CATEGORIES

The 1,000-year soap opera
The Oldie Magazine

The 1,000-year soap opera

From Richard III to The Crown, monarchs make for perfect drama

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4 mins  |
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

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5 mins  |
November 2020
The bad taste of COVID-19
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

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3 mins  |
November 2020
Whodunnit? Dick Francis or his wife?
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?

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5 mins  |
November 2020
The Wigeon
The Oldie Magazine

The Wigeon

At Elmley Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey, last March, numerous premigrating wigeon (Anas penelope) were resting.

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2 mins  |
November 2020
Orchards are buzzing with birds and bees
The Oldie Magazine

Orchards are buzzing with birds and bees

JAMES LE FANU

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3 mins  |
November 2020
Barbados revisited
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

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5 mins  |
November 2020
My Pilgrim father
The Oldie Magazine

My Pilgrim father

In 1957, a bold British journalist built a replica of the Mayflower and sailed it across the Atlantic.

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3 mins  |
November 2020
Love, Vicki
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

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6 mins  |
November 2020
My Lockdown Deafness
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

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4 mins  |
October 2020
The shipwreck that rocked the monarchy
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

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6 mins  |
October 2020
Overlooked Britain My elegy for a country church memorial LUCINDA LAMBTON
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

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5 mins  |
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.

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6 mins  |
October 2020
The thrill of the steeplechase
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

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6 mins  |
October 2020
My glorious fleet of Matchbox minis
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.

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2 mins  |
October 2020
Realm of bright water
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

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6 mins  |
October 2020
Getting Dressed - Magician who made East meet West
The Oldie Magazine

Getting Dressed - Magician who made East meet West

Interior designer Alidad combines Iran, Islam and Austria in his look

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3 mins  |
October 2020
Heavenly metal
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

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4 mins  |
October 2020
Germaine Greer unmasked
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

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9 mins  |
October 2020
The critic who cared too much
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

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5 mins  |
September 2020
Travel: Hidden Staffordshire
The Oldie Magazine

Travel: Hidden Staffordshire

William Cook visits Samuel Johnson’s Lichfield house and Tamworth, home to Robert Peel and Queen Aethelflaed

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5 mins  |
September 2020
Best Sherlock Holmes on TV? Elementary
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

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5 mins  |
September 2020
My work is much more fun than fun
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.

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2 mins  |
September 2020
The heroes – and villains – of the Blitz
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

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5 mins  |
September 2020
Stammer blow
The Oldie Magazine

Stammer blow

A stammerer since childhood, Nigel Phillips enjoyed and endured a successful and stressful language-teaching career. Did anything help?

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4 mins  |
September 2020
Overlooked Britain What Delaval brought to the stable
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

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4 mins  |
September 2020
King of the Army
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

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6 mins  |
September 2020
Gyles Brandreth's Diary: How to kill your wife and get away with it
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

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4 mins  |
September 2020
A right royal farce
The Oldie Magazine

A right royal farce

As Spitting Image returns, producer John Lloyd recalls how the show was nearly banned

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8 mins  |
September 2020
Travel: Bernini's Rome
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

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6 mins  |
August 2020