​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.

"Short speech. Short script. Act 1. Old. Act 2. Old fart. Act 3. Dead. Somewhere lurking between the acts The Oldie magazine, these awards... What an honour, thank you. I’m really overwhelmed. It’s great. Cut." Sponsored by Baillie Gifford Photos by Neil Spence Photography

"I just want to say thank you for the remarkable account of what I’ve done and so on and so forth and how marvellous are all the people here." Sponsored by Baillie Gifford Photo by Neil Spence Photography

"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

Hugo Vickers speaks to Harry Mount about his latest book on Clarissa: Muse to Power, The Untold Story of Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon. Our podcasts are sponsored by Baillie Gifford.

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.

Beethoven expert John Suchet tells The Oldie why he has written his eighth book on Beethoven and why this story is personal to him. The Oldie Literary lunch was held at The National Liberal Club on 12th November 2024, sponsored by Kirker Holidays. Photos by Neil Spence.