FOUR NEW OLDIE BOOKSSEEPAGE49

C O N T E N T S

REGULARS

BOOKS

7 The Old Un’s Diary 14 Profitable Wonders James Le Fanu 16 Modern Life What is Aqua Sheko? 17 Olden Life What was the Groundnut Scheme? 19 Notes from the Sofa Raymond Briggs 20 Whiteboard Jungle Kate Sawyer 25 House Husbandry Giles Wood 26 God… Melanie McDonagh 26 …Mammon Margaret Dibben 27 Fashion Tamasin Doe 29 Brave New World Jane Thynne 29 Words Diarmaid Ó Muirithe 31 Granny Annexe Virginia Ironside 32 Brief Encounters Nigel Fountain 35 Wilfred De’Ath on Henry James 35 Rant Angela Huth 37 Superbyw@ys Webster 39 Mind the Age Gap Lizzie Enfield 40 East of Islington Sam Taylor 41 Rant Peter Lewis 44 Roving Reporter John Sweeney 47 Dr Stuttaford’s Surgery Manuka honey; bereavement 51 Pearls of Wisdom Melanie McFadyean 52 Readers Write 56 Unwrecked England Candida Lycett Green 58 Oldie Literary Lunches 59 Readers’ Event A Taste of Tuscany 90 Dear Mavis with Mavis Nicholson

61 BOOK REVIEWS Alice Pitman on William Roache’s life as Ken Barlow; Zenga Longmore on Britain’s black community during the War; Peter Lewis on ‘No Such Thing As Society’; Thomas Stuttaford on Peter Ackroyd’s ‘The English Ghost’; Nigel Fountain on ‘Empire of the Clouds’; William Keegan on ‘The Financial Crisis: Who is to Blame?’ Rachel Redford reviews audiobooks

REVIEWS

69 MUSIC Richard Osborne on Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater’ 70 SPORT Frank Keating on boxing 70 COOKERY Elisabeth Luard on soup, tea and sandwiches 71 SHOPPING Alice Pitman in Bookham 72 THEATRE Paul Bailey on ‘Men Should Weep’ and ‘Blasted’ 72 FILM Marcus Berkmann on ‘The Kids are All Right’ and ‘Made in Dagenham’ 73 OLDIE MASTERS Philip Athill on Edward Baird 74 OPERA Ian Wilson on ‘Madam Butterfly’ – live from the Met 74 WIRELESS Valerie Grove’s roundup 75 TELEVISION Richard Ingrams on

A M O N G T H I S M O N T H ’ S C O N T R I B U T O R S

‘Any Human Heart’ and ‘Edward Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask’ 76 GARDENING David Wheeler on pelargoniums 76 MEMORIAL James Hughes-Onslow on Michael Foot 77 EXPAT Nick Manho in Sicily 78 DVD Piers Brendon on Winston Churchill’s funeral

PLUS

80 COMPETITION with Tessa Castro 80 SUDOKU 81 WINE with Malcolm Gluck 83 CROSSWORD by Antico 84 CLASSIFIED

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CAROLINE SEEBOHM is the author of a number of novels, biographies and illustrated books, including At Home With Books. She recently turned her skills to teaching ‘untouchable’ children in Southern India, a rewarding experience which she writes about on page 22. She has two ex-husbands, two children and a dog, and lives in the USA.

SARAH SHANNON who interviews the Conservative peer Earl Ferrers on page 12, joined Private Eye as a hack in 1994 and then moved to the London Evening Standard and the Daily Express. She lives in London with her family and enjoys her best job yet – as diarist of a scintillating, witty yet highbrow magazine called, er, The Oldie.

SOPHIA SACKVILLE-WEST has been a columnist on the Literary Review and the Evening Standard, has had a number of interviews and travel articles published, and is the author of a book about life in Ancient Greece. She has lived in Brazil with her family with whom she recently travelled to Oman – which she writes about on page 26 of the travel supplement.

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January 2011 – THE OLDIE 5