When the King and Queen edited Country Life, by the editor who guided them every step of the way

Country Life

Paula Lester has been running the features desk at Country Life magazine for over a decade. So when His Majesty The King — Prince Charles, as he was at the time — agreed to guest edit the magazine, she was the obvious choice to guide him and his team through the process.

The result, as Paula tells James Fisher on this week's Country Life Podcast, could never have been foreseen: after months of work and literally thousands of emails, the magazine became Country Life's best-selling issue of all time. A second guest edit came; then The Princess Royal took the helm as well; and in 2022, it was the turn of Queen Camilla, while still Duchess of Cornwall, to try her hand at it.

Paula talks through those extraordinary experiences, and what it was like to work with His Majesty and Their Royal Highnesses on putting together an issue of the magazine. Everything from commissioning features to arrange a photo shoot carried out by none other than The Duchess of Cambridge (now Princess of Wales) — who phoned Paula while she was at the hairdresser!

As well as the royal guest edits, Paula explains how the magazine's features come together each week, looking at where ideas come from, how they're brought to life, and the amazing team around her who make sure that it happens 52 weeks a year.

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher

Guest: Paula Lester

Editor and Producer: Toby Keel

Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn

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