The faculty boasts Mr T Young (MA Oxon), Mr Bill Drummond (KLF), Mr H Mount (MA Oxon), Mr ML Young (BA U of Life), Mr J Mitchinson (BA QI), Mr J Butterworth (MA Cantab) and Mr Simon Fairlie. There will be distinguished visiting professors, tea ladies and biscuits in the staff room. You can find the Academy near the Boathouse. Lessons start at 12 sharp. The Tuck Shop will be open for penny chews, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers, teas, coffees and text books. And please knock before entering the common room. See below for full timetable.

About The Idler:

Established by Tom Hodgkinson and Gavin Pretor-Pinney in 1993, the magazine quickly gathered a cult following for its blatant dismissal of the workers ethos and set about distorting the British work ethic of ‘live to work’ by offering an idle life style and combining work with play. The magazine features the idle musings of an eclectic cast including Jonathan Ross, Damian Hirst and Patrick Moore. Tom has also written three books How to be Idle – a bestseller in the UK, Italy and Germany – How to be Free and The Idle Parent.

In 2006 Tom created National Unawareness Day, which is celebrated on November 1, although in Tom’s world everyday is November 1. Encouraging us all to find our own little paradise in a world of encircling hells Tom’s writing is witty, intelligent and provocative which, rather ironically, sedulously campaigns against hard-labour, watching your life flash before your eyes and offers inspiration to the dream-chaser in us all. Pull out the sun-lounger, pour some wine and raise a glass to idleness.

www.idler.co.uk

“One of the most provocatively entertaining, creatively subversive and, frankly, essential manifestoes of this or any moment.”
Time Out

“An inspiring collection of historical references and intriguing socio-cultural comment for those of us who yearn to cast off our corporate and consumer shackles.”
Psychologies

Links:

• Interview with Tom Hodgkinson

In addition to the ‘teachers’ listed individually in the Idler’s Academy section of this website, we are pleased to announce the following additions to our timetable:

Ian Bone is the founder of Class War and author of Bash The Rich: True Life Confessions of an Anarchist in the UK. He has recently started his own publishing imprint whose first release is Hartmann The Anarchist by 19th century Eton schoolboy E. Douglas Fawcett. He and Ray Roughler-Jones are the Academy’s visiting sociology professors.

Charles Hazlewood is an award-winning conductor who works regularly with great orchestras around the world — from the Philharmonia to the Gothenburg Symphony. He is the Idler’s choirmaster.

William Peers is a sculptor. He studied at Falmouth Art College and was then apprenticed to a stone-carver. His latest show was at London’s John Martin gallery. Mr Peers is the Idler’s art master and will be making a sculpture over the course of the weekend.

Ray Roughler-Jones has been called “Swansea’s Jack Kerouac” by Rhys Ifans. His biography, Drowning on Dry Land, is out now on Tangent Books.

Justin Welch played the drums in Elastica. He now teaches percussion and plays with Asbo Kid, whose other half is James from EMF. Mr Welch will be leading a drumming masterclass.

Jez’s work often depicts the dark and complex side of English society. None more so than in his film Birthday Girl (2001, starring Nicole Kidman), which focuses on the idea of “residential oppression”, when a thirty-something bank clerk from small-town St Albans finds his life being interrogated after the arrival of his Russian mail-order bride.

Jerusalem, described as a “comic, contemporary vision of life in our green and pleasant land”, has received endless praise since it opened at the Royal Court last July, with the Telegraph stating it to be “rich, strange and continuously gripping” and The Times calling it “bold, ebullient and hilarious”. Jez will be sharing some unique and entertaining insights at the Idler’s Academy.

“Butterworth’s England is messy, chaotic, rebellious – and above all, infused with the spirit of Shakespeare. Perfect.”
The Guardian

“A profane intelligence that zeroes in on the pedantry of the nanny state.”
This is London

Links:

• Reviews of Jerusalem by What’s on Stage
• An interview with Jez Butterworth in The Guardian

Video:

Watch the official trailer of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem:

Toby was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (gaining a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and has taught at Harvard and Cambridge. Since founding and editing the Modern Review with Julie Burchill and Cosmo Landesman in 1991, he’s enjoyed an extensive career in journalism and is currently the associate editor of The Spectator and a blogger for the Telegraph. One of his less enjoyable experiences in journalism was his ill-fated stint at Vanity Fair magazine in New York (1995 to 1998). Young’s kiss-and-tell memoirs of this disastrous period form the basis of his debut novel, How to Lose friends and Alienate People.

Toby performed in the West End adaption of his novel and co-produced the film version (2008) starring Simon Pegg (as Toby) alongside Jeff Bridges and Thandie Newton. He also co-wrote a sex farce about the David Blunkett/Kimberley Quinn scandal called Who’s the Daddy?, which was named Best New Comedy at the 2006 Theatregoers’ Choice Awards. Most recently he co-wrote When Boris Met Dave, a documentary for More4.

www.nosacredcows.co.uk
www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk
Follow Toby Young on Twitter: http://twitter.com/toadmeister
Follow Toby Young on Facebook

“Young has built a successful career out of being a complete failure.”
The Scotsman

“My whole life, I’ve always done good things. I’ve never even had a speeding ticket – well, no, I had one speeding ticket.”
Toby Young

Links:

• Toby Young interview in The Scotsman
• Watch a short film Toby made for Newsnight about his efforts to set up a free school in Ealing
• Political Debate Discussing the Pros and Cons of Free Schools – Politics Weekly (Guardian)

Video:

Toby Young discusses his Free School project:

Toby Young performs extracts from his novel:

Bill’s music career began in the late 1970s alongside Holly Johnson and Ian Broudie in the band, Big in Japan. After the band’s demise, Bill formed Zoo Records and later went on to manage Echo and the Bunnymen – sending them to tour destinations so obscure that he was forced to admit, “If you look at a map of the world, the whole tour is in the shape of rabbit’s ears.” Towards the end of the 1980s, he joined forces with kindred spirit, Jimmy Cauty and they formed the Timelords — reaching No 1 with the novelty single, ‘Doctorin’ the Tardis’. This led the duo to write their first book together, The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way).

The duo later regrouped as KLF and achieved major fame and fortune culminating with a Brit Award for Best British Group in 1992. Yet, from the top of the musical summit, KLF controversially announced their immediate retirement from music and deleted their entire back catalogue. Whilst the music industry digested the bitter aftertaste of lost revenue, Bill and Jimmy set up the K Foundation and entered the art world. Their most notable performance was burning a million quid on the Scottish island of Jura. In a money-obsessed world, such an act has immortalised Bill… but this shouldn’t deflect from the talents of a cult musician, prophetic thinker and a visionary artist.

In recent years, Bill has written a number of other books, including How To Be An Artist (2002), Wild Highway (with Mark Manning, 2005), Scores 18-76 (2006), 17 (2008) and $20,000 (2010).

Bill Drummond’s website

“We wanted the money, but we wanted to burn it more!”
Bill Drummond

“Like the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Drummond has always been a step ahead of human evolution, guiding us on.”
Select Magazine

“You can’t fail to be struck by what an agreeably sane and reasonable figure he cuts, given the extreme and eccentric nature of so much of what he has done.”
The Daily Telegraph

Links:

• Interview with Bill Drummond in The Telegraph
• 12 Things You Never Knew About The KLF … or more precisely, Bill Drummond
• The library of Mu — archived press releases and articles connected to KLF

KLF Music — The Last Train to Trancentral

Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty talk about their reasons for burning a million quid

Wilko’s style combines lead and rhythm guitar in driving riffs and a stuttering machine gun frenzy. As the songwriter of early Dr Feelgood favourites like ‘Back in the Night’, ‘Dr. Dupree’ and ‘Sneaking Suspicion’, he proved himself one of the best and most original exponents of rhythm ‘n’ blues styles this side of the Atlantic. Wilko and the Feelgoods inspired a generation of artists including The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Boomtown Rats, The Ramones and Blondie. After leaving Dr Feelgood, Wilko entered the ranks of Ian Dury’s Blockheads, co-writing several songs with Ian and featuring on the Laughter album.

In 2008, acclaimed film director Julien Temple set out to make Oil City Confidential, a documentary film about the birth of Dr Feelgood. During the filming he met Wilko, “one of the great English eccentrics.” In order to accommodate Wilko’s many extraordinary facets, the project went way beyond completion date and budget and has created a renewed fever of interest in Wilko.

Wilko Johnson’s MySpace page
Wilko Johnson’s Facebook page

Links:

• Interview with Wilko Johnson on Blues in London
• Interview with Wilko Johnson in The Times

Watch the official trailer for Oil City Confidential:

Harry’s first book, My Brief Career (2004), told the story of his time as a libel barrister. Previously the New York correspondent and leader writer for the Telegraph, he now writes regularly for the Spectator, the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, Country Life, Literary Review and the Times Literary Supplement.

www.harrymount.co.uk

Links:

• Read Harry’s blog
• Harry Mount talks about his book Amo, Amas, Amat and All That – How to Become a Latin Lover

Video:

Harry talks about architecture and history of the extension to the National Gallery:

www.frederickcogdell.co.uk

Ben is one of the industry’s best-known mixologists thanks to his high profile as the BBC’s Shaker Maker, regular appearances on This Morning and GMTV, and his colourful career mixing cocktails for the capital’s trendsetters and style leaders.

He began his bar career working with Sir Terence Conran, becoming head bartender for the prestigious downstairs bar at Mezzo. His career really took off during an enormously successful three-year stint as bar manager of London’s premier private members club, the Met bar.

As well as writing a weekly column, Barfly, for the Saturday Times magazine, Ben is the author of numerous sell-out books, including, Hollywood Cocktails (1999), Cool Cocktails (2000), The Cocktail Hour (2002), The Martini (2002), and The Margarita and other Tequila Cocktails (2002), The Art of the Cocktail (2003), and his latest, The Bartender’s Guide (2007).

Video:

Watch Ben’s Summer Cocktail Masterclass here: