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Information about The Idler (1993)

This article is about the modern-day periodical. For other publications called The Idler, see The Idler (disambiguation).


The Idler
Enlarge picture
The Idler #36, the 'money' issue
The Idler #36, the 'money' issue
EditorTom Hodgkinson
CategoriesArts/Culture
FrequencyBi-Annual
First issue1993
CompanyIdler
Country United Kingdom
LanguageBritish English
Websiteidler.co.uk


The Idler is a bi-yearly British magazine devoted to promoting its ethos of 'idle living' and all that entails. It was founded in 1993 with the intention of exploring alternative ways of working and living.

Overview

Following in the footsteps of Samuel Johnson's collection of essays and Jerome K. Jerome's popular periodical, the concept behind The Idler is intended as a riposte to the idea of the 'work ethic'. As the magazine's founder and editor Tom Hodgkinson writes:
[a] characteristic of the idler's work is that it looks suspiciously like play. This, again, makes the non-idler feel uncomfortable. Victims of the Protestant work ethic would like all work to be unpleasant. They feel that work is a curse, that we must suffer on this earth to earn our place in the next. The idler, on the other hand, sees no reason not to use his brain to organise a life for himself where his play is his work, and so attempt to create his own little paradise in the here and now.[1]
The magazine argues that laziness has been unjustly criticised by modern society and that it deserves to have its good conscience returned to it and defended as an essential component of a happy life. The intention therefore is to produce a publication that is entertaining, thought-provoking and full of great ideas for living. Indeed, many international newspapers have adopted their views on leisure and lifestyle as a result through incorporation of sections on lifestyle and living.

Recent history

More recently, The Idler has become known for its stance on social issues. Crap Jobs is a humorous series of books (and Idler column) looking at human exploitation. The Crap Towns books have a mission to find Britain's worst places to live. Crap Towns, caught the public imagination but drew fire from both local councils and local media in those areas concerned. The newest addition to the Crap series is Crap Holidays: an exploration of Samuel Johnson's maxim that the wise idler will allow events and goods to come to him rather than expend energy and money travelling to disenchanting locations.

Contributors

Contributors and interviewees featured in The Idler include:

References

See also

External links

There have been three British publications called The Idler:
  • The Idler (1758-1760), a series of essays by Samuel Johnson and his contemporaries.
  • The Idler (1892-1911), a literary and humorous magazine started by Jerome K. Jerome.

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Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [2]   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" [3]
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British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world.
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Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [2]   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" [3]
..... Click the link for more information.
Topics in journalism
Professional issues
Ethics & objectivity
Sources & attribution
News & news values
Reporting & writing
Fourth estate • Libel law
Education & books
Other topics

Fields
Advocacy journalism
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Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson circa 1772,
painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Born: September 18 [O.S. September 7] 1709
Lichfield, England
Died: November 13 1784
London, England
Occupation: poet, biographer,
essayist, lexicographer
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The Idler was a series of 103 essays, all but twelve of them by Samuel Johnson, published in the London weekly the Universal Chronicle between 1758 and 1760. It is likely that the Chronicle was published for the sole purpose of including The Idler
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Jerome Klapka Jerome

Jerome K. Jerome
Born: May 2 1859(1859--)
Staffordshire, England
Died: May 14 1927 (aged 68)
Northampton, England
Occupation: Author
Nationality: British
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The Idler was an illustrated monthly magazine published in Great Britain from 1892 to 1911. It was founded by the humorist Jerome K. Jerome, and its contributors included many of the leading writers and illustrators of the time.
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This article may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.
This article has been tagged since September 2007.

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Tom Hodgkinson is a British writer and the editor of The Idler. He was educated at Westminster School. He has contributed to articles to The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian and The Sunday Times as well as being the author of The Idler
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The Protestant work ethic, or sometimes called the Puritan work ethic, is a Calvinist value emphasizing the necessity of constant labor in a person's calling as a sign of personal salvation.
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Conscience is an ability or faculty or sense that leads to feelings of remorse when we do things that go against our moral values, or which informs our moral judgment before performing such an action.
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Leisure or free time, is a period of time spent out of work and essential domestic activity. It is also the period of discretionary time before or after compulsory activities such as eating and sleeping, going to work or running a business, attending school and doing
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lifestyle is the way a person lives. This includes patterns of social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview.
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Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK[1] and Crap Towns II: The Nation Decides [2] are a series of humourous, but completely unscientific books edited by Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran and published in association with UK
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Dan Kieran is Deputy Editor of The Idler, a bi-yearly British magazine. He is a writer, editor, and occasional contributor to Radio and TV.

He is Editor of Idler Books' Crap Jobs, Crap Holidays (Crap Vacations
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Jonathan Stephen Ross OBE (born November 17, 1960) is a British television and radio presenter and film critic.

Biography

Ross was born in Camden, London, England, but was raised in Leytonstone East London.
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A host (sometimes hostess, in feminine form) or presenter is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit.
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Louis Sebastian Theroux (born 20 May 1970) is a British broadcaster holding both British and US citizenship, best known for his television series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends and When Louis Met…

Biography

Theroux was born in Singapore,
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Tony Barrell is a British journalist, known for his humour and his exploration of the unusual and the unexplained. He has written many major features for the Sunday Times, and has also contributed to The Times, The Idler, and Cornucopia magazine, among others.
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The Sunday Times

The 2006 front page layout of The Sunday Times
Type Weekly newspaper
Format Broadsheet

Owner News International
Editor John Witherow
Founded 1864
Political allegiance Centre-right
Price £2.00
£1.
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Joanna Blythman is a British non-fiction writer. She is Britain’s leading investigative food journalist and an influential commentator on the British food chain, covering subjects as diverse as salmon farming, supermarkets, intensive pineapple production, bird flu and the
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Raoul Vaneigem (born 1934) is a Belgian writer and philosopher. He was born in Lessines (Hainaut, Belgium). After studying romance philology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles from 1952 to 1956, he participated in the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970.
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The Situationist International (SI) was a small group of international political and artistic agitators with roots in Marxism, Lettrism and the early 20th century European artistic and political avant-gardes.
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Chris Donald (born 25 April 1960 in Newcastle, England) is the founder of, and one of the principal contributors to, the British comic magazine Viz. He attended Heaton comprehensive school where he failed his A-levels, and in 1978 he began work as a clerical officer at the
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Jeremy John Ratter (born 8 June 1943, Northwood, Middlesex, England), better known under his pseudonym of Penny Rimbaud, is a drummer, writer, poet, former member of performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and co-founder of the anarchist punk band Crass with Steve
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Peter Doherty (born March 12, 1979) is an English musician, artist and poet. He is singer and songwriter in the band Babyshambles, however is best known musically for his work with The Libertines, alongside Carl Barât.
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The Libertines were an English rock band which gained notoriety in the early 2000s, as part of what was described as the garage rock revival movement of that time. The band was centred on the song-writing partnership and chemistry of Pete Doherty (vocals/rhythm guitar) and Carl
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Birth name: William Edgar Oddie
Born: 7 July 1941 (1941--) (age 66)
Rochdale, Lancashire, England
Occupation
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