Sneak Peek: Inside the February 2020 Cultural Agenda Issue

Your February issue of Country & Town House magazine is hitting newsstands next week, and this month it’s the cultural agenda issue featuring actor and model Max Irons, iconic makeup artist Ruby Hammer, renowned futurist Mark Stevenson and singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum, plus much more…

Want to make sure you get your new issue before anyone else? Subscribe to Country & Town House here.

Inside the February issue, you’ll find…

365 Days of Culture: Ed Vaizey shares his 2020 must-see exhibitions agenda

Irons Man: Our February cover star Max Irons talks Condor, marriage, and the exciting prospect of having a family

The Bucket List: Jamie Cullum tells Holly Rubenstein his happiest holiday memories

Rules of The Wild: From Rwanda to Zimbabwe and Zanzibar, Daisy Finer details the top places to stay in Africa 

Elbows at the Ready: Caroline Phillips shares her designer sample sale secrets

Plus… Ruby Hammer is our February Rurbanist, Mariella Randy tells us how to spruce up our Spring wardrobe, and Sebastian Coe details the ‘lost art of letter writing’

 

 

Our contributors talk gigs, exhibitions and what they love about British culture…

Caroline Phillips

What exhibition are you most looking forward to? Raphael at the National Gallery. I love the simplicity, balance and harmony of his paintings.

Most memorable gig? Elton John and the Beach Boys at an all-day concert at Wembley in 1975. It was Fun Fun Fun.

Which artist would you most like to take out for dinner? Edvard Munch to find out what The Scream is all about. I’d take him to Burger King, so he’d really have something to scream about – and a tummy ache.

What do you love most about British culture? Shakespeare’s one of ours, the novel was invented here, and we have the rule of law and democracy. What’s not to like?

 

Benji Wilson

What exhibition are you most looking forward to? JMW Turner at Tate Britain in the autumn. The granddaddy of British abstraction.

Most memorable gig? Arcade Fire at Brixton Academy in 2007. Total euphoria, grown adults in tears, about 50 musicians on stage; I’ve never seen anything like it since.

Which artist would you most like to take out for dinner? It has to be Prince. Ideally I’d take him to a nice restaurant on Alphabet Street where we’d have Starfish and Coffee wearing matching Raspberry Berets.

What do you love most about British culture? It doesn’t take itself too seriously (most of the time).

David Goldman

What exhibition are you most looking forward to? I’ve always been a big fan of David Hockney, so his retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery.

Most memorable gig? The Prodigy in Brighton. I couldn’t tell you the exact year, it was the mid- Nineties and it was all a bit of a haze back then. The energy in that gig was insane.

Which artist would you most like to take out for dinner? The photographer Robert Capa. His pictures are what made me pick up a camera in the first place.

What do you love most about British culture? How we have always punched above our weight across all areas of the arts.

 

Sam Kinchin-Smith

What exhibition are you most looking forward to? While the nights are still long I’m going all the way to Copenhagen for the Nick Cave exhibition at the Black Diamond.

Most memorable gig? Sigur Rós at Glastonbury, the day after the Brexit referendum, felt life- savingly cathartic.

Which artist would you most like to take out for dinner? Definitely Maggi Hambling. I would take her to a Suffolk pub in midwinter, sometime before the smoking ban was introduced.

What do you love most about British culture? Its repressed, dreary, drizzly sense of humour.

 

MORE FROM THE MAG: Great British Brands | The Best Shows in 2020