Just because it's country doesn't mean it has to be all distressed pine and old rose chintz. Eoin Lyons notes the change from olde worlde to luxury living down on the farm

The English are famous for their country house style: think Nancy Lancaster washing old chintz in tea and painting furniture cream to get that perfectly relaxed, nothing-too-new look for the numerous houses and cottage she furnished through the post-war years.

Things are changing in the country house scene, with roses around the door and scrubbed pine no longer essentials.

The New Country Style England by Ingrid Rasmussen and Chloe Grimshaw (Thames & Hudson £24.95) shows how it's done, with glorious photographs of country retreats.

They range from candlelit cottages to the grandest of country hotels by way of a coastguard's cottage and potter's studio, a Gothic Abbey and a Victorian rectory.

All take inspiration from the countryside and the newfound interest in outdoor pursuits.

What's new however is the way in which traditional buildings such as these have been decorated: mixing old and new is nothing special but here things are livened up by dark colours (see the grey walls of the private club, Babington House) and often severe furniture (a John Pawson bath in a Georgian room).

Nevertheless, each home evokes an atmosphere of calm and comfort, a place of refuge from modern living and sometimes a contrived image of what country living should be.

The idea is that the best from the past should be updated. Great photographs show not just images of decorated interiors but feature close-up detail as to how a particular effect has been achieved.

Most of the properties featured seem to belong to city dwellers who have forsaken the pressures of urban living, so there is a sophistication about the effects achieved that could well be copied or adapted elsewhere.

The text is informative with detailed descriptions of the furniture and there is a chatty account of the owners featured and what brought them to adopt their particular lifestyle.

Some are stately homes adapted to meet the economic realities of the 21st Century while others are just dream-come-true hideaways.

The book is perfect for dipping into - and a good reason to buy it is that it offers ideas about how we could treat our own 18th and 19th century buildings.