Chris Mullin speaks at The Oldie Literary Lunch 9th May about his latest book "Didn't You Used To Be Chris Mullen?"

Husband and wife team Henry Dimbleby and Jemima Lewis speak about their latest book Ravenous. Henry of Leon Restaurant fame talks about changing our eating and farming habits to save our planet for future generations.

The Oldie hosted a road show tour of Literary Lunches this year. Fairlight Hall in Hastings hosted a charity lunch in aid of the Conquest Hospital. Listen to Craig Brown's hilarious account of his latest book Haywire. 

Harry Mount speaking about his latest book Et Tu, Brute? at Fairlight Hall, Hastings The Oldie Literary Lunch

Giles and Mary speaking at The Oldie Literary Lunch Hastings about their latest book - A Diary Of Two Nobodies

Sasha Swire speaking at The Oldie Literary Lunch about her book Diary of an MP's Wife Tuesday 14th March

Harry Mount speaks about his book Et Tu, Brute: The Best Latin Lines Ever at The Oldie Literary Lunch in Dorset 14th March 2023

Andrew Lownie speaking about his book Traitor King at The Oldie Literary Lunch on Tuesday 14th March 2023

PRUE LEITH ON HER LATEST RECIPE BOOK BLISS ON TOAST Our final speaker at The Oldie Literary Lunch was Prue Leith on her new cookery book, Bliss on Toast. Prue Leith is best known for The Great British Bake Off, but her greatest achievement in the room at The Oldie Literary Lunch, said Editor, Harry Mount, was for "writing a column for The Oldie Magazine". Harry introduced Prue, whose father made explosives in South Africa, as "utter dynamite". This column has now become a book as it was so popular, called Bliss On Toast. It has been selling like hot toast. Prue has also written an autobiography called Relish but her huge fan base in America said "no, that's what you put on hamburgers like jam" so in the USA, her book is called I Will Try Anything Once. Next year, Prue plans to do a one woman show in the spring, touring the UK and then to America. She told The Oldie Readers, "Am I completely mad, I am 82?" Prue's advice to The Oldie Literary Lunch was, "you can still be old and have a good time". In the first 25 years of Prue's career she focussed on setting up her cookery business, writing columns and cook books. The next 20 years she wrote novels. This was a time when the boards of most major companies were all occupied by men. A well known supermarket was asked why 80% of its customers were women, 70% of its staff were women and yet the Board of Directors consisted of men in grey suits. Prue was asked to be on the Board of National Rail. Her first AGM started from 8am until 2pm with no breaks and endless cups of tea, at which point she was "bursting for a wee". Being the only female, she felt embarrassed but eventually had to go, and she stood up. At which point, all the men stood up and bowed her out of the room. They stood up on her return. Prue said to them, "hey guys, can you just treat me like a chap!" The next stage in her career is the third revolution and is all about television. Prue gave the sound advice to The Oldie Readers: "You should do what you want" in life. Even if this has cheesed off her children. She never once watched a football match, and the only parents evening that she took her daughter to, they missed because they missed their train. However, Prue says, "you serve your grandchildren best by having a good time, and of course, teaching them how to cook, is helpful too."

CRAIG BROWN ON HIS LATEST BOOK HAYWIRE Barry Humphries, Oldie columnist, described Craig Brown as an "extremely funny writer". Craig was the leading satirist for The Daily Telegraph, Mail and Mail on Sunday and the spoof diarist for Private Eye. He has then had an incredibly interesting second life writing biographical books: Ma'am Darling - a hilarious royal biography about Princess Margaret. and his book about The Beatles: 150 Glimpses. His next biographical subject is The Queen. Today, he spoke to us about his latest book of journalistic writings, Haywire. Craig Brown explained the meaning of his latest book Haywire, "I think most people in this room have reached the age when they think the world has gone haywire". This realisation came to Craig when he set about writing a literary quiz. He wrote all the obvious categories and then thought, how about middle names of fictitious characters? What was the middle name for James Bond? After all, James Bond went to Eton and all Etonians have odd middle names. Ian Fleming's middle name was....Lancaster. Boris Johnson's middle name is...de Pfeffel. So how about James Bond's middle name? Craig did what all great researchers do these days and looked it up on Google. 2,020,000 views came up and the answer showed up as....Herbert. As Craig searched a myriad of other websites to check if this was absolutely true, he reached an educational children's website, which confirmed the middle name for James Bond was indeed Herbert and the source of this information was....Craig Brown. It turned out that 15 years beforehand, Craig had written a piece on 15 things you didn't know about James Bond, for the Telegraph. James Bond's middle name was revealed in On His Majesty's Secret Service when Bond is being held in a raffia-work cage, suspended over a pool of piranha fish, whilst the villain Dr. Peevish taunts him, saying "Herbert, Herbert, Herbert" over and over again. Bond says "kill me please, just kill me". Anyway, Bond escapes but sees Dr. Peevish's Christian name on a laundry basket and says, "Do your worst...Clarence". Bond escapes as Peevish covers his ears in torment. "The next items on the 15 things you didn't know about James Bond list was that his sister Jeannie is the Royal Correspondent for the BBC and his eldest brother, Basildon, is a leading figure in the stationary business" said Craig. Has the world gone Haywire? Craig asked the audience, "If Donald Trump can be the President and Liz Truss a Prime Minister, why can't James Bond's middle name be Herbert?" The book Haywire is full of jokes, but also some seriousness about other comedians such as Frankie Howard and Benny Hill who sometimes lead tragic lives. But, mostly Craig's books is about laughs. In particular, Craig enjoys parodies. One, which amused The Oldie Readers at our Literary Lunch, was the parody of the very much loved Mary Berry in a recipe book from a few years ago, in which she mentioned household tips which were rather...obvious. "Cupboards are ideal for putting things in." "Adding mushrooms to stock gives it a nice mushroomy flavour." "A garlic press is excellent if you want to press garlic, but I don't find it as good for wiping sticky surfaces." Has the world really gone Haywire?