Radio Oldie

Introduced by Barry Cryer, Rachel Kelly spoke about her experiences with depression and anxiety, and how she beat them. Her new book, Singing in the rain: A Happiness Workbook​,​ published by Short books, outlines a series of exercises that can give you a sense of purpose.

Introduced by Barry Cryer, former MP Chris Mullin speaks at the Oldie's  June lunch about an encounter with George W Bush, the story behind his bestselling hit, A Very British Coup, and why he wrote a sequel to it. His new book, The Friends of Harry Perkins, was published by Scribner UK.

Sara Lodge, former speechwriter to Kofi Annan and author of Inventing Edward Lear, speaks at the Oldie Literary Lunch at Cholmondeley Castle about the hidden gems of Edward Lear: the links between pathos and absurdity in his poetry, his under-regarded art and the Owl and the Pussycat's sombre sequel.

Adrian Tinniswood, author of Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the British Royal Household, speaks about the man who got Prince Albert killed, the steady drinking of the Queen Mother and what makes the sovereign different, at the Sandstone Ridge Festival's Oldie Literary Lunch.

Welcome to the Oldie's June Podcast. D-Day took place 75 years ago on the 6th June. It was the largest invasion in military history. 7,000 vessels, 156,000 personnel and 1,200 planes and gliders were involved. Historian and bestselling author of D-Day: The Soldiers' Story Giles Milton, who has penned a piece for us about the soldiers' experiences on the day for this month's magazine talks to The Oldie's Editorial Assistant, Ferdie Rous.

With commemorations for the 75th anniversary of D-Day just around the corner, we were delighted to welcome Giles Milton to our May lunch. His new book, D-Day: A Soldiers' Story charts the stories of the men and women who took part in the Normandy landings. At the lunch, he recounted the tale of a one-man raid on a Normandy beach, in May of 1944, which ended in a chance encounter with Erwin Rommel.

During the Second World War, MI5 ran a secret operation to root out Nazi-sympathisers. At the Oldie's May literary lunch Robert Hutton spoke about the man in charge of it all. The unsung hero: Eric Roberts. The full story is detailed in Hutton's new book, Agent Jack: MI5's secret Nazi Hunter.

Christopher Howse speaks about the highs and lows of the golden days of Soho. Soho in the Eighties, his new book, is an anecdotal history of the strange and brilliant figures that populated Soho: from Jeffrey Bernard to Francis Bacon. Here he is speaking at the Oldie's May literary lunch.

Welcome to The Oldie's May podcast. William Cook, a regular contributor to The Oldie, the Spectator and the Independent, who has written books about Auberon Waugh and Peter Cook, speaks to The Oldie's Editorial Assistant, Ferdie Rous, about the German town of Coburg, where Prince Albert was born 200 years ago . At (22.37), we turned briefly to Auberon Waugh.

At the April lunch, Prue Leith spoke about her life in cooking, one of Paul Hollywood's meaner moments on Bake Off, bomb scares and explosive marmalade. Her book, Prue: My All-Time Favourite Recipes, is out now. Leith's fellow speakers were Hugo Vickers (The Quest for Queen Mary) and Matthew Sturgis (Oscar: A Life).