The Idler

The Idler in the Charts

The Idler 42: Smash the System is in the Foyles Charing Cross Road Top Ten this week. If in town, do pop in to this most excellent of bookshops and bag your copy.

For overseas readers, we have introduced a digital subscription, which means that the Idler will be delivered to your computer in digital form. Clearly it will not have the grandeur, majesty, weight and aroma of the real thing, but it is certainly a cheap way of accessing the content.

The subscription is operated by Exact Editions, and you can click here to see how it works. Exact have also put up a free facsimile of Idler 41: The QI Issue, which is now completely sold out in its real form.

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The New Idler Arrives

The new Idler arrived from Biddles the printer today. This was a few days later than I’d hoped. UK subscribers and all those who pre-ordered the book (for which many thanks) should get their copies early next week.

Retail copies also arrived at our distributor, Central Books, and so in a few days you will be able to buy or order it from your local bookshop. Or you can buy it direct from us by clicking on the button on the right. The book is very heavy and so the postage and packing is now £3.00.

Any retail outlet who would like to stock the new Idler can order copies from Central Books on 0845 4589911.

Two Publications of Interest

I’d like to mention a couple of excellent publications which deserve a wide readership.

The Land: This is a magazine about land rights edited by Simon Fairlie, who founded the Tinker’s Bubble community and who sells excellent scythes. Fairlie has produced six issues of The Land so far. They are ad-free and have the best mix of radicalism and practical suggestion I have ever read. Truly, we have here the spirit of William Cobbett, with articles on pig keeping, squatting, Polish peasants, hand tools and links to all sorts of useful resources, particularly for those seeking planning permission for low impact dwellings and smallholdings. The current issue is called “Welcome The Recession” and opens with an excellent attack on the media and a cheering argument that the recessin is bringin us all back down to earth, The mag is worth the admission fee for the cover alone: a wonderful late 19th century illustration, showing a collection of radical slogans in the form of a garland around a pre-Raphaelite beauty. A subscription costs just £10 and I think it money very well spent. The Land, The Potato Store, Flaxdrayton Farm, South Petherton, SOMERSET TA13 5IR; www.tlio.org.uk.

New Escapologist: This is a zine produced by the Glasgow flâneur Robert Wringham and its purpose is to help its readers “to flee the humdrum spreadsheet of prescribed reality into an exciting world of one’s own invention.” To this end, the second issue is titled “The War Against Cliché” and offers tips for cultivating your own unique self and shedding received opinion and humbug. There is a handy manifesto by Idler webmaster Neil Scott and a nice practical final page, which invites readers to send in ideas for businesses that would create a median £356 a week income on just four hours’ work a week. Go to www.wringham.co.uk.