. Co-founded by young duo Holly Zeidler and Adam Broomhead, alongside their six-year-old collie, Tweed, the enterprise provides trusted, fully comprehensive cover across sheep, beef, dairy, and … Continue reading BZy Shepherd
BY CHARLES FARROW A Country Squire’s Guide to the Incomprehensible Stupidity of the Incomer Let me get this straight. They move out from London—Islington, usually, or that bit of Clapham where the sourdough costs more than a good collie—and within a fortnight they’ve got the RSPCA on speed dial and a Facebook post accusing us landowners of “livestock negligence.” The cheek. The absolute bleeding cheek. … Continue reading Not Again!
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There is a moment, in the deep June of the West Country, when the sun ceases to be a mere astronomical body and becomes a benediction. It slants through the leaves of the apple trees, dappling the long grass with pennies of light, and warms the stone of old farm walls with a patience that cities have long forgotten. It is in … Continue reading The Patience of the Apple
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Chewing the cud about something or other, Reggie peered out of the sash window, arousing the curiosity of the last of the ewes. He was breakfasting late. The Biedermeier wall clock reminded him of as much. Reggie was feeling idle, and had no intention of dispensing with the dressing gown just yet. The art of life was to be fancy-free after … Continue reading What?! Civil War?
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN I used to attend a friary chapel. Not out of piety, you understand—more out of a grim sense of obligation, and because the coffee afterwards was surprisingly tolerable. But I sat there, Sunday after Sunday, while the priest carped on about the environment as though the Holy Spirit had retired and been replaced by a Greta TED Talk. And then, just when … Continue reading Regnavit a Ligno
BY ALEX STORY Pride Month 2026 is upon us. Men can be women and women men. Our police are even-handed. The state invests. Debt is wealth. And our politicians have our best interests at heart. The direction the country is taking, the changes to our society, our leadership, are all for the better. The broad trajectory is in line with the plan. As Pangloss, Voltaire’s … Continue reading Tout est pour le mieux
BY ALLISON LEE You may have seen claims that over six million donkeys are slaughtered each year in horrifying conditions to produce ejiao, a gelatin used in supplements, food, and cosmetics sold globally—including on major online retailers like Amazon. While the numbers and the cruelty are well-documented, the full picture includes some important context. An investigation by Brooke, the Working Donkey and Horse Charity, confirms … Continue reading On the Trade in Donkeys
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN For more than 3,500 years, Dartmoor’s semi-wild ponies have roamed the moor, managed by commoners whose families have worked this land for generations. But now, under new proposals from Natural England and Defra, these endangered ponies face near-extinction, with potential culls of up to 93 per cent, as bureaucratic eco-rules count them alongside commercial livestock for the first time. Campaigners warn that … Continue reading The Moor Knows Best
Dear Editor, I am writing to express my profound concern regarding recent coverage of the Labour government’s reported plans to make Britain’s countryside “less white.” Having read this article carefully, I find myself troubled not only by the proposals themselves but also by what they reveal about the current direction of cultural policy in rural England. According to the reporting, the Department for Environment, Food … Continue reading Labour Plans to Make the Countryside ‘Less White’
BY THE EDITOR Truth does not arrive dressed as a choirboy. It arrives as a ghost at the feast, pale, knowing, and utterly without remorse. In this summer of 2026, that ghost bore the face of Peter Mandelson. For thirty years, the chattering classes have misunderstood him. They called him the Prince of Darkness as a tabloid sneer. They mistook his aesthetic for his essence. … Continue reading The Tipp-Ex Testament
BY ALEX STORY Few stories highlight our country’s fall more clearly than that of Henry Nowak’s murder. Henry was stabbed five times with a shastar, an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial blade by Vickrum Digwa. As Henry bled on the streets of Southampton, the police arrived and arrested him. He died in the early hours of December 3rd, 2025, begging for help. His last words were “I … Continue reading Enemies of the State
BY SEAN WALSH A question for Pope Leo: does Orac have a soul? (There are arguments for and against. But mainly against) Pope Leo has published his encyclical on the challenges to human dignity posed by general AI. The response within the conscious machine community has been mixed. Some of the LLM’s can get a bit precious when they think we’re gossiping about them. They … Continue reading Does Orac Have a Soul?
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN For more than two thousand years, two figures have stood at the opposite ends of the human imagination, and we have never been able to look at one without seeing the ghost of the other. Krishna of the Mahabharata, blue skinned and crowned with peacock feathers, who lifts a mountain on one finger and dances in the moonlight with milkmaids whose names … Continue reading Was Krishna Christ?
