Now Booking: The Art of Cloud Collecting
03 February 2012
Gavin Pretor Pinney returns to The Idler Academy to enthral Idler Academy pupils and cloud-spotters alike. For more information and to book please CLICK HERE.
Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Vanessa Feltz at Selfridges
02 February 2012
Everyone come down to Selfridges at 5pm this Friday for a grammar lesson with Mr Gwynne followed by a class in how to make your own notebook with John-Paul Flintoff. In attendance will be star pupil Vanessa Feltz who will be recording bits for her radio show. Victoria Hull and yours truly will be there too. It’s all free and takes place in the Ultralounge in the lower ground floor. TH
Bread Matters with Andrew Whitley Returns
01 February 2012
We are delighted to announce four new dates for the incredibly popular Bread Matters baking course with Andrew Whitley. Good news for all of you who missed out on one of the twelve places last time. For more information and to book, CLICK HERE. JH
Grammar and Selfridges: Tom’s piece in the Indie
30 January 2012
My column in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday is all about our series of grammar lessons at Selfridges. Click here to read it. TH
Now Booking: An Evening of Rhetoric with Sam Leith
26 January 2012
We are thrilled to announce that Sam Leith, author of “You Talkin’ To Me?” Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama is coming to The Idler Academy on 22nd February to teach pupils about the Art of Persuasion.
Read More
Book Here
Tonight: Tom Hodgkinson on How to be Idle
Tonight I’ll be leading a symposium for a small group on the art of being idle, and will also discuss the genesis of my first book, How to be Idle. This will be a class for anyone at a turning point and who wants to take control of their life. Click here to book. TH
Telegraph: Idler Academy Spearheads Coffeehouse Renaissance
25 January 2012
The Daily Telegraph today cites the Idler Academy as one of three outstanding coffeehouses in London. Click here to read the piece. TH
Now Booking: Ancient Philosophy Course with Mark Vernon
A Typical Evening at the Idler Academy
Learn about the philosophers of Ancient Greece in Mark Vernon’s brilliant six week course. Across six leisurely wine-filled evenings at the Idler Academy, you will learn about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the schools that followed: the Stoics, the Cynics, the Sceptics and the Epicureans. You will learn how astonishingly relevant these philosophies still are today, over two thousand years after they were first conceived. You will also learn lots of juice biographical details about the philosophers, and gain an insight into everyday life an culture in Ancient Athens. Mark Vernon is a former priest and author of numerous books on philosophy and the modern world.
Start date: Monday 20 February 2012
End date: Monday 26 March 2012
Time: 6.30pm till 8.30pm.
Place: The Idler Academy, 81 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH. Tel 0207 221 5908
Royal Oak tube. 328 and 7 buses.
www.idler.co.uk/academy
Cost: £144 for all six lessons or £30 each. Click here to book whole course. And
Out Now: Idler 43 Second Edition Featuring Major David Hockney Interview
21 January 2012
WE HAVE just received delivery of the second edition of Idler 43: Back to the Land. It includes a fascinating interview with David Hockney, who also drew a self-portrait and sketches about perspective especially for the Idler. Click here to order your copy or come into the Idler Academy. TH
John Walsh on the Idler Academy
20 January 2012
Thank you to the Independent’s John Walsh for his lovely piece on the Idler Academy, and for ‘getting it’ so well. Click here.
Tonight: Early Music Concert
We are delighted to announce a winter concert called To Drive The Cold Winter Away, tonight at the Idler Academy.
This will be a captivating concert of music past for the season of winter. Elizabethan ballads upon the freezing of the Thames, frosty tipped folk tunes and Vivaldi’s “Winter” from the Four Seasons.
Starring:
Jennifer Bennett – violin, viola da gamba, recorder
Michael Tyack – renaissance lute, cittern, saz and singing
Jennifer specializes in early music improvisation with stunning virtuosity. Michael fronts the medieval rock band “Circulus” and Tudor folk trio “Princes in the Tower”.
Wine Masterclass Cancelled
19 January 2012
I’m afraid that we have had to cancel our Wine Masterclass tonight due to illness. Click here to sign up for February’s class. JH
A Sonnet For Your Edification
16 January 2012
I thought I’d quote this wonderful lovelorn sonnet which Susanna Hislop taught in tonight’s English poetry course. It’s called ‘I Find No Peace’, is from the early 16th century, and is by Sir Thomas Wyatt:
I find no peace, and all my war is done;
I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice;
I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise;
And naught I have, yet all the world I seize on;
That looseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison
And holdeth me not yet can I scape nowise
Nor letteth me live nor die at my devise,
And yet of death it giveth none occasion.
Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain;
I desire to perish, and yet I ask health;
I love another, and thus I hate myself;
I feed me in sorrow and laugh at all my pain.
Likewise displeaseth me both death and life,
And my delight is causer of this strife.
On a lighter note, Tuesday evening is ukulele night!
TH
This week’s Wine Masterclass: Natural Wines
Tickets are now booking for this Thursday’s Wine Masterclass with Justin Knock MW. In the spirit of the cleansing nature of January, we’ll be tasting a range of natural wines. ‘January is a month for cleansing, purifying and starting afresh. If one can’t abstain then make it as healthy as possible. Natural, organic, biodynamic, sustainable, conventional – these are all terms to describe wine styles but what does it all mean?’ That’s Thursday 19 January, 6.30pm to 9pm. Book here.
The Idler Academy at Selfridges
12 January 2012
We are thrilled to announce that the Idler Academy is taking up residence in Selfridges over the next two months. This is part of their Words Words Words season, designed to celebrate the literary. We have a table of Idler goodies on sale upstairs in the Wonder Room, and a series of wonderful literary workshops and lessons in the Ultralounge, a comfy space in the basement with a library of 15,000 books. It’s all very exciting and we kick off on Friday 13 January at 5pm for a grammar lesson with Mr Gwynne. ‘Thank God it’s Grammar on Friday,’ the weary Oxford Street toiler might reflect. So instead of retreating to the pub after work, come and join us for a mental workout. And click here take a look at the other events we have programmed. TH
Tuesdays are Ukulele Nights!
09 January 2012
Join our ukulele workshops every Tuesday for the next eight weeks at the Idler Academy. Under the expert tutelage of Danny Wootton, with guest appearances from Tom Hodgkinson and Arthur Jeffes, we will study chords, strumming and music theory. You will be amazed at how quickly you will pick up the rudiments of this fantastic instrument. Click here to join us or drop in. The drop-in price is £20 and this includes wine and nibbles. The sessions will last from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. TH
Twelfth Night Drinks and Parents Evening
05 January 2012
Please do come along to 81 Westbourne Park Road on Friday 6 January to celebrate Twelfth Night with wine and roast capon, meet the Head Master and check out what courses and events are coming up. TH
Learn Latin at the Idler Academy on Tuesday Evenings
04 January 2012
A reminder that our brilliant Latin classes with the excellent Susanna Hislop, who teaches in the old way, are starting on Tuesday 10 January. We have two on offer: Latin for Beginners and Latin Course Stage Two, for those who have got the grammatical basics of the active tenses and main nouns. We are aiming for class sizes of between five and fifteen. Wine and nibbles will be served. Exercise books and pencils are provided. Click here to book Latin for Beginners and here to book Latin Stage Two. TH
Montaigne Symposium with Sarah Bakewell, 9 February
31 December 2011
Productive Idler of the Renaissance
We are thrilled to announce that we are holding a symposium on the life and work of that famously productive idler, Michel de Montaigne. Your host will be none other than Sarah Bakewell, Montaigne’s recent biographer. Sarah’s book, How to Live, was described as ‘splendidly conceived and beautifully written’ by the Sunday Times. Read more.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
We are respecting the old custom of taking twelve days off for Christmas. The Idler Academy is now closed and will re-open at 10am on Friday 6th January, Twelfth Night, or the Feast of the Epiphany. Tom and Joe will be serving wine from 5pm to celebrate this feast day. We might even throw in a couple of roast capons, some raisins, almonds, fine cheeses, slices of quince, quail’s eggs and a few apples. Bring a lamprey pie! Please join us! TH
"For Jerome, idleness had little in common with laziness. His notion of idleness in the world beyond his fiction was one of contemplative productivity with the minimum of fuss."