The Oldie

1 month ago | theoldie.co.uk | Richard Godwin

The antisocial century is what we’re living in now. Humans have passed through the era of the tribe, the kingdom and the nation state. We have moved beyond communities and collectives, parties and unions. Partners, colleagues, friends, lovers … these too are beginning to seem a bit old hat. What we would rather do now is eat takeaways on our own, looking at our phones, wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘F*** Off’. Welcome to the antisocial century.

1 month ago | theoldie.co.uk | Louise Flind

Do you travel light? No, I travel very, very heavy. I simply cannot make up my mind as to what I might need. I’ve got two vast suitcases, whose contents I’ve disseminated around the apartment I’m staying in, and I’ve got the miserable task in a month of cramming it all in. Having acquired lots of things, I might buy a third suitcase… What’s your favourite destination? I have dear friends in Mykonos. My husband, Sebastian, and I often stay with them. Earliest childhood holiday memories?

1 month ago | theoldie.co.uk | Patrick Barkham

There are various Everests a British walker can scale. I mean not actual high summits, but peak experiences. What can beat an English bluebell wood at April’s end? A dawn chorus expedition in May? Or a golden-leaved fungi foray in October? For rarity, in the southern half of 21st-century Britain at least, there is a walking experience that surpasses them all: a snowy stroll in brilliant sunshine when our ordinary world stands transformed.

1 month ago | theoldie.co.uk | Mary Kenny

The electoral constituency of Dover and Deal comprises two English coastal towns, just eight miles apart. And it's rather sad to observe the contrast between the two. Deal is repeatedly named as being among the ‘50 best places to live’. The Financial Times has dubbed it Hoxton-on-Sea, an allusion to its fashionable hipster status. Meanwhile, poor old Dover has drifted well down the popularity charts.

1 month ago | theoldie.co.uk | Louise Flind

What are your earliest childhood holiday memories? My father (the composer William Lloyd Webber) used to rent cottages in locations chosen because of my brother’s love of ancient monuments. We’d usually end up going down ridiculous unpaved roads, getting flat tyres, with my father effing and blinding. What was it like growing up in such a musical house? Was it inevitable you’d become a musician? It seemed completely normal to me – all this racket going on in every room.