Tom Hodgkinson reveals a few of the highlights from our latest issue

Our new issue hit newsstands and doormats yesterday. It’s our analogue special, with a piece by me on the emerging analogue economy and how to support it. I’m talking about the delicious and liberating world of vinyl, fountain pens, diaries, magazines, DVDs, games and so on. These are all very enjoyable ways to liberate yourself from the clutches of Big Tech.

I really enjoyed chatting to Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze for this issue, and I think you’ll find his reflections on happiness and creativity to be wise and inspiring.

Harry Mount has written an essay in praise of the cloister, that marvellous architectural invention whose purpose seems merely to provide an ambling and thinking zone.

We get medieval with Peter Jones’s essay on self-help advice from the Middle ages around crying, plus Luz Woollocombe on the lessons to be learned from the story of doomed lovers Heloise and Abelard.

Plus that fine hater Stephen Bayley on customer service lines, Georgia Mann on the Troubadours, a poem from Nigel Planer and lots more.

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Live well,
Tom

PS: “A Drink with the Idler” returns this month. Details to follow soon.

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How to Live Like a Stoic

The May/June 2026 issue of the Idler (#109) is available in Waitrose, Smiths and TG Jones.

Click here for your nearest stockist.