COME TO ANOLDIE LITERARY

LUNCH SEE PAGE 54

C O N T E N T S

REGULARS

REGULARS

7 The Old Un’s Diary 14 Profitable Wonders James Le Fanu 14 Rant Frances Coverdale 16 Modern Life What is stakeholding? 17 Olden Life What was the Peanut Club? 17 Wilfred De’Ath as Sybarite 20 Whiteboard Jungle Kate Sawyer 23 Notes from the Sofa Raymond Briggs 25 House Husbandry Giles Wood 26 God… Melanie McDonagh 26 …Mammon Margaret Dibben 27 Fashion Tamasin Doe 29 Words Diarmaid Ó Muirithe 29 Brave New World Jane Thynne 31 Granny Annexe Virginia Ironside 33 Mind the Age Gap Lizzie Enfield 37 Superbyw@ys Webster 39 Dr Stuttaford’s Surgery PSA tests and deep vein thrombosis 40 East of Islington Sam Taylor 42 Pearls of Wisdom Melanie McFadyean 45 Roving Reporter John Sweeney 48 Readers Write 52 Unwrecked England Candida Lycett Green 54 Oldie Literary Lunches 55 Readers’ Event Oldie illustration course 57 Out and About Rosie Boycott 58 Travel Jonathan Fryer on Izmir; Clover Stroud on a quirky Yorkshire campsite 90 Dear Mavis with Mavis Nicholson

BOOKS

61 BOOK REVIEWS John McEntee on ‘The Crazy Life of Brendan Behan’; John Torode on Pete Brown; Simon Caulkin on ‘Jilted Generation’; James Le Fanu on Stephen Hawking; Juliet Gardiner on ‘Shapely Ankle Preferr’d’; Christopher Andrew on Keith Jeffery’s official history of MI6 Rachel Redford reviews audiobooks

REVIEWS

76 GARDENING David Wheeler on bulbs 76 MEMORIAL James Hughes-Onslow on George Ingham Brown 77 EXPAT Paola Hanna in Ghent, Belgium

PLUS

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

69 MUSIC Richard Osborne on Plácido Domingo 70 SPORT Frank Keating remembers an early betting scam 70 COOKERY Elisabeth Luard on foods for the poorly 71 SHOPPING Alice Pitman on trouble and strife in the Shopping household 72 THEATRE Paul Bailey on ‘Season’s Greetings’ and ‘A Flea in her Ear’ 72 FILM Marcus Berkmann on ‘The King’s Speech’ 73 OLDIE MASTERS Philip Athill on William Cowen 74 DVD James Pembroke on ‘Colditz’ 74 WIRELESS Valerie Grove’s radio roundup 75 TELEVISION Richard Ingrams on Charlie Brooker and the Chilcot Enquiry

‘Andrew Lansley’s insisting we all wear this gear’

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

ANN LANCE MURRAY An unsatisfactory postwar education deprived Ann of the Latin necessary to attend university, resulting in a working life spent typing, mostly in the aviation industry. No longer a typist, she has fortunately put her keyboard skills to excellent use in recording for us her days as an arch-pest in the Peanut Club. All is explained in this month’s Olden Life on page 16…

CHRISTOPHER ANDREW is Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University and President of Corpus Christi College. He specialises in intelligence studies, and has written a number of books on the use of secret intelligence in modern history, most recently The Defence of the Realm, the first authorised history of MI5. On page 66 he reviews a similar volume on MI6.

SIMON CAULKIN Simon Caulkin is freelance writer with a special interest in business. He is a former editor of the UK monthly Management Today and was for many years the Observer’s award-winning management correspondent. See page 63 for his review of Ed Howker and Steve Malik’s Jilted Generation: How Britain has Bankrupted its Youth.

Next issue on sale Friday 11th March

SUBSCRIBE NOW

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Recipes & Ramblings

Written and illustrated by

Elisabeth Luard

From her column in

SEE PAGE 51

SEE PAGE 51

FREE

ANDGETA COPYOFRECIPES ANDRAMBLINGS WHENYOU SUBSCRIBE

01795 592 893

OR CALL 01795 592 893 OR VISIT www.theoldie.co.uk/subscribe

TELL A FRIEND – FREE SAMPLE COPY OF THE OLDIE Do you have a friend who would like to see a sample copy of The Oldie? Then tell them to call

32-pagemoneyguideFREE32-pagemoneyguideOLDMONEY

‘A regular infusion of wisdom and wit in our increasingly disorderly world’

‘A regular infusion of wisdom and wit in our increasingly disorderly world’ PDJAMES

IRRESISTIBLY SMOOTH

March 2010 www.theoldie.co.uk

0845 357 3613 to request a FREE SAMPLE COPY

OUR OLDIES OF THE YEAR GIELGUD –WORLD’SWORSTOTHELLO WARGAMES MOMOWLAMINTOILETSHOCKER WHENBUNTY MET PHIL

MAD LETTERS CARTOONS WINE MUSIC FASHION SPORT FILM FOOD BOOKS

£3.50

March 2011 – THE OLDIE 5