The Oldie Podcast

Roger Lewis tells Harry Mount about his new book on Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor – and about the genius and sheer oddness of Peter Sellers, on his centenary.

Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library 13th March 2025, Elisabeth Luard, The Oldie's cookery correspondent, shows how you can make money out of your own Substack column.

Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library 13th March 2025, William Cook, The Oldie's theatre critic, gives you the ideal essay plan for a travel feature.

Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library 13th March 2025, Sam Leith, Literary Editor of The Spectator, talks about how to get a book review and how to write it properly.

Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library 13th March 2025, Mary Kenny, Oldie columnist and a journalist for 60 years, explains how to make columns fresh and gripping.

Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library on 13th March 2025, Harry Mount, Editor of The Oldie, reveals his tips on how to pitch articles to magazines and newspapers.

Simon Williams tells Charlotte Metcalf about playing Major Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs, and starring in The Archers. He and his wife, Lucy Fleming, play her parents, Peter Fleming and Celia Johnson, in Posting Letters to the Moon

Roger McGough was one of the Liverpool or Mersey Poets alongside Brian Patten and the late Adrian Henry.  Today he’s known as the ‘godfather of modern poetry’ and continues to present BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please, a role he’s held since 1979. He’s an OBE and CBE, the last awarded in 2004 for Services to Literature. On Radio Oldie he talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his latest book of The Collected Poems 1959-2024, growing up in Liverpool, performing with the Scaffold and his life as an author, playwright and poet.

Ben MacIntyre speaking about his new book, The Siege: the Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on March 11th 2025.

A. N. Wilson speaking about his new book, Goethe: His Faustian Life - the Extraordinary Story of Modern Germany, a Troubled Genius and the Poem that Made our World, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on March 11th 2025.

Hugo Vickers speaking about his new book, Muse to Power: the Untold Story of Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on March 11th 2025.

Charles Moore tells Harry Mount how Margaret Thatcher became Conservative leader 50 years ago - and how she got on with the Queen. Lady Thatcher would have been 100 on October 13th this year. In September, Charles Moore will publish The Authorised Biography of Margaret Thatcher: Single-volume Centenary Edition.

Matthew Norman, the Oldie’s Grumpy Old Man columnist, tells Harry Mount about creating the nickname ‘Mandy’ for Peter Mandelson – and Mandy’s outraged reaction. And he recalls meeting Bernard Manning – and his favourite Bernard Manning gag.

Britain’s greatest man of letters, A. N. Wilson, tells Harry Mount about the genius of Goethe, the decline of the Church of England and his addiction to journalism.

Sir Ben Okri, the Booker Prize-winning author and poet, talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his latest book, Madame Sosotris and the Festival for The Broken Hearted, and his collection of African stories for Everyman.  He talks to her about being broken hearted, how the Booker Prize changed his life, being homeless and the acclaimed poem he wrote in response to the Grenfell Tower fire, as well as sharing his views on the current state of our unsettled world. 

Victoria Hislop speaking about her new book, The Figurine, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on February 11th 2025.

James Stourton speaking about his new book, Rogues & Scholars: Boom and Bust in the London Art Market, 1945-2000, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on February 11th 2025.”

Liz Hodgkinson speaking about her new book, A Mink Coat in St Neots, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on February 11th 2025.”

One of our leading architectural historians, Lucinda Lambton tells Harry Mount about Hebridean castles, eccentric lavatories and Overlooked Britain - her Oldie column.

Elisabeth Luard talks to Charlotte Metcalf  with warmth and candour about her passion for cooking and food, her extensive travels, her upbringing in Uruguay and time as a  debutante in London during the 50s,  motherhood, her long marriage to Nicholas Luard, the one-time owner of Private Eye and founder of the satirical Establishment Club with Peter Cook.  She also describes the harrowing death of her daughter to AIDS and talks about her life now and loving - finally - having a ‘room of her own’ in Acton.