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Radio Oldie

Radio Oldie

The Oldie magazine’s podcast featuring discussion and debate around the lead features in the latest magazine, plus live recordings from our famous Literary Lunches. Presented by Harry Mount.

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  • 494 episodes
  • Updated Thursday

Episodes494

Newest first
  • Feb 1, 2016 · 15 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Jonathan Dimbleby on The Battle of the Atlantic

    Jonathan Dimbleby talks at the renowned Oldie Magazine literary lunch. The presenter of ANY QUESTIONS? Talks about the battle that secured the Allied Victory and which ran through the whole course of the war. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Jan 14, 2016 · 9 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Jonathan Fenby on Modern France

    Jonathan Fenby talks at The Oldie Literary Lunch about his latest book which explores the tempestuous history of modern France. For more than a decade Jonathan was head of Reuters in Paris. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Jan 14, 2016 · 15 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Gyles Brandreth on Wordplay

    Gyles Brandeth the star performer talks at The Oldie Literary Lunch. He is someone who would entertain even if he simply read from the Yellow Pages. Gyles reveals why he is such a scream on BBC Radio 4's Just A Minute: prepare yourself for a linguistic frenzy of palindromes, mnemonics and acronyms. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Dec 16, 2015 · 9 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Sir Ian Kershaw on To Hell & Back

    Ian Kershaw talks at the enowned Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpsons on the Stand, London W1. Kershaw is the leading expert on Hitler and Nazi Germany. His latest work focuses on the consequences for Europe of being plunged into two World Wars. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Dec 16, 2015 · 6 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Barry Cryer and his Parrot Jokes

    Barry Cryer, comedian and writer makes up for Jonathan Miller not turning up to the renowned Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpsons on the Stand, by telling some of his eponymous parrot jokes. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Dec 16, 2015 · 11 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Tom Holland on the House of Caesar

    Classicist and historian Tom Holland talks at the renowned Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpsons on the Stand, London W1. Dynasty - The Rise & Fall of the House of Caesar is a prequel to Persian Fire and Rubicon. The book provides an exuberant portrait of Rome's first imperial Dynasty. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Dec 1, 2015 · 11 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Flora Fraser, The Washingtons

    The renowned Oldie Literary lunch held in Brighton welcomes Flora Fraser, granddaughter of Elizabeth Longford and daughter of Antonia Fraser. Flora describes the marriage of The Washingtons, George and Martha, and the struggle for independence in the US. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Dec 1, 2015 · 11 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Alison Weir on The Lost Tudor

    The biggest selling Historian in the UK Alison Weir talks about The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox at a renowned Oldie Literary lunch. Her latest book looks at the life of scandal, imprisonment, drama and tragedy of this relatively unknown royal Tudor. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Dec 1, 2015 · 11 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Piers Paul Read, Scarpia

    The Oldie Lunch Recordings presents Piers Paul Read's latest novel reimagines the life of Vitellio Scarpia, the villain of Puccini's Tosca. With a backdrop of 18th Century Rome, we follow him from disgrace and penury to his fatal clinch with Tosca who he ruined. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Nov 25, 2015 · 15 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Charles Moore on Margaret Thatcher

    Charles Moore on Margaret Thatcher: Everything She Wants Volume Two: talks at the renowned Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpsons on the Stand, London W1. Moore returns to Simpson's to talk about his much awaited Volume Two of his highly praised biography. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Nov 25, 2015 · 14 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Patrick Bishop on The Cooler King

    Patrick Bishop Author of The Cooler Kings talks at the renowned Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpsons on the Stand, London W1. Bishop has spent 26 years covering conflicts around the world and has reported from the front line of almost every major war of our era. Author of The Fighter Boys, his new work tells us the story of Canadian Spitfire pilot William Ash who defied the Nazis by trying to escape from a succession of PoW camps. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Nov 25, 2015 · 18 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Stephen Clarke, How the French Won Waterloo

    Stephen Clarke Author of How The French Won Waterloo or think they did talks at the renowned Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpsons on the Stand, London W1. Clarke paints the French version of Wellington and Blucher's victory in 1815. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Nov 18, 2015 · 9 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Loyd Grossman Benjamin West on the Struggle to be Modern

    Benjamin West and the Struggle to be Modern At the time of his death in 1820, Benjamin West was the most famous artist in the English-speaking world, and much admired throughout Europe. From humble beginnings in Pennsylvania, he had become the first American artist to study in Italy, and within a few short years of his arrival in London, was instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts (he succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds to become its second President) and became history painter to King George III. Grossman explains why Wolfe was such an instant success and why this thrilling work of art continues to exercise such a strong grip on our imaginations nearly 250 years after it was first shown to the public. He situates West in the midst of Enlightenment thinking about history and modernity, and seeks to demolish some of the prejudices about the talent and intentions of the young man from the Pennsylvania frontier who attained such eminence at the British court." Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Nov 18, 2015 · 7 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Kwasi Kwarteng on Thatcher’s Trial

    Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister in 1979, the first woman to hold the position, and the first woman in the Western world to lead a nation. Within two years she was beset by troubles, and it seemed her historic government would be short-lived. In 1981 unemployment had risen to levels not seen since the 1930s and public finances foundered in their worst state since 1945. The 'no hope' budget delivered by Chancellor Geoffrey Howe in March marked the beginning of a six-month period which witnessed pressures in Northern Ireland, hunger strikes, urban riots and unprecedented unrest within the Conservative Party. By the Cabinet reshuffle of 14 September, in which mutinous grandees were removed, Thatcher had firmly reasserted her authority. This extraordinary six-month period would come to define the Conservative Party's most successful and divisive modern figure: to her detractors a harsh, uncaring and dogmatic leader who made the country a more unequal, materialistic and brutal place; to her supporters, the saviour of a Britain which was becoming an ungovernable socialist state. The 1983 general election would prove a triumph. Kwasi Kwarteng here captures this shopkeeper's daughter's unique leadership qualities - from her pulpit style and New Testament imagery to her emphasis on personal moral responsibility - in some of the most adverse conditions facing any statesman in modern peacetime to offer a compelling study of arguably the most significant six months in British post-war history. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

  • Nov 18, 2015 · 8 min

    Oldie Literary Lunch: Blake Morisson on Shingle Street

    'A cul-de-sac, a dead-end track, A sandbanked strand to sink a fleet, A bay, a bar, a strip, a trap, A wrecking ground, that's Shingle Street.' Blake Morrison's first two collections, Dark Glasses (1984) and The Ballad of a Yorkshire Ripper (1987) established him as one of our most inventive and accomplished contemporary poets. In his first full-length collection for nearly thirty years, Shingle Street sees a return to the form with which he started his career. Set along the Suffolk coast, the opening poems address a receding world - an eroding landscape, 'abashed by the ocean's passion'. But coastal life gives way to other, more dangerous, vistas: a wave unleashes a flood-tide of terror; a sequence of topical poems lays bare pressing political issues; while elsewhere portraits of the past bring forth the dear and the departed. Ardent and elegiac, and encompassing an impressive range of mood and method, this is a timely offering from a poet of distinct talents. Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market