Tom Hodgkinson invites you to come and celebrate three decades of slowing down, having fun and living well

It was 30 years ago that Gavin Pretor-Pinney and I produced issue one of the Idler. And we’ve produced a fabulous new hardback book to celebrate.

The idea for the Idler occurred to me in 1991 when I was lying on my bed one morning.

I was reading a collection of essays and diary entries from Dr Johnson and was delighted to discover two things. One was that he never stopped resolving to get up early, all his life. This made me feel better as I’d been in the habit of constantly resolving to work harder and get up earlier (and always failing).

The second thing was that he produced a series of columns with the title “The Idler” in 1758 and 1759. They were light squibs on work and laziness and the idea of moving to the country, and were the follow-up to his earlier “Rambler” essays.

The first instalment of the series included the line, “every man is, or hopes to be, an idler”. Well, that was enough for me. Idling is good. In a flash I foresaw a magazine and a movement.

Thirty years on and we’re still here. I’ve told the whole story of our struggles and triumphs (mainly struggles) in the introduction to our new book.

XXX: Thirty Years of the Idler – A Visual History 1993-2023, is now out.

Our November/December 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.