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

The Old Un’s Notes

Among this month’s contributors

NOT MANY DEAD • Important stories you may have missed

My wife and I love a good Trollope • We’re so obsessed with the novelist that we fought over a single copy of The Way We Live Now

Apple of my eye lets me down • My phone was my master - until it confessed to its faults

OLDEN LIFE

MODERN LIFE

Hill's peaks & troughs • Born 100 years ago, Benny Hill was a milkman, a crooner and a true original. By Andrew Roberts

Help! My friend's married a bore • Oh, the joy when friends marry gripping people - and the agony when they end up with shockers. By Charlotte Metcalf

Hell's kitchens • You've got to be mad to set up a restaurant, says restaurateur Rowley Leigh

How to make the cut • In the Regency period, we developed brilliant ways of putting people down. It's time to revive them, says Lulu Taylor

To Sir, with Love • Gregory Kerry, 68, an English teacher in China, is astonished by how many of his young pupils take a shine to him

Dying to please • When Simon Williams was killed off in Upstairs, Downstairs, his agent promised him it would be good for his career

Poor in the USA • After seven years in America, James Fletcher is delighted to be returning to Britain, where everything is much cheaper

Tarnished Jewel • Forty years after The Jewel in the Crown hit our screens, Roger Lewis is shocked at how creaky it looks now

My pipe dream • Nicholas Lezard knows he looks affected but he loves the cheap, calm lift he gets from smoking a pipe

I'm a colour-blind artist • John Rattigan's condition has made his art more original - and led to him buying a hideous turquoise car

If you can't stand the Twitter hate, get out of the kitchen

Invasion of the super rats • After 44 years of rodent-free life, Nick Newman's house is under siege

Bridge champion • Mark Palmer applauds the rebuilding of the Union Chain Bridge near Berwick-upon-Tweed - the first iron suspension bridge in the world

Hair today - gone tomorrow • Bearded women, say goodbye to bristles

Great hymns abide with me • In praise of the hymn-book that sold 150 million copies

On the slow road to happiness

Bob Geldof was right - I'm irritating

The end of my Channel-ferry love affair • Mary Kenny says au revoir to the day trips she once adored

Love's young dream becomes a nightmare • Britain's least romantic spot? Ramona's boxroom in a tower block

My idea of Hell? Covering for an ill teacher

Roll up! Roll up! The cathedral circus is here

General the Lord Ramsbotham GCB CBE (1934-2022)

Parkinson's law • Is there a connection between loneliness and the cruellest disease?

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

Ian Brady

The Office - a 1944 episode

Books

OLDIE NOVEL OF THE MONTH Out of North Africa

Commonplace...