The Oldie

The idea for the Oldie was cooked up 25 years ago by its founding editor, Richard Ingrams, and his much-lamented successor, the late Alexander Chancellor. Their aim was to create a free-thinking, funny magazine, a light-hearted alternative to a press obsessed with youth and celebrity. The Oldie is ageless and timeless, free of retirement advice, crammed with rejuvenating wit, intelligence and delight. With over 100 pages in every issue, The Oldie is packed with funny cartoons and free-thinking and intelligent articles covering a wide range of topics – from gardening and books to travel, arts, entertainment, and so much more.

The Oldie

Among this month's contributors

The Old Un's Notes

NOT MANY DEAD • Important stories you may have missed

The new woman in my life • She's brilliant and beautiful and her books have been compared to Nancy Mitford's – I'm besotted

You couldn't make it up • With so many gripping true stories on the screen, Liz Hodgkinson is tired of fictional dramas

OLDEN LIFE

MODERN LIFE

Bare necessity • Alice Cockerell and her family do everything naked – from swimming to eating paella

Parcels from heaven • On the eve of Remembrance Sunday, the Duke of Gloucester salutes the Red Cross packets that lifted the spirits of prisoners of war

Goodbye to The Good Food Guide • James Pembroke says a fond farewell to the eating-out Bible, founded in 1951 by Raymond Postgate

Most eminent Victorian • Isambard Kingdom Brunel was Britain's greatest engineer – and a family man, says his great-great-great granddaughter Bella Thomas

Don't wave farewell to long wave • Next March, the BBC will switch off its LW radio signals. It's a tragedy, says wireless fan Rob Mannion

Rugby's number-one player • Two hundred years ago, William Webb Ellis picked up a ball and created a new sport. Or did he? asks Christopher Sandford

King of Comedy • Barry Cryer was the elder statesman of light entertainment. His friend Roger Lewis enjoys a new biography by his son

Dad's best lines • Barry Cryer's biography by his son Bob Cryer includes the comedian's favourite jokes and stories from 65 years in showbiz

How I found my voice • Aged 11, Christopher Coleridge suddenly developed a stutter. After a decade of agony, he discovered a cure

Did we ever think that… • Joseph Connolly on the everyday stuff of modern life that would have seemed impossible 60 years ago

It's all Greek to me – thank Zeus • When novelist Lulu Taylor's children started Saturday school, she went, too – and signed up for Ancient Greek lessons

For hands that do dishes… • I ruined mine with the washing-up, but you can preserve yours

Florence, home of the lavatory Renaissance

Mary's new diagnosis? I've got rural dementia

Wall-to-wall art in Kent • New murals of Buster Keaton and Somerset Maugham have popped up in my home county, says Mary Kenny

Agatha Christie's last mystery • Hilary Macaskill admires the writer's stained-glass window

An English GCSE changed a boy's life

Cavaliers and roundheads • When John de Bruyne was born in 1945, circumcision was all the rage – but now it's got the chop

The illiterate world of books • Literary festivals and book clubs have got little to do with reading

TV ghouls rush to Morocco earthquake

Andrew Edmunds (1943-2022)

Angels of death haunt the NHS • Lucy Letby isn't the only monster in the caring profession

READERS’ LETTERS • The Oldie, 23–31 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7PA letters@theoldie.co.uk To sign up for our e-newsletter, go to www.theoldie.co.uk

Joni Mitchell

Cupid strikes in a jumbo-jet back...