By Country Life
Hosted on Aca
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4.9
1717 ratings
The podcast currently has 42 episodes available.
The bushmaster snake is on the one hand, very polite: it announces its presence with a two-tone whistle.
On the other hand, however, it's utterly merciless: a creature which will chase humans through the jungle, attack aggressively, and should it miss with its fangs will leap on to its intended prey and attempt to whip them in to submission.
This is just one of the extraordinary tales shared by Lucy Shepherd, the brilliant young explorer who has travelled through both the Antarctic and the Amazon. She joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about her life growing up in rural Suffolk, to the high-adrenaline life she now leads, blazing a trail through impenetrable jungle. You'll like her.
Lucy's latest exploits are the subject of an upcoming show on Channel 4 called Secret Amazon: Into the Wild, which is scheduled to air on October 7th at 10pm.
You can also catch up with Lucy on Instagram at @lucysheps
Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Lucy Shepherd
Editor and Producer: Toby Keel
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We were thrilled to discover that Charlie Bigham is a real person. It's a bit like meeting Aunt Bessie, and asking how she does her Yorkshire Puddings, or running swapping tips with Ronald McDonald about how to get your fries crispy.
But real person he is, and he's a man with a fascinating story to tell, from ditching a hugely promising career in order to drive a campervan to India, then to return to Britain and become a household name in the world of pre-prepared meals.
Food for many people is a source of comfort, and it certainly is too for Charlie, who joined the Country Life Podcast this week to talk about cooking, his business and his new cookbook Supper With Charlie Bigham, which is out on Thursday September 12.
In the book, you can cook classics from his range (including the lasagne, rejoice) as well as plenty of other dishes that he makes for his family and friends at home. Which is neat. A risk too, perhaps, because if you could whip up a Charlie Bigham meal on cue then your friends and family will constantly be coming around. We can only imagine how annoying it is for him already.
We also spoke about his decision to leave his consulting work in 1994 and go traveling. It was that journey, and a love of cooking, that inspired him to set up his business in the first place. We chatted about creating the world’s most expensive fish pie, known as the ‘Swish Pie’, the importance of sustainable business and caring for the planet, and his favourite place in the British countryside.
Charlie has always been the guy behind the wooden tray. It was great to finally meet him. We hope you’ll enjoy listening.
Episode credits
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Here at the Country Life Podcast, we like to think we deliver a useful and necessary service. We want to discuss the important issues. We want to talk to Norman Foster about why architecture matters. We want to speak to farmers about how they can help tackle the climate crisis. We strive to compress the beauty of nature into an audio format so we can learn to cherish and appreciate the world around us.
Sometimes, however, we have to ask important questions such as: ‘How can you sneak onto a yacht party at the Monaco Grand Prix?’. Thankfully, we know just such an expert. Adam Hay Nicholls has spent decades travelling the world, driving fast cars, reviewing fancy hotels and writing about Formula One. His answer? Confidence, good socks, and knowing the name of the owner of said yacht. Either that, or pretend you’re from pest control. Even fancy yachts have rats, apparently.
To complement this week’s Horsepower Issue, Adam joined me for a chat about all things cars, travel and F1. What are some of his favourite cars that he’s driven? What’s it like owning a vintage Bentley? Why was he at the opening of a hotel in Dubai with Beyonce? Why is he currently trapped in a log cabin in Northumberland? All very important questions as I’m sure you’d agree.
We also spoke at length about his trip around England, Scotland and Wales to complete the Three Peaks challenge. If that doesn’t sound very luxurious, don’t worry, we sent him off to do it in an Aston Martin.
We’re not yet sure whether CountryLife.co.uk will be able to hire an ‘Editor of having a jolly good time’, but if we do, Adam certainly has the resumé for the role. We think you’ll enjoy listening to what he’s been up to.
Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Adam Hay-Nicholls
Producer and Editor: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
If it wasn’t for The Stage, there’s every chance that Britain and, indeed, the world may have been deprived of such great names as Kenneth Brannagh, Harold Pinter, Michael Caine, Sharon D Clarke, Idris Elba, The Spice Girls and Steps.
It goes to show the importance of trade publications, especially those that work in the Arts. I was very lucky to be joined this week on the Country Life by The Stage’s editor Alistair Smith to talk about all things theatre and the performing arts, as well as the Edinburgh Fringe. Full disclosure, he is also my friend and neighbour, and sometimes he feeds my cat while I’m on holiday.
Nevertheless, he is an expert in his field, having started working at the newspaper 20 years ago on work experience, before rising through the ranks to the top job. Over the years, he’s seen it all, from mime shows to the Kit Kat club to a Fringe performance that took place entirely in a lift.
We talked about The Fringe, the state of the Arts in the UK and what can be done to help them, his work for the charity Get Into Theatre, how he got his big break in journalism thanks to a juggler and how to get Ian McKellen to take your picture.
As always, it’s a supremely engaging listen and you can download it wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Alistair Smith
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Special Thanks: Adam Wilbourn
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It’s important to think about the past. I think about it often. Usually when I’m lying in bed and my brain decides that’s the best time to think of mistakes I’ve made, loves that have been lost, and, of course, the Roman Empire.
A lot of history is about kings, queens and battles. Which is very interesting in its own way. But is it real history? After all, most of history doesn’t involve kings or queens or battles. Most of history is just normal people going about their business, trying not to be too hungry, too cold, or too sick. That’s real history.
That’s why it’s important to talk to people such as Ruth Goodman, who is less interested in kings and queens and battles. She likes to learn about normal people, doing normal things, in the past and what that says about us.
She came on the Country Life Podcast to talk to us about normal people doing normal things in the past, and how she learns so much about them. The secret is to put yourself in their shoes. She cooks dinners over an open fire. She once lived according to a ‘Tudor body-cleansing regime’ for three months and apparently it wasn’t so bad. To her, the study of the people of the past is a type of anthropology; after all, to us, the Tudor is a different society altogether.
It was extremely eye opening and interesting. We also discussed her work around restoring a former ‘ragged school’ in Fulham that has been redeveloped into something called KYN Hurlingham. It’s an interesting focal point of how working-class people worked together to improve their own lives, in the face of indifference from the wealthy and the government.
It was a wide-ranging and interesting chat. You’ll love it. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: Ruth Goodman
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Special Thanks: Adam Wilbourn
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
When it comes to the world of British art, few names are more widely recognised than David Messum. From extolling the virtues of the English Impressionists to resurrecting interest in the Newlyn School, David has spent more than 60 years reminding us all that English art is as good as any across the world.
We were very lucky that when we asked him to join us on the Country Life Podcast he said yes. Not everyone says yes. We started off talking about his early career in the art world — from what inspired him to get into art, to his early days working at Christie’s and Bonhams — before moving on to the establishment of his eponymous business, which has been championing British art since 1963.
What inspired him to revisit the late 19th/early 20th-century West Country painters known as the Newlyn School? Who are some of his favourite artists working today? What’s his favourite painting? What would he do if he could change one thing about the art world? All these questions and more are answered.
And it’s not for us to shout from the rooftops, but we are pretty sure this is a Country Life exclusive, as David tells us it’s the first time he’s been on a podcast. Listening to his whimsical tales of his life as a collector and dealer, it’s unlikely to be his last. Tune in below, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode credits
Host: James Fisher
Guest: David Messum
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay
Special Thanks: Adam Wilbourn
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on the Country Life Podcast, Matt Thompson — Curatorial Director of English Heritage — joins our host James Fisher to talk history.
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Recent research from English Heritage asked people to name their favourite periods of the past, and as you might expect the headline findings reflected the widespread interest in the Romans, World Wars, Tudors and Victorians.
But dig deeper, as Matt explains, and a huge number of fascinating stories are revealed by the thousands of sites and artefacts that sit within English Heritage's collection.
He shares many of these with James, talks about the organisation's role in stimulating our love of history and throws light on some bizarre objects — not least a single bone from a Barbary Macaque found in a Roman city. Matt also names his all-time favourite English Heritage site, and it's a beautiful, unspoilt site that's free to visit.
Episode credits
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The thing about good ideas is that they sound incredibly obvious only after they’ve been invented. Take Deliveroo, for example. Looking back, of course it makes sense to get restaurants to deliver food, above and beyond the old-fashioned takeaway. Of course being able to summon a cab using an app will be a successful business, considering we tell everyone where we are all the time. Why didn’t I think of that?
Violet Manners has had an idea. In her own words, she was quite surprised that nobody else had thought of it first. How do we take privately owned country homes, castles and gardens, and create a simple way of allowing people to look at them, understand them, and then visit them? By creating a site where you can look at them, understand them, and then book a visit. It’s called HeritageXplore.
She joined the Country Life podcast this week to talk about HeritageXplore, what it offers, why it’s important and what it means for our, well, heritage. We expanded into conversations about how stately homes and gardens, often considered something ‘old’, are becoming something new, through tv shows such as Bridgerton and Downton Abbey, and how it’s important for privately owned country houses to take advantage of the wave of interest in these buildings and their stories.
And Violet is the perfect person to bridge the gap between heritage and the digital space. She tells us about growing up in Belvoir Castle and why her and her sister were entrusted with fishing pigeons out of the pipes. Listen to the full episode above, or wherever you get your podcasts. HeritageXplore is found at heritagexplore.com, and you can listen to Violet's own podcast, Hidden Heritage, wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode credits
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The award-winning journalist Chris Haslam doesn't just like beaches; he loves them.
Chris, chief travel writer for the Sunday Times, recently returned from spending seven weeks touring the coastline of Britain to produce his list of the very best beaches in Britain.
It's a mammoth undertaking, in which he and his dog — a Jack Russell called Dave — drove over 5,500 miles to inspect beaches from the tip of the Highlands to the Kent coast, and from the furthest tip of Cornwall to the broad sands of East Anglia and Lincolnshire.
He found beauty, joy, and plentiful fish and chip shops — but also came into contact with once-beautiful coastal spots that were clean and beautiful a decade ago, but are now tarnished by pollution.
For all that, though, Chris remains a huge fan and advocate of British beaches: 'Nowhere I've been in the world has the variety and raw natural beauty of the British coastline.'
He spoke to Country Life's James Fisher for this wonderful episode. You can read Chris's full list of beaches here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Buckingham Palace’s East Wing has opened up to visitors for the first time in 2024. St James’s Palace did so at the tail end of 2023. Even Balmoral — a royal residence privately owned by the Windsors, rather than part of the holdings of the Crown — has opened up its doors, something which would have been unimaginable during the lifetime of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Why has it happened, and what can it tell us about the Monarcy today? Country Life’s Architectural Editor John Goodall joins host James Fisher in this episode of the Country Life Podcast to talk about this, and much more.
Some of the topics are very much in John’s ballpark: how to get your house featured in the pages of Country Life, and what you can expect once it happens, for example. But, never a man afraid to stray out of his lane, John also delves into the wonderful world of Taylor Swift concerts, how to build 1.5 million homes, and why sequin-covered books on architecture might one day be best-sellers. He even squeezes in a bit about how Oxford University ought to do a better job of keeping track of their own buildings. Enjoy.
Host: James Fisher
Guest: John Goodall
Editor and producer: Toby Keel
Music: JuliusH via Pixabay and the Fly Guy Five via Epidemic Sound
Special Thanks: Adam Wilbourn
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The podcast currently has 42 episodes available.
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