Culture
The Oldie Magazine
The 1,000-year soap opera
From Richard III to The Crown, monarchs make for perfect drama
4 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
On top of the world
Lewis Pugh, the first person to swim across the North Pole, admires a new Arctic exhibition at the British Museum
5 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
The bad taste of COVID-19
As coronavirus sufferers are discovering, a sense of smell is essential to enjoying the great pleasures of eating
3 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Whodunnit? Dick Francis or his wife?
William Cook solves the ultimate mystery of the jockey, born 100 years ago. Did he write his bestsellers himself?
5 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
The Wigeon
At Elmley Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey, last March, numerous premigrating wigeon (Anas penelope) were resting.
2 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Orchards are buzzing with birds and bees
JAMES LE FANU
3 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Barbados revisited
Forty years ago, a teenage James Pembroke killed lizards in the blistering Caribbean heat. Now he rejoices in early colonial buildings
5 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
My Pilgrim father
In 1957, a bold British journalist built a replica of the Mayflower and sailed it across the Atlantic.
3 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Love, Vicki
Victoria Wood’s letters reveal a shy, perfectionist, affectionate genius, shadowed by a lonely childhood, says her biographer, Jasper Rees
6 min |
November 2020
The Oldie Magazine
My Lockdown Deafness
Social distancing and an earwax fatberg made Oliver Pritchett face up to the truth – he was losing his hearing
4 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
The shipwreck that rocked the monarchy
Nine hundred years ago, Prince William, Henry I’s heir, drowned in the White Ship disaster – leading to civil war, says Charles Spencer
6 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Overlooked Britain My elegy for a country church memorial LUCINDA LAMBTON
The poet Thomas Gray is buried in Stoke Poges by a monument inscribed with his greatest poem
5 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
The glorious Guinness girls
A century ago, three heiresses lit up the Roaring Twenties in Ireland’s loveliest houses with charm and gaiety.
6 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
The thrill of the steeplechase
Jumping over the sticks is often regarded with disdain by its richer, flat-racing cousin – but not by Robert Bathurst
6 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
My glorious fleet of Matchbox minis
No child of the 1950s will ever forget how they chose to squander their pocket money – were they lucky enough actually to receive any.
2 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Realm of bright water
Sixty years after Gavin Maxwell published his Scottish classic, Kevin Pilley visits Eilean Bàn, the island home of the writer and his otters
6 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Getting Dressed - Magician who made East meet West
Interior designer Alidad combines Iran, Islam and Austria in his look
3 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Heavenly metal
Harry Mount tours the Tottenham factory that’s replaced miles of railings ripped out of 40 London squares during the war
4 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Germaine Greer unmasked
Fifty years after The Female Eunuch, the writer tells Valerie Grove about unsexy Clive James, her transgender war and scalping herself
9 min |
October 2020
The Oldie Magazine
The critic who cared too much
Ian Nairn wrote brilliantly about buildings, made glorious TV – and drowned his sorrows too deeply, remembers Jonathan Meades
5 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Travel: Hidden Staffordshire
William Cook visits Samuel Johnson’s Lichfield house and Tamworth, home to Robert Peel and Queen Aethelflaed
5 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Best Sherlock Holmes on TV? Elementary
Jeremy Brett, who died 25 years ago, captured the master sleuth perfectly, says Damian Thompson, an obsessive fan
5 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
My work is much more fun than fun
Paul Ewart, an Oxford research physicist, recently won a landmark case. He wanted to be allowed to carry on working beyond the statutory university retirement age of 67. Ewart argued that, at 70, he still had important research work to do.
2 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
The heroes – and villains – of the Blitz
Eighty years ago, there was plenty of Blitz spirit, says Joshua Levine. There was also lots of crime, terror and illicit sex
5 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Stammer blow
A stammerer since childhood, Nigel Phillips enjoyed and endured a successful and stressful language-teaching career. Did anything help?
4 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Overlooked Britain What Delaval brought to the stable
Sir Francis Delaval added an equine palace to Seaton Delaval, Vanbrugh’s baroque jewel
4 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
King of the Army
Sergeant Elvis Presley finished his service in Germany sixty years ago – and became a greater singer, says Andrew M Brown
6 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Gyles Brandreth's Diary: How to kill your wife and get away with it
P D James and John Mortimer gave me tips for the perfect murder
4 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
A right royal farce
As Spitting Image returns, producer John Lloyd recalls how the show was nearly banned
8 min |
September 2020
The Oldie Magazine
Travel: Bernini's Rome
No artist left a greater mark on the city than the great baroque sculptor and architect. Loyd Grossman follows in his footsteps
6 min |