Tom Hodgkinson | 21 Nov 2025 | Letter from the Editor
Idling by Alice Smith
Stuck for Christmas present ideas? Tom Hodgkinson has some idler-friendly suggestions…
I hope you’ll excuse a nakedly commercial email today. It’s our Idler Christmas gifts guide: seven life-improving, mind-expanding, joy-giving presents.
Gift Subscription
The recipient gets the next six issues of the Idler; you get a copy of my handy little book Idle Thoughts, a collection of 40 newsletters. On offer at £32.95 until 23 November. Click here.
Beekeeping Day
A fascinating course with four beekeeping tutors, this is a fun day out in the gorgeous Wiltshire countryside for anyone interested in bees. Saturday 23 May 2026. Click here.
Idler T-Shirt
Our classic snail design by Ged Wells is available in two colours – white or light blue. £25. Click here.
Idler Manifesto Tea Towel
When I wrote my first book, How to Be Idle, my brilliant publisher suggested I write a manifesto for an idle future. This was the result. We’ve put it on a tea towel so you can remind yourself of the righteous path while drying the dishes. £10. Click here.
Freedom Manifesto Tea Towel
Written to accompany my book How to Be Free. Typeset by Christian Brett. Pictured above. £10. Click here.
Thirty Years of the Idler: A Visual History
Idler Art Director Alice Smith and I put this weighty tome together. It’s a coffee table book offering images from 30 years of publishing, parties and protest. Was £40, now £20 + p&p. Click here.
Gift Membership of the Idler Academy
In 2008 we launched the Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment at the Port Eliot Festival. It was our dream school, with the motto Libertas Per Cultum, or “freedom through education”. Today there are over 80 online courses available to Idler Academicians with top teachers including Mark Vernon, Cath Kidston, AN Wilson, Tim Richardson, Diana de Cabarrus, Anna Beer, Juliet Samuel and many more. With the Idler Academy, you can learn to dance, sing, play the ukulele and get a good understanding of Dickens, Plato, Milton and Tolstoy. Includes free entry to all “Drink” events. £69.95. Get wise. Click here.
Live well and thanks as always for supporting the Idler.
Subscribe here and get 12% off the shop price plus a FREE copy of Idle Thoughts by Tom Hodgkinson, worth £8.95.
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A Drink with the Idler
Next week’s “A Drink with the Idler” features economic historian Victoria Bateman (below), who will be talking about the history of women in wealth and power. Thursday 27 November, 6-7pm. Click here to book – it’s FREE to subscribers.
Our December 2025 issue is available in Waitrose, Waterstones, Smiths Travel outlets, select Smiths high street branches and around 100 indie stores. Click here for your nearest stockist.
Subscribe to the Idler here and get 12% off the cover price plus a free copy of Tom Hodgkinson’s latest book Idle Thoughts: Letters on Good Living.
Join us for a week of walks, talks and yoga on the Idler pilgrimage Retreat, following the footsteps of St Francis of Assisi through the glorious Umbrian countryside.
Join the Idler Spanish Retreat and relax at a finca in a twelve hectare garden in the desert of southern Andalusia. Learn about flamenco and the literature and turbulent history of Andalusia, visit the oldest Moorish citadel in Spain, walk along the unspoilt Cabo de Gata coastline and practise yoga.
The Idler’s Digital Academy membership gives unlimited access to 80+ online courses, plus Idler magazine in digital form, website access, back issue archive, audio and video channels.
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