Episodit
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Thomas Pakenham, 91, tells Harry Mount about his new book, The Tree Hunters. From the 17th century to the 19th century, British daredevils headed across the world to bring back seeds for arboretums back home. Among them was David Douglas, who brought back the Douglas Fir - and was gored to death by a wild bull in Hawaii in 1834. Thomas also recalls his own tree-hunting expeditions to bring back seeds from Tibet to his house, Tullynally, in County Westmeath, Ireland.
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John Suchet is an English author, television news journalist and presenter of classical music on Classic FM. He is a huge fan of Beethoven, writing 8 books on the composer. Suchet's journalistic career began when he worked as a graduate trainee at the Reuters news agency in 1967 and later joined the BBC News a sub-editor for the Nine O'Clock News from 1970 to 1971. Suchet worked at ITN as a scriptwriter/sub-editor from 1972 and was a newsreader and reporter until his retirement from ITN in 2004. Suchet has two brothers, one of whom is the actor Sir David Suchet.
Charlotte Metcalf is a journalist, editor, award-winning documentary film-maker and was co-presenter of the Break Out Culture podcast. She is Supplements Editor and a frequent contributor at The Oldie. -
Puuttuva jakso?
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Charlotte Metcalf is a journalist, editor, award-winning documentary film-maker and was co-presenter of the Break Out Culture podcast. She is Supplements Editor and a frequent contributor at The Oldie.
Don Black is one of England's best-known lyricists, famous for Diamonds Are Forever and other James Bond theme tunes that he wrote with John Barry. Don was born in 1938 in Hackney, the youngest of five children from Jewish-born immigrants from the Ukraine. Black has worked in the music industry for decades, helping John Barry write music for well-known films such as Out of Africa. More recently, Don Black worked on the adaptation of Sunset Boulevard. Black has worked on a multitude of musical theatre with Andrew Lloyd-Webber. -
Stan ‘Mac’ McMurtry – Oldie Lead in his Pencil Award. By Quentin Letts
Cartoonist Stan ‘Mac’ McMurtry says that, during his decades on Fleet Street, his duty has been to make news pages brighter ‘by putting in a laugh’.
Ever-modest Mac, 88, undersells his genius. His drawings in the Daily Sketch, Daily Mail and, to this day, the Mail on Sunday have always done more than that. Since the 1960s they have humanised the news, reminding us that after every thermonuclear disaster there will be some office cleaner surveying the mess, leaning on a broom with wry detachment and a half-smoked fag.
The fashion for newspaper cartoons has drifted towards party-political indignation and starkness of nib. Mac’s art is softer. His work is in the tradition of the Bystander’s Bruce Bairnsfather, the Daily Express’s Carl Giles and the Evening Standard’s Jak. The shading is gentle and the visual effect more rounded than sharp-edged. Mac’s cartoons include domestic fixtures such as telephones, wastepaper bins, steaming teacups and – when drawing the late Queen – corgis. During the Gulf War, they were given doggy gasmasks.
Mac has always liked drawing the Royal Family, be it Charles’s geraniums legging it out of the greenhouse before he could start talking to them or Prince Philip holding a banner saying ‘Not Bloody Likely!’ when Lilibet was on the blower to William and Kate, asking if they needed a babysitter. Bishops and the police are favourite subjects, too. The humour, while never woke, is more affectionate than angry.
When Nick Clegg wanted to legalise drugs, Mac had a tramp toking up on a huge joint saying, ‘This is good stuff - I can see a Lib Dem landslide’. During the pandemic Mac drew a police car chasing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an officer bawling ‘Oy! Two metres apart!’
For half a century, his work graced the pages of the Mail, reassuring readers that they were not alone in thinking officialdom dotty. He drew their bedrooms, their scuffed shoes, their office canteens, their lives. When he retired, the paper missed the mollifying balance of his stoical humour. But he was soon back on Sundays.
Many cartoonists are prey to glumness. Not Mac. He cheerfully says he has been ‘so lucky’. It’s that modesty again. This brilliant artist is a delightful man and generous colleague. And Oldie readers will be assured to learn that ‘old people are easier to draw because of their wrinkles’.
His favourite of all time? Golda Meir.
Quentin Letts is the Daily Mail's Parliamentary Sketchwriter
Sponsored by Baillie Gifford
Photos by Neil Spence Photography -
Nanette: "I had my 90th a few weeks ago. I woke up one morning and I didn’t feel 90 at all... I felt more like 104!
It was one of those awful mornings with bills and all those terrible things that come in the mail. One of the other things in the mail was a letter from Gyles saying I was going to get this award. I was thrilled. I’m a big fan of the magazine.
How should I say thank you… I thought of all those acceptance speeches on TV. People who say they have nothing prepared and then bring out 10 pages. Others who thank God, thank their family, thank their dog, thank EVERYONE.
I’m just going to say thank you to Gyles and to The Oldie magazine which I love.
This is an incredible, incredible treat.
Now I don’t feel 90. I feel 82 and a half."
John: "Ok right. No mother-in-law jokes.
The last thing in a million years I wanted was to be an actor. I wanted to be a painter. I came from a whole family of actors and it’s the last thing in the world I wanted to do.
I was a soldier for a couple of years, and then finally my mother said you can't be a painter, you must drop out of art school - you must be an actor.
I hadn't been to drama school or done any training but I learnt a bit of Shakespeare, flung myself on the ground at an audition in Stratford and got myself a position as spear thrower. That was of course in Titus Andronicus and the rest is history. I've been an actor for god knows how long, far too long really.
But anyway how wonderful to get an award from a magazine I’ve never read - the title always put me off!"
Sponsored by Baillie Gifford
Photos by Neil Spence Photography -
Manette Baillie, Oldie Flying Angel of the Year
By Harry Mount
This summer, Manette Baillie parachuted her way into the nation’s hearts as Britain’s oldest skydiver.
At 102, Manette made her first ever jump, plunging from 13,000 feet up in the air over Beccles Airfield, Suffolk.
Having served as a Wren in World War II, plucky feats of derring do were nothing new to Manette, of Benhall, Suffolk.
“It was a bit scary. I must admit I just shut my eyes firmly – very firmly,” she said of the jump, which raised £30,000 for the Benhall Village Social Club, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and East Anglia Air Ambulance.
Just days before her jump, Manette got a personal message from the Prince of Wales on her 102nd birthday, wishing her a happy birthday and saying he and the Princess of Wales would be thinking of her during her mighty leap into the unknown.
The Prince of Wales said of the charities she was helping, ‘They are tremendous organisations who help so many people. From my time with East Anglian Air Ambulance, I know how many lives are saved due to the generosity of people like you.’
Manette, who was married to a paratrooper, is no stranger to adventure. On her 100th birthday, she zoomed round Silverstone in a Ferrari at 130mph.
‘The Air Ambulance,’ Manette explained, ‘is close to my heart because a helicopter saved my son’s life on the Isle of Wight after a diving accident in 1969. Even now, every Saturday, I hold a coffee morning at my cottage with everyone chipping in to donate money.”
She chose the Motor Neurone Disease Association because her great niece suffers from the condition.
Manette said of the Benhall & Sternfield Village Social Club, ‘I want to help do it up for the next generation. It started as a rickety tin hut for those coming home from the First World War. No doubt there’ll be more wars and young people will need a place to gather.’
Manette had planned a small party to celebrate her 102nd birthday but she then heard of a friend’s father who skydived at 85. She says, ‘If an 85-year-old man can do it, so can I.’
Manette, who holds gatherings at her cottage and challenges visitors to games, added, ‘Keep busy, be interested in everything, be kind to those around you and let them be kind to you. Oh, and don’t forget to party!’
By the way, her gin mornings are legendary throughout Suffolk.
This summer, Manette Baillie parachuted her way into the nation’s hearts as Britain’s oldest skydiver.
At 102, Manette made her first ever jump, plunging from 7,000 feet up in the air over Beccles Airfield, Suffolk.
Having served as a Wren in World War II, plucky feats of derring do were nothing new to Manette of Benhall, Suffolk.
“It was a bit scary. I must admit I just shut my eyes firmly – very firmly,” she said of the jump, which raised £30,000 for the Benhall Village Social Club, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and East Anglia Air Ambulance.
Just days before her jump, Manette got a personal message from the Prince of Wales on her 102nd birthday, wishing her a happy birthday and saying he and the Princess of Wales would be thinking of her during her mighty leap into the unknown.
The Prince of Wales said of the charities she was helping, ‘They are tremendous organisations who help so many people. From my time with East Anglian Air Ambulance, I know how many lives are saved due to the generosity of people like you.’
Manette, who was married to a paratrooper, is no stranger to adventure. On her 100th birthday, she zoomed round Silverstone in a Ferrari at 130mph.
‘The Air Ambulance,’ Manette explained, ‘is close to my heart because a helicopter saved my son’s life on the Isle of Wight after a diving accident in 1969. Even now, every Saturday, I hold a coffee morning at my cottage with everyone chipping in to donate money.”
She chose the Motor Neurone Disease Association because her great niece suffers from the condition.
Manette said of the Benhall & Sternfield Village Social Club, ‘I want to help do it up for the next generation. It started as a rickety tin hut for those coming home from the First World War. No doubt there’ll be more wars and young people will need a place to gather.’
Manette had planned a small party to celebrate her 102nd birthday but she then heard of a friend’s father who skydived at 85. She says, ‘If an 85-year-old man can do it, so can I.’
Manette, who holds gatherings at her cottage and challenges visitors to games, added, ‘Keep busy, be interested in everything, be kind to those around you and let them be kind to you. Oh, and don’t forget to party!’
By the way, her gin mornings are legendary throughout Suffolk. -
"I’ve got a little thing written down...
I feel very embarrassed. I’m very honoured to receive this but it's also strange to me to be here, as a poor working class kid from South London.
I can only thank my grandma. She taught me everything. She taught me to write a diary, to scrapbook, the art of collecting things, to say the alphabet backwards.
Anyone else?
Someone’s nodding over there... (at the request of a wayward heckle Wyman does prove he can still say the alphabet backwards much to our delight)
I can never thank my grandma for what she did for me. I wouldn’t be me without all she’s done. I get very emotional when I speak about her. I simply wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for her.
She sadly died at the age of 61, before I had fame and fortune really, and I never got to thank her for what she did for me.
However, one thing I want to share which I will always remember is that she used to say to me to grow up thinking about the poem 'If' by Rudyard Kipling."
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Sponsored by Baillie Gifford
Photos by Neil Spence Photography -
Dame Jacqueline Wilson tells The Oldie Literary Lunch how she wrote her first-ever sex scene. Think Again is her first adult book.The Oldie Literary Lunch took place on 12th November 2024 at The National Liberal Club, sponsored by Kirker Holidays and photos by Neil Spence photography.
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Craig Brown, the funniest man alive, tells Harry Mount about his latest book A Voyage Around The Queen. Listen here.
The Oldie podcast is sponsored by Baillie Gifford -
Listen to Leslie Caron, aged 93, in conversation with Charlotte Metcalf.
Multi-award winner Leslie Caron was born in 1931 and is a French and American actress and dancer. Leslie is best known for her role in Gigi. -
As Americans go to the polls, listen to Antonia Fraser on taking a dip in the White House pool with President Kennedy – in Jackie Kennedy's swimming costume.
In March 1962, Antonia Fraser and her husband, Conservative MP Hugh Fraser, dropped in on President Kennedy at the White House. They joined him for a dip in the White House pool - and Antonia Fraser borrowed Jackie Kennedy's swimming costume
Hugh Fraser, my first husband, MP for Stafford and Stone since 1945, was an old friend of Jack Kennedy’s. They were exact contemporaries and first knew each other when Joe Kennedy was American Ambassador to London in 1938.
In 1962, Hugh was Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. On his way back from an official visit to British Guiana, he joined me at the British Embassy in Washington, as guests of another contemporary, David Ormsby-Gore, the new Ambassador. We were invited to swim in the White House pool by the President.
In my photograph album, I wrote beneath the photo: Probably the most worthwhile photograph I have ever taken. First and foremost, Hugh bathing in the White House pool. Also present the President of the United States. I actually took this photograph myself, never believing it would come out (it was the last one on the reel). Our bathe in the White House pool was really the high point of our stay in Washington – and indeed of my stay in America. I managed to squeeze into Jackie Kennedy’s bathing dress and cavorted in the boiling pool [warmed up to help JFK’s back problems], hoping to catch the Presidential eye, while Hugh buttonholed him about British Guiana. -
Listen to Griff Rhys Jones in conversation with Harry Mount.
Regular contributor to The Oldie, Griff Rhys Jones is a Welsh actor, comedian, writer and television presenter. He starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. -
War Poems, recited by Kenneth Cranham, specially for The Oldie.
Listen to Kenneth reciting Disabled by Wilfred Owen. Kenneth Cranham was born towards the end of the Second World War on 12 December 1944.
Kenneth Cranham, Scottish film, television, radio and stage actor, is best known for Oliver! in 1968 and more recent films such as Layer Cake in 2004. -
War Poems, recited by Kenneth Cranham, specially for The Oldie.
Listen to Kenneth reciting Dulce Et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen. Kenneth Cranham was born towards the end of the Second World War on 12 December 1944.
Kenneth Cranham, Scottish film, television, radio and stage actor, is best known for Oliver! in 1968 and more recent films such as Layer Cake in 2004. -
50 years after the Lord Lucan murder, click here to listen to Algy Cluff talk about his memories of Lucan – and the grisly truth about who killed the family nanny, Sandra Rivett. On 7 November 1974, Lord Lucan vanished without a trace.
Listen here to Algy Cluff in conversation with Harry Mount, Editor of The Oldie. Algy, whose real name is John Gordon Cluff was a serial oil and gas entrepreneur. Algy has certainly had his fair share of experiences, from serving in the Guards and the SAS to writing dispatches from Vietnam for The Guardian. He was the former owner of The Spectator, in the 1980s, selling on the magazine to the Telegraph Group. - Näytä enemmän
