This year the Idler's Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment opens its doors for the first time. Tom Hodgkinson, editor of cult magazine The Idler, has established the Academy as a resource for these three valuable but generally neglected disciplines. This year's curriculum includes Latin grammar, scything, woodwork, education theory, poetry and, of course, lashings and lashings of fun…
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Victoria set up and ran the Clerkenwell Literary Festival in the nineties. She moved to North Devon in 2002, and has spent the last few years concentrating on bee keeping, children, dog breeding, bread-baking and various other arts of life. She'll be talking about bee keeping in The Idler's Academy.
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Simon Fairlie has worked as an agricultural and building worker, dustman, toothpaste tube top manufacturer, stonemason, smallholder, planning consultant and journalist. He currently imports Austrian scythes, teaches their use and maintenance, and keeps two Jersey cows on the grass. Find him at The Idler's Academy where he'll be talking about scything.
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Frederick is a tailor who was trained in Savile Row and now lives in Devon, where he is often cited as being the “last tailor in the West Country”. He has over 25 years experience in bespoke tailoring, and has made suits for a number of illustrious personages over the years, from London to Paris and Moscow. He’ll be showing us ‘How To Mend Your Own Clothes’.
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Will is the author of Guitar Man, Song Man and The Ballad Of Britain. He writes on music and culture for The Guardian, The Times, Mojo and Vogue. He'll be talking about Corn On The Cob: The beginner's guide to Cornish psychedelia and mythology and will perform with Michael Tyack (Princes in The Tower) as Corn On The Cob, a tribute to the totally obscure early 1970s Cornish folk-rock band, Cob.
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John Mitchinson is head of research for the British television panel game QI (hosted by Stephen Fry), and co-author of the QI series of books, including the million-copy seller, The Book of General Ignorance (2006) and most recently, The QI Book of the Dead (2009), a philosophical compendium of the justly famous and undeservedly forgotten. He'll be talking about 'Dead Men Dressed in Brown' in the Idler's Academy.
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Ben Reed, former Cocktail Bartender of the Year, will be passing on some of his superb mixology skills to festival-goers in The Idler’s Academy. So come and take the weight off your feet while Ben whips up one of his signature cocktails. Whether your chosen tipple is something fresh like a Strawberry Mule or one of Ben’s many variations on the classic martini, he’s sure to have something to suit your palate.
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Playwright and director Jez Butterworth arrives at Port Eliot fresh from Olivier Award success with his West End play Jerusalem (2009). Having been described as “a vision of Englishness”, his plays and films have won numerous awards, including Evening Standard and George Devine awards for his Royal Court Theatre play Mojo (1995), which was adapted for film in 1997 and starred Harold Pinter.
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Toby Young is a freelance journalist, food critic and the bestselling author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2001) and The Sound of No Hands Clapping (2006). He’s also the leader of a parent group in Ealing hoping to set up Britain’s first ‘free school’ – a secondary school funded by the state, but free to operate independently and determine its own curriculum. He’ll be teaching us how to start a school in the Idler’s Academy.
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Hailed as art terrorist, pop troubadour and maverick prankster, Bill Drummond’s career path has been eclectic to say the least. He's managed Echo and the Bunnymen and The Proclaimers, won a Brit Award with KLF and challenged the art and music establishments with brazen works of counter-art and calculated acts of randomness. At Port Eliot this year, he’ll be teaching you how to build in the Idler’s Academy.
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