Nicholas Parsons turns 95
Nicholas Parsons talks to Harry Mount at the Gibraltar Literature Festival
17m Nov 26, 2018
17m
10: Miles Goslett on An Inconvenient Death at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Miles Goslett on An Inconvenient Death: How the Establishment Covered Up the David Kelly Affair
18m Nov 26, 2018
18m
10: January Issue: The Icy Thrills of Boxing Day at the Races
Harry Mount talks to Brough Scott – celebrated racing presenter, winning jockey in over a hundred races and a Kempton Park veteran – about the King George VI steeplechase and the perils of winter riding.
48m Nov 26, 2018
48m
9: Andrew Morton on Wallis in Love at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Andrew Morton on Wallis in Love
13m Nov 26, 2018
13m
8: Dan Snow on On this day in History at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Dan Snow on On this day in History
14m Nov 26, 2018
14m
7: Mark Mason on The Book of Seconds at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Mark Mason on The Book of Seconds
15m Nov 02, 2018
15m
Adam Zamoyski on Napoleon: The Man Behind the Myth at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Adam Zamoyski on Napoleon: The Man Behind the Myth
12m Nov 02, 2018
12m
Andrew Roberts on Churchill: Walking with Destiny at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Andrew Roberts on Churchill: Walking with Destiny
12m Nov 02, 2018
12m
December Issue: Blue guides and the Greek islands
Lucy Lethbridge talks to our editor Harry Mount about the world famous Blue Guides and the perceived difference between tourists and 'real' travellers.
17m Oct 31, 2018
17m
6: December Issue: Life was my Uni
Our editor, Harry Mount, interviews Nicky Haslam about the joy of having not been to university.
20m Oct 31, 2018
20m
5: Miranda Seymour on In Bryon's Wake at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Miranda Seymour on In Bryon's Wake
9m Oct 25, 2018
9m
4: Giles Wood and Mary Killen on The Diary of Two Nobodies at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Giles Wood and Mary Killen on The Diary of Two Nobodies
12m Oct 25, 2018
12m
4: Dan Cruikshank on Skyscrapers at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Dan Cruikshank on Skyscrapers
16m Oct 25, 2018
16m
3: Tony Adams on Sober: Football. My Story. My Life. at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Tony Adams on Sober: Football. My Story. My Life.
12m Oct 25, 2018
12m
1: November Issue: Let's Get Real About Food
Lucy Deedes, the daughter of WF Deedes, Private Eye’s Dear Bill, remembers a childhood spent eating roadkill and deer butchered in the garden – before we all got so fussy about food.
25m Oct 02, 2018
25m
1: November Issue: I Once Kissed Roger Moore
Former Bond Girl Madeline Smith talks to Annabel Sampson about Roger Moore undressing her with a magnetic watch in 'Live and Let Die'. Madeline also talks about Bond Girls in the #MeToo climate, and why Peter Cook was the 'one that got away'.
28m Oct 02, 2018
28m
2: Filming if...
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of if… The Oldie screened Lindsay Anderson’s anti-establishment satire set in an English public school at the Soho's Curzon. David Wood – who played Johnny in the film – spoke to Valerie Grove, the Oldie's radio columnist, afterwards. Here is part of that conversation, followed by a few questions from the audience.
28m Sep 20, 2018
28m
October Issue: Kenneth Cranham on Harold Pinter
Ten years after Harold Pinter's death – and on the eve of a new season of his plays – actor Kenneth Cranham remembers his friend's advice on how to understand and act in his works
33m Sep 03, 2018
33m
October Issue: Sara Wheeler on Anton Chekov's Gardens
Our Digital Editor, Annabel Sampson, talks to Sara Wheeler about Anton Chekhov’s Russian garden, that has been copied in Devon after a blooming debut at this year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Chekhov’s work as a doctor was invigorated by a deep sympathy with the natural world. Listen here.
18m Aug 28, 2018
18m
1: September Issue: Ask Virginia
The Oldie’s Agony Aunt, the stand-up, novelist and columnist Virginia Ironside, opens up about solving reader conundrums, something she has done now for nearly 40 years. She airs her mixed feelings about celebrity agony aunts and the unreadable prose of some of her contemporaries. Our Digital Editor goes to her house in West London, to see Virginia and meet her cat.
27m Aug 08, 2018
27m
1: Dame Jenni Murray on A History of Britain in 21 Women at the Oldie Literary Lunch
They were famous queens, unrecognised visionaries, great artists and trailblazing politicians. They all pushed back boundaries and revolutionised our world. Jenni Murray presents the history of Britain as you've never seen it before, through the lives of twenty-one women who refused to succumb to the established laws of society, whose lives embodied hope and change, and who still have the power...
13m Aug 07, 2018
13m
1: Andrew Gimson on Gimson's Prime Ministers at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Who is your favourite prime minister? Gimson has written a vivid account of the lives of PMs from Walpole to May. The former parliamentary sketchwriter for the Telegraph and biographer of Boris Johnson, Gimson is the dream guide to our First Lords of the Treasury. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand on July 17th 2018.
13m Aug 07, 2018
13m
1: Ferdinand Mount on Prime Movers at the Oldie Literary Lunch
The former head of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit and former editor of the TLS will talk about his latest book, Prime Movers. It examines the political ideas of twelve great thinkers across the centuries, including Pericles, Jesus Christ and Edmund Burke. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand on July 17th 2018.
20m Aug 07, 2018
20m
1: September Issue: Soho's Golden Age
Christopher Howse recalls the heyday of London’s boozy artistic bohemia – from the Forties to the Eighties. In conversation with Harry Mount.
22m Aug 07, 2018
22m
1: Miles Goslett on An Inconvenient Death: How the Establishment Covered up the David Kelly Affair at the Oldie Literary Lunch
From the man who exposed the Jimmy Savile scandal – in The Oldie – comes a book on the mysterious death of Dr David Kelly in 2003. It remains one of the most shadowy episodes in recent British political history. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch as part of Buxton International Festival on July 7th 2018.
14m Aug 07, 2018
14m
1: Leanda de Lisle on The White King: The Untold Story of Charles I at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Drawing on lost royal letters from a closed archive, The White King introduces us to Charles I as the monarch at the heart of an epic tale: of populist politicians, the fall of the mighty, religious hatreds, civil war, the power of a new media, and a maligned queen. This talk was recorded at an Oldie Literary Lunch as part of Buxton International Festival on July 7th 2018.
13m Aug 07, 2018
13m
1: D. J. Taylor on Rock and Roll is Life: A Novel at the Oldie Literary Lunch
'Rock and Roll is Life' is a vastly entertaining, picaresque and touching novel inspired by the excess and trajectories of the great '60s and '70s supergroups, and of the tales brought back from the front line by a very special breed of Englishmen who made it big in the States as the alchemists and enablers, as well as the old making way for the new in the era of the baby boomers. At its heart ...
11m Aug 07, 2018
11m
An extract from Sam Leith at the Oldie Journalism Course
Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator, talks about 'How to Write a Book Review' and proffers wisdom on how to make a review 'really sing on the page' and why you should read a book armed with a pen.
7m Jul 10, 2018
7m
An extract from Mary Kenny at the Oldie Journalism Course
Mary enlightens course-goers, telling them that 'only a blockhead goes into journalism for money' in her session on 'How to Write a Column' – something she has been doing now, for the best part of 50 years.
8m Jul 10, 2018
8m
August Issue: Rules Britannia
Sophia Money-Coutts on modern manners: drinks at 6.30, dinner at 8.30 – and get married by 30. The former features director of Tatler talks tongue-in-cheek about the world of the magazine, and her new book The Plus One which is published on 9th August.
22m Jul 10, 2018
22m
Stanley Johnson on Kompromat
The father of our ‘Golden Oldies’ columnist, Rachel Johnson, has written a political thriller – an account of the skulduggery that might have gone on behind the scenes in the run-up to the EU referendum. Described as a ‘unique peek under the dirty doormat of politics’. He talks at Chichester Cathedral, an Oldie lunch in partnership with the Literary festival.
16m Jul 10, 2018
16m
Christopher Somerville on The January Man: A Year of Walking Britain
A year of walks, inspired by a song – Dave Goulder’s The January Man. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville walks many of the 140,000 miles of footpaths across the British Isles. He talks at Chichester Cathedral, an Oldie lunch in partnership with the Literary festival.
9m Jul 10, 2018
9m
Anna Pasternak on Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago
Anna is the great-niece of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Boris Pasternak – author of Doctor Zhivago. She tells the story of the true and tragic love affair between Boris and Olga Ivinskaya which inspired the literary classic. She talks at Chichester Cathedral, an Oldie lunch in partnership with the Literary festival.
13m Jul 10, 2018
13m
5: July issue: Roger Lewis looks back on his journalism and books
Roger Lewis looks back on his journalism and books, and discusses his unique, sardonic, comic style. He also unlocks the characters of Peter Sellers and Laurence Olivier in a discussion of his ground-breaking biographies.
55m Jun 12, 2018
55m
4: Charles Duff on Charley's Woods at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Charles Duff stands in to replace his cousin John Julius Norwich, who was forced to stand down due to ill health, at the June 5th 2018 lunch. An actor and lecturer in Shakepeare and theatre history, he entertains and enthrals in equal measure talking about his memoir, Charley's Woods published by Zuleika.
18m Jun 12, 2018
18m
3: Angela Levin on Harry: Conversations with the Prince at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Fresh from reporting on the Royal Wedding for CNN from 4.30am until 9pm, Angela Levin reveals extracts from her royal biography, Harry: Conversations with the Prince at the Oldie Literary Lunch on June 5th 2018.
11m Jun 12, 2018
11m
2: Lady Antonia Fraser in conversation with Harry Mount at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Lady Antonia Fraser in conversation with her cousin, Harry Mount, on her book The King and the Catholics: The Fight for Rights 1829 at the Oldie Literary Lunch on June 5th 2018 at Simpson's-in-the-Strand. With an introduction by Barry Cryer.
13m Jun 12, 2018
13m
July Issue: Hancock's Last Hours
Barry Cryer on Tony Hancock. Barry recalls the comic genius of his friend, and how Hancock discarded his brilliant writers before finally, tragically discarding himself.
17m Jun 12, 2018
17m
Paul Atterbury and Marc Allum, Hugo Vickers and John Tusa at the April 2018 Literary Lunch
Paul Atterbury and Marc Allum discuss their new book, which celebrates 40 years of the Antiques Roadshow. They reveal their greatest and most interesting finds over the years, including a letter written by a doomed Titanic passenger and some original Beatrix Potter drawings. Royal family expert Hugo Vickers talks about his strife with big-budget Netflix series The Crown and his issues with the...
30m Apr 20, 2018
30m
Extract from the Oldie Computer course with Matthew Webster
In early April we had our ‘rebooted’ computer course at the Royal Geographical Society with Matthew Webster, who has been our technological expert and columnist since 2000. The internet was personified: described as an ‘angsty teenager’; and the course-going oldies were there to ‘tame’ it. Here is a recording from the session.
1hr 2m Apr 16, 2018
1hr 2m
May issue: Tom Hodgkinson on being idle
Harry Mount interviews Tom Hodgkinson, our Town Mouse columnist and cofounder of the Idler empire, about eminent Victorians, town vs country, and the key to a harmonious, idling existence.
29m Apr 16, 2018
29m
May issue: Back to the Falklands
Robert Fox discusses his sombre return to the Falklands to advise on a new feature film about the Battle of Goose Green – where he was one of only two journalists embedded with British forces. In conversation with Harry Mount.
20m Apr 16, 2018
20m
Spring issue: Those magnificent men of the RAF
It is 100 years since the Royal Air Force took flight. Joshua Levine, author of Fighter Heroes of WWI, commemorates the centenary with a preview of the new RAF museum. In conversation with Harry Mount.
25m Mar 20, 2018
25m
Spring 2018 issue: Fat pride is fat-headed
Ferdie Rous, our editorial assistant, talks about ‘fat shaming’. No Thinifer himself, he admits he should be revelling in the fight for ‘fat acceptance’, but he feels it’s sad – the obese are not an oppressed group and would all do well to shift the stones. In conversation with Annabel Sampson.
18m Mar 20, 2018
18m
Nicholas Shakespeare, Peter Snow and Ann MacMillan and Simon Jenkins at the March 2018 Literary Lunch
Nicholas Shakespeare, the distinguished novelist, on Six Minutes in May. A talk on Chamberlain's downfall, Churchill's eventual accession to number 10, and with a brief look at what could have happened had events worked out differently. Harry Mount, our editor, also praised Shakespeare for his great modesty, 'bringing up the 16th century playwright and not admitting that they're related'. Pete...
41m Mar 19, 2018
41m
April 2018 issue: Paddy the Great, king of Greece
On the eve of a retrospective exhibition at the British Museum, John Julius Norwich recalls the remarkable life and tremendous spirit of his friend Patrick Leigh Fermor, the man whom John Julius credits with opening up the Byzantine world to him – the subject of his subsequent book on the subject Byzantium: The Early Centuries. John Julius talks about Paddy's incredible intellectual curiosity ...
26m Feb 20, 2018
26m
April 2018 issue: I wrote a Ladybird book
Michael Wooldridge is a Professor of Computer Science and Head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford – he is also the author of the Ladybird Book for Artificial Intelligence, that is published on the 22nd March. He talks to Annabel Sampson, our digital editor, about writing the book, and how you take something as difficult as AI and make it understandable. He also re...
15m Feb 20, 2018
15m
The Oldie of the Year Awards 2018
In our annual event at Simpson’s in the Strand, awards were presented by Gyles Brandreth, and given to Basil Brush, Geoffrey Palmer, Alan Ayckbourn, Henry Blofeld, April Ashley, Baroness Williams of Crosby and the great Dame Vera Lynn.
35m Feb 07, 2018
35m
Matthew Fort on Summer in the Islands, The Oldie Literary Lunch
Food writer Matthew Fort tells us about his gourmet trip on a Vespa to little known Italian islands, brought to you by The Oldie Literary Lunch. The Oldie Literary Lunch is brought to you by Noble Caledonia - the world leaders in small ship cruising. For more info about the The Oldie and the lunches at Simpson's on The Strand: https://www.theoldie.co.uk/ #Islands #Foodie #Italy #TheOldie
11m Jan 25, 2018
11m
The Making of the British Landscape by Nicholas Crane at The Oldie Literary Lunch
At The Oldie Literary lunch presents, geographer Nicholas Crane who explains that over millennia Britain has evolved from ice-bound peninsula, to an island of cities and manmade countryside. The Oldie Literary Lunch is brought to you by Noble Caledonia - the world leaders in small ship cruising. For more info about the The Oldie and the lunches at Simpson's on The Strand: https://www.theoldie...
8m Jan 25, 2018
8m