The Idler Academy adds another nugget to its prospectus, says Tom Hodgkinson

Many years ago I was in a pub in north Devon chatting to Farmer John over a pint of Cotleigh Barn Owl. I told him that the idea had come to me, all in a flash, of starting a school. We would call it the Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment. “Because those three important parts of life are not well taught!” I said. We should study them, set aside time for them. He said yes, he thought it was a good idea. “And you should do them in that order!” he added.

I thought this was a very wise comment. Philosophy in the morning, husbandry in the afternoon and merriment in the evening: that would surely be the ideal life. Charles Handy has the term “Oxford hours”. This means you do some sort of brain work in the morning, followed by sport after lunch, or gardening, or similar. Then possibly a bit of light reading, followed by eating and drinking with a crowd.

Anyway Victoria and I pursued this idea and launched the first ever Idler Academy at the Port Eliot festival in 2010. We opened our tent with a lesson in how to sew on a button, and followed up with talks on grammar, Latin and lyric poetry. Our motto was “libertas per cultum”, meaning “freedom through education”.

We enjoyed it so much that we decided it would be a good idea to do this full time, so – quite madly – we borrowed around £50,000 in remortgage and bank loans and signed a five-year lease on a shop in Notting Hill, where we opened an 18th-century-style bookseller and coffeehouse. Our launch event in March 2011 was a symposium on ancient philosophy with Mark Vernon.

As you may know we closed the shop four years later as the costs of running the enterprise were greater than the income it brought in.

But the Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment lives on and thrives as a scintillating collection of online courses, the newest of which is a sparkling history of Britain told through eight vanished settlements, from Neolithic times to the present day, and written and presented by the excellent Dr Matthew Green.

We met Matthew in 2011 soon after opening our shop, when a tall and charismatic young figure loped in one day and told me about his PhD, which was on media in the 18th century. We went on to publish a pamphlet by the brilliant Matthew, “The Lost World of the London Coffeehouse”. He has now published two acclaimed history books, London: A Travel Guide Through Time (Penguin) and Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain (Faber). “Beautifully written” said the Sunday Times; “Startling” said the Financial Times; “Compelling” said History Today and “Excellent” said the Spectator.

Take a look at the trailer for Matthew’s new course here. It’s included in our Digital Academy and Full Academy subscriptions packages.

Live well and enjoy the Easter feast.

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