The Oldie is a monthly magazine launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who for 23 years was the editor of Private Eye. It carries general interest articles, humour and cartoons, and has an eclectic list of contributors, including James Le Fanu, John Sweeney, Thomas Stuttaford, Virginia Ironside, Melanie McDonagh and Raymond Briggs. It is sometimes regarded as a haven for 'grumpy old men and women' – an image it has played up to over the years with such slogans as 'The Oldie: Buy it before you snuff it', and its lampooning of 'yoof' culture and the absurdities of modern life (even though it has for many years had its own internet column, by "Webster"). Many regard it to be the spiritual successor to Punch magazine.
Despite being called The Oldie, the magazine often stresses that it is not an age-specific publication, and does seem to have many readers in their 20s, 30s and 40s. It has similarities to Punch, Viz, The Spectator, Private Eye, and The New Yorker.
Richard Ingrams writes: ‘After editing Private Eye for over twenty years, I decided in 1992, along with a group of friends (Auberon Waugh, Alexander Chancellor and Stephen Glover), to launch The Oldie. The aim was to produce an antidote to youth culture but, more importantly, a magazine with emphasis on good writing, humour and quality illustration. Almost twenty years later, The Oldie can well claim to be a success story, attracting some of our best writers, illustrators and cartoonists... We provide all you should expect from a quality monthly magazine – reviews of arts and books, great features, independent opinions – as well as some things you might not expect, such as our I Once Met column, where readers write about their encounters with the famous or infamous, Still With Us, which catches up with people you might have thought were dead, and our World’s Worst Dumps slot, where readers reveal their most horrific travel tales.’ The Independent on Sunday said this about it: 'The most original magazine in the country... The Oldie's eclectic embrace of human variety is a monthly rebuke to the formulaic, celebrity-led concept of features in our newspapers and magazines.'
The Oldie of the Year Awards (TOOTY) is the magazine's annual awards ceremony, hosted by Terry Wogan. The awards celebrate lifetime achievement, as well as 'oldie' achievements and/or notoriety over the previous year, the whole ceremony being very much tongue-in-cheek. Past winners include Ian Paisley, David Hockney, Eileen Atkins, Stanley Baxter and Moira Stewart. At the magazine's 2011 awards, Prince Philip was named Consort of the Year. Oldie of the Year was Barry Humphries.
The Oldie monthly Literary Lunches are held in London (at Simpson's-in-the-Strand). Guests over the years have included Michael Palin, Clive James, Maureen Lipman, Colin Dexter and P. D. James.
The Oldie magazine is owned by Oldie Publications Ltd.
Richard Ingrams - Editor
Robert Joseph - Wine Columnist
Lizzie Enfield - Mind the Age Gap
Candida Lycett Green - Unwrecked England
Elisabeth Luard - Food columnist
Paul Bailey - Theatre critic
Frank Keating - Sport
Richard Osborne - Music
Virginia Ironside - Granny Annexe
Mavis Nicholson - Agony Aunt
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