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 Corgi's Lament

Jeremy Lewis Prize for New Writing 2022 • How to enter

Mourning glory • The crowds paying their respects to the late Queen were so moving

Perils of daytime TV - Ian Botham and shingles jabs • Who would buy a vaccine off a telly ad? My mother

OLDEN LIFE

MODERN LIFE

Dare to be different • Do you wear odd clothes, reject convention and laugh off mockery? Then you're an eccentric, says Andrew M Brown

The Saint and Dr No turn 60 • Roger Moore's Saint and Sean Connery’s Bond first hit our screens in the same week in 1962. Andrew Roberts salutes them

EXPLORING THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS • Island hopping in the Cape Verde archipelago aboard the MS Hebridean Sky - 1st to 10th April 2023

The Kaiser - my heavenly boss • Contrary to his grumpy image, Karl Lagerfeld was funny, clever and affectionate, says Natasha A Fraser

Vivat Latin!* • We all know a bit of Latin - and there are lots more lovely words and lines out there to enjoy.

My Lost Boy • Cosmo Landesman’s son belonged to a tribe of lonely, young addicts who never get started in life before they end it all

Coleridge comes home • On his 250th anniversary, a statue of the poet will be erected in Ottery St Mary, his Devon birthplace.

Wrinklier than thou • One-upmanship for oldies,

Live the good life • With inflation and food prices soaring, it’s time to grow your own.

The spy who shocked le Carré • John le Carré’s letters are witty, kind - and damning of Kim Philby.

In search of lost Paris • Barry Humphries finds that the enchanting city of his youth now makes him chunder

Don't worry – and don't be happy • Steer clear of frowning, smiling and ‘spalling’; Repetitive use of facial muscles produces wrinkles

Tweed dreams • Henry Oliver, once a Young Fogey, has cast aside his cravat and embraced the modern world

Testament of love • A new collection of letters between writers Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby reveals a passionate friendship.

The Waste Land turns 100 • AN Wilson celebrates the genius of TS Eliot’s poem - and recalls how it made the Queen Mother roar with laughter

Anyone for municipal tennis? Yes, please!

The rich man’s in his castle. I’m the poor man at his gate

The older we are, the kinder we get • As we get close to death, we see the point of life.

My testing time at the pop-up surgery • When a doctor came to the office, I made a real balls-up

Should I ever call a child ‘it’?

Quite Interesting Things about… salt

The Gospel according to Disney

Sir Richard Shepherd (1942-2022)

Pleasure is good for you • Heavy drinking is bad, but the odd drink improves your quality of life

READERS' LETTERS

Kurt Vonnegut

A miracle in Jamaica

Apocalypse row

The wit of the century

Mitford revisited

Rose-tinted emperor

White Russians get...