Radio Oldie

Christopher Simon Sykes delves into the man behind the paint in the second volume of his biography of David Hockney at the prestigious Oldie literary lunch at Simpson’s in the Strand.

The 13th Baillie Gifford Oldie of the Year Awards was held at Simpsons-in-the-Strand on Tuesday 3rd February 2015. Our winners were Sir Roger Bannister (Long Distance Runner of the Year), Michael Buerk (Jungle Survivor of the Year), Lord Falconer (Slimmer of the Year), Ian Lavender (Stupid Boy of the Year) and Bridget Riley (Stripe Artist of the Year). Ken Dodd was announced as our Oldie of the Year 2015.

Valerie Grove steps in for Lynn Barber, five-time British Press Award winner and interviewer extraordinaire, to talk about Barber's new book, Curious Career, at the Oldie Literary Lunches at Simpson's-in-the-Strand.

The former home secretary and one of our top speakers of 2013 returns to the Oldie Literary Lunch at Simpson's-in-the-Strand to talk about the second volume of his memoirs. It charts Johnson's life from age eighteen to his mid-thirties - the time he worked for both the Post Office and its trade union.

David Kynaston returns, to the Oldie Literary Lunches at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, with another volume of insights into the inner workings of inter-generational post-war Britain. Lessons learned from a fading decade are subsumed into the dawn of the oncoming one - an insightful, detailed portrait of a nation in flux.