When he was a young boy growing up with dreams of becoming a footballer, Sir David Beckham’s idol was the Manchester United and England captain, Bryan Robson.
Now that the global star has set his sights on becoming a true country gent after turning 50 this year, his choice of role models has moved on.
He has named his inspiration as the owner of Ashcombe House, a Georgian manor located on a 1,100-acre estate in Wiltshire.
But in characteristic Beckham style, it is no typical gentleman farmer, but the Hollywood director Guy Ritchie.
Beckham revealed his admiration for the 57-year-old director of Netflix series The Gentlemen, whom he described as a “modern-day caveman”, as he burnished his own rural credentials by following in the illustrious footsteps of the King, Queen and Princess Royal by guest editing Country Life magazine.
Originally from east London, Beckham embraced rural life, including keeping bees and chickens and growing vegetables, after buying a £6 million house set on two acres near Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds in 2016.
Beckham walks his dogs, Olive, Fig and Sage, near his home in the Cotswolds
TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED
In the issue to be published on Wednesday, Beckham praised Ritchie for increasing his knowledge of country pursuits.
“He’s a modern-day caveman, who has made me fall far deeper in love with the countryside and helped me to understand it even more than I did before. Sometimes we sit for hours around a fire, just the two of us, and talk late into the night,” he said.
“Guy is the ultimate country gentleman, who absolutely loves his estate in Wiltshire. Spending time with him is one of the reasons I fell so deeply in love with the countryside.
“He’s a great and very close friend, who inspires me so much. I learn a lot from him — whether it’s about life, countryside management, people, politics, the monarchy or what it means to be British — all of the time.”
Mark Hedges, the editor-in-chief, and Paula Minchin, the co-ordinating editor, with Beckham
MILLIE PILKINGTON / COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE
Beckham returned to his footballing roots for the issue, interviewing the former Wimbledon midfielder and Hollywood hardman, Vinnie Jones, who owned a 147-acre farm in Petworth, West Sussex.
• Vinnie Jones: ‘I’m pissed off. I had Clarkson’s farm idea first’
“When I was playing, he was one of those footballers you did not want to go near on the pitch because he’d either grab you, throw you or kick you. Back then, that was his thing and he made a successful career before becoming a pundit, when he did criticise me,” Beckham said.
“I didn’t think he liked me. But when I met him later at Guy’s place, we didn’t stop talking. He bought me a walking stick he’d made for me and he’s now a great friend, who, like me, has found solace in the country later in life.”
Beckham was invited to be a guest editor by the Country Life editor-in-chief, Mark Hedges, to celebrate his 1,000th issue at the helm of the weekly magazine.
Beckham and Hedges at the Chelsea Flower Show this year
COURTNEY HOCKLEY/FUTURE PLC/COUNTRY LIFE
Hedges said that he was more interested in meeting an 88-year-old playwright than the former England captain when they were both invited to lunch a couple of years ago.
“I met David for the first time at a lunch at Guy Ritchie’s house. At the time I was far more excited that Tom Stoppard was also there but as the lunch went on I realised that David really, really loved the magazine and the countryside,” Hedges said.
“He is a man who could choose to spend his time doing pretty much anything in the world. And yet his enormous passion has become the countryside, and that is very much the same trajectory of a great number of former rock stars and successful people.”
Hedges said that he thought that Beckham would bring a “freshness” to the magazine and that he was heavily involved in its creation, meeting with his team half a dozen times, with more than 2,000 emails exchanged.
“He told me that it is his favourite magazine. When all the other footballers were travelling to away matches and looking at GQ, he would get Country Life.”
Hedges predicted that Beckham’s issue would outsell the previous record set by Camilla, who helped shift more than 60,000 copies in 2022 to mark her 75th birthday and the magazine’s 125th anniversary.
And as a man who had seen inside a lot of houses, what did he make of Beckham’s Cotswolds mansion, now estimated to be worth about £12 million?
“Extremely tasteful,” was the verdict.
“When they bought it there were three barns that were completely derelict. David took Victoria to see it and said, ‘You’re not coming here now for 18 months, because I’m going to do it all myself,’” Hedges said.
“The garden is remarkable because it’s relatively new but he has done it incredibly well with a very impressive lake. And the house itself very much fits in with country life. It might not be what everyone would expect it to be. It looks like a Country Life property.”
