
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.
Latest episodes

Mar 27, 2025 • 57min
357: How to write a review with Sam Leith, the Spectator’s literary editor
Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library 13th March 2025, Sam Leith, Literary Editor of The Spectator, talks about how to get a book review and how to write it properly.

Mar 27, 2025 • 40min
356: How to write a column with Mary Kenny, Oldie columnist
Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library 13th March 2025, Mary Kenny, Oldie columnist and a journalist for 60 years, explains how to make columns fresh and gripping.

Mar 27, 2025 • 37min
355: Harry Mount, Editor of The Oldie, on the Do’s and Don’ts of journalism
Recorded live at The Oldie Journalism Course, at The Marx Memorial Library on 13th March 2025, Harry Mount, Editor of The Oldie, reveals his tips on how to pitch articles to magazines and newspapers.

Mar 24, 2025 • 32min
354: Simon Williams in conversation with Charlotte Metcalf
Simon Williams tells Charlotte Metcalf about playing Major Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs, and starring in The Archers. He and his wife, Lucy Fleming, play her parents, Peter Fleming and Celia Johnson, in Posting Letters to the Moon

Mar 17, 2025 • 30min
353: Roger McGough in conversation with Charlotte Metcalf
Roger McGough was one of the Liverpool or Mersey Poets alongside Brian Patten and the late Adrian Henry. Today he’s known as the ‘godfather of modern poetry’ and continues to present BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please, a role he’s held since 1979. He’s an OBE and CBE, the last awarded in 2004 for Services to Literature. On Radio Oldie he talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his latest book of The Collected Poems 1959-2024, growing up in Liverpool, performing with the Scaffold and his life as an author, playwright and poet.

Mar 13, 2025 • 14min
352: Ben MacIntyre at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Ben MacIntyre speaking about his new book, The Siege: the Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on March 11th 2025.

Mar 13, 2025 • 9min
351: A. N. Wilson at the Oldie Literary Lunch
A. N. Wilson speaking about his new book, Goethe: His Faustian Life - the Extraordinary Story of Modern Germany, a Troubled Genius and the Poem that Made our World, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on March 11th 2025.

Mar 13, 2025 • 11min
350: Hugo Vickers at the Oldie Literary Lunch
Hugo Vickers speaking about his new book, Muse to Power: the Untold Story of Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon, at the Oldie Literary Lunch, held at London’s National Liberal Club, on March 11th 2025.

Mar 9, 2025 • 39min
349: Charles Moore in conversation with Harry Mount
Charles Moore tells Harry Mount how Margaret Thatcher became Conservative leader 50 years ago - and how she got on with the Queen. Lady Thatcher would have been 100 on October 13th this year. In September, Charles Moore will publish The Authorised Biography of Margaret Thatcher: Single-volume Centenary Edition.

Mar 3, 2025 • 37min
348: Matthew Norman in conversation with Harry Mount
Matthew Norman, the Oldie’s Grumpy Old Man columnist, tells Harry Mount about creating the nickname ‘Mandy’ for Peter Mandelson – and Mandy’s outraged reaction. And he recalls meeting Bernard Manning – and his favourite Bernard Manning gag.