In Conversation with Michael Palin
From Idler 37, 2006
Tom Hodgkinson meets the amiable comedy genius turned world traveller and self-confessed man without direction.
Conversations: David Soul
From Idler 24, Summer 1998
Hutch is alive and well and living in Maida Vale. And he’s got a few things on his mind, as Louis Theroux discovers.
Taken from Idler 24, Summer 1998
Conversations: Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles: not beat yet
by Marcel Theroux
Taken from Idler issue 3, 1993
Conversations: Gilbert Shelton
From Idler 7, December 1995
Gilbert Shelton is the legendary underground comic artist and writer. Born in Houston, Texas, he currently lives in Paris with his wife after stints in New York (where he lived with Terry Gilliam), Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the Sixties he worked on New York’s Help magazine, creating his most [...]
Conversations: Joanna Blythman
Dan Kieran went to meet the renowned author of Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets. From Idler 34
Conversations: John Lloyd
PAUL HAMILTON of Bedazzled, the Peter Cook Fanzine, shoots the breeze with JOHN LLOYD, comedy producer extraordinaire. The picture on the left is an accurate likeness of Lloyd done by Walery of Piccadilly Circus
Conversations: Bruce Reynolds
From Idler 14, March 1996
Escape! Adventure! Limitless cash! Bruce Reynolds, the Great Train Robber, now 65, had it all. But his quest for freedom led to frequent and lengthy spells inside. Was it worth it? Maybe …
Conversations: Terence McKenna
From Idler 1, August 1993
Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson writes:
Terence McKenna died earlier this year. I feel particularly affectionate towards him as he was our first ever interview. I went to see him at the offices of Mute, the record company which put out Shamen stuff. The Shamen had made a connection with him, attracted as [...]
Conversations: Dexter Brierley
FROM IDLER 13, JANUARY 1996
Dexter is four. The Idler went to discover his views about money, the workplace and kids’ icons.
Conversations: David Nobbs
JONATHAN COE, author of the seminal satire of the Eighties, What A Carve Up! meets DAVID NOBBS, author of the seminal satire of the Seventies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Conversations: Alex Chilton
From Idler 15, May 1996
At sixteen, Alex Chilton achieved teenybop stardom with Sixties group the Box Tops, and later Big Star. At twenty he walked away from it all, swapping fame and fortune for obscurity, and becoming one of music’s most influential cult figures. Any regrets? asks Kira Jolliffe.
Conversations: Keith Allen
FROM IDLER 11, SEPTEMBER 1995
Damien Hirst had suggested we interview Keith Allen. This was at the time when Damien, Keith and Alex James had recently made friends and were hanging around together, making videos and drinking. It was the Cool Britannia era.
Conversations: Bruce Robinson
FROM IDLER 12, NOVEMBER 1995
Bruce Robinson was one of our heroes, having written and directed one of the most quoted films of all time, the incomparable Withnail And I.
Conversations: Chris Yates
Chris Yates, England’s most revered and esoteric angler, chats to Kevin Parr about carp, silver tourists and rocket powered boats.
Conversations: Satish Kumar
THE END OF PROGRESS
Satish Kumar walked across the world as part of his vision of a new way of thinking. Now, he runs an influential magazine. By JAY WALLJASPER of the Utne Reader
Conversations: Alan Moore
He’s the greatest comics writer ever. He’s the affable mage from Northampton, the hairy word-wizard and messiah to fan boys the world over. He’s Alan Moore and he’s having lunch with JONATHAN ROSS.
Conversations: John Cooper-Clarke
From Idler 17, November 1996
From his early days as a pep pill swallowing mod, John Cooper Clarke, Manchester’s legendary poet, performer, writer and comedian, has always looked good and lived well. He took the train down to London from Colchester, where he now lives with his wife and daughter, and we met him up at [...]
Conversations: Jeffrey Bernard
From Idler 8, February 1995
This was easily the most awkward interview I have ever done. Jeffrey Bernard, now sadly dead, was living at the time in a tower block in Soho. I had never met him before, having got the interview through his niece Kate, who I knew then.
Conversations: Richard Linklater
From Idler 6, September 1994
After Douglas Coupland, a natural choice for an interview was Richard Linklater, who had then come out with the film Slacker and also Dazed and Confused, and was something of a spokesman for so-called Generation X.
I had an hour with him on the phone, where he came across as gentle and [...]
"The answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it. And just to live. But you're doing that anyway. However you intellectualise it, you still just live."