‘It Stays With You After The Curtain Goes Down’: Long Day’s Journey Into Night Review

Country & Town House | 8 Apr 2024

The challenges of memory, the stranglehold of the past, addiction, alcoholism, loneliness, regret, nostalgia, resignation, denial, blame, guilt, lies and illusion, love and forgiveness. They’re all here in the 1941 autobiographical masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey Into Night – a frequent contender for best American play, and one which won O’Neill a posthumous Pulitzer prize. It’s cathartic and multi-layered, but also funny. And terribly sad.

• Culture

Review: Faith Healer At The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

Country & Town House | 27 Mar 2024

Go and see this production of Faith Healer by Brian Friel, one of the greatest Irish dramatists; it’s mesmerising and moving. It’s a four-scene play in which three characters act out their memories alone on stage —monologues delivered by Frank the faith healer, his wife, Grace, and his manager, Teddy: three unreliable narrators.

• Culture

Sustainable Bath And Shower Products To Shop Now

Country & Town House | 14 Mar 2024

What better time than now to scrub up in a newly-restored bath whilst breathing deeply of the latest sustainable home fragrance diffuser? To buff and wash your skin in the shower with sweetly scented organic products, sip a (B-Corp certified) tipple in the tub and loll in CBD-oil infused bathwater? And then to slaver yourself with planet-friendly potions when you hop out? Caroline Phillips presents a guide to the best sustainable shower and bath products.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

8 Fantastic Organic Shampoos To Try Now

Country & Town House | 20 Dec 2023

If you have hair that’s chemically treated or coloured, or even if you don’t, this shampoo is unbeatable. It’s chokka with organic ingredients that smell so good, you’ll want to eat them. Think raw coconut and shea butter (to give the texture oomph), honey (to retain moisture and deliver lustre), pumpkin seed oil (preserving colour and vibrancy). Plus a dash of cranberry seed oil and Rooibos tea.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Caroline Phillips’s Ultimate New Year’s Resolutions

Country & Town House | 20 Dec 2023

So you want to begin the New Year with new resolutions? Well, how about getting a new life, new family and new face? Not to mention some new artwork. Read on for Caroline Phillips’s ultimate quirky guide to making the year ahead one to really remember and love.

• Shopping & Fashion

Mind your movement – The Scoop

Country & Town House | 2 Nov 2023

If you miss your ballet days of yore, check out Julien Diaz’s Physical Intelligence, a movement therapy that will see you skipping into winter with a deeper connection to your body. This brilliant offering from Diaz, a former professional dancer who trained at Rambert, is a fusion of ballet, contemporary dance and motion – which he choreographs for the individual client’s needs at home.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

This new dance production is a must-see – Malevo, Sadler’s Wells

Country & Town House | 31 Oct 2023

Picture an extravaganza that recalls hints of the showmanship of the 1970s Village People mixed with a sprinkling of flamenco and a huge helping of reimagined Argentine folkloric dance. Then add some very talented bad-ass men in low-cut necks, black and leather with puffed chests stomping, strutting and thundering their energetic and talented feet to the pounding and pulsating of booming, thudding drums plus guitars and violins live on stage. And what do you get? The South American dance sensation Malevo.

• Culture

Aesthetic Treatments Our Testers Loved

Country & Town House | 18 Sep 2023

These 10 non-surgical aesthetic treatments – some new, some faithful – have been put to the test by our scrupulous beauty experts. Read on for our honest reviews, and to see which treatments came out on top.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

How To Create A Cost-Effective DIY Spa Experience At Home

Country & Town House | 31 May 2023

Getting the spa experience – while saving money – is what everyone needs to promote sleep, emotional and physical health. The first step? Taking the spa experience home with some DIY treatment. We’ve rounded up our favourite picks and products that will allow you to splash out on one or two luxuries, while still leaving plenty of cash in your wallet. And the big benefit? You’ll have loads of product left over for your next at-home spa day, making it even more cost effective.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Edinburgh in 48 Hours – The Weekender

Country & Town House | 27 Mar 2023

Edinburgh: that wondrous place on the shore of the Firth of Forth that’s dominated by its 11th-century castle on a rocky ridge; the capital of Scotland; somewhere with JK Rowling spots aplenty. Heading to the Fringe this summer? Luckily for you, Edinburgh isn’t just host to theatre and comedy’s rising stars, but a stellar destination in its own right. It is a location with top food, excellent shopping and historic sites across the town centre, not to mention those wonderful Scots themselves, with their dry humour, haggis and sporrans. It is, of course, always bathed in sunlight because that’s what the weather’s permanently like in Edinburgh – not. Just prepare yourself for four seasons in one day.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

It’s cool to be woo

Country & Town House | 25 Jan 2023

Spirituality and formerly arcane practices have gone mainstream, with CEOs, lawyers and HNWs seeking help from tarot readers to people ‘in spirit’ to make those big decisions. Yes, hedgies to bankers – and at least one newspaper proprietor – have become ‘seekers’.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

How to create the ultimate Ayurvedic retreat in London

Country & Town House | 17 Jan 2023

Holistic in nature and based on the concept of interconnectedness, Ayurvedic treatments aim to balance the mind, body (and spirit) with diets, herbal remedies, massage therapies, yoga and meditation.

There are multiple benefits to running your own Ayurvedic retreat, including keeping things local and spending a fraction of the usual price of an international retreat. You’ll also help the environment – by jettisoning long plane trips – and avoid pesky airport queues and jet lag. Plus, staying home allows you to do an Ayurvedic break that’s so mini you won’t return to work (or home) and find yourself so overloaded that you wish you’d never left.

• Health, Beauty & Spa