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Interview [published February 2008]
Tom Hodgkinson: How To Be Idle
Greg Lowe
It’s Friday afternoon, and after a particularly busy
week, with only a few things to wrap up, I try and
scratch off the last important thing on my list of things
to do – interview author/journalist Tom Hodgkinson.
First I try his London office a number of times, only
to get the following answer-phone message: “This is
the office of the Idler [the magazine of which Hodgkinson
is the founder/editor], there’s no one in right now,
we’re not in very often, so if you leave a message it
might take a while for us to get back to you…”
At 5:50pm Bangkok time (11:50am in England) I try
my luck with his mobile number, which I was given “in
case something goes wrong”.
“Hi, this is Tom, I’ve left my mobile at home today,
you can reach me at [the number for the Idler office].”
It appears I am trapped in a Sisyphean cycle of messages
left on answer-phones that lead to more messages
on other answer-phones, all equally unlikely to be answered
or to yield in the previously arranged interview.
Normally this would be cause for concern, but today
a smile born from a wonderful sense of irony spreads
across my face.
BUY Tom Hodgkinson books online from and
You see, apart from editing the magazine, Hodgkinson
is also the author of a curious little book, How To
Be Idle. Broken down into hourly chapters, starting at
8am and finishing at 7am, it wages a war on work while
providing practical and philosophical loafing advice
for every part of the day.
Chapter three ‘10am Sleeping In’, begins as follows:
“It’s 10am The successful idler, having avoided the
guilt produced by 8am, the culturally determined hour
of rising, and the guilt produced by 9am, the hour of
work, may now be awake, and thinking of perhaps getting
up. Don’t!”
The fact that he was either not up, nor in the office
to answer the phone, came as no great surprise. I fired
off a bunch of questions via email, and left the office
heading for the pub.
Hodgkinson practices what he preaches in How To
Be Idle. He takes the subject of doing nothing very
seriously, and aims to inspire more than a quiet chuckle
from readers. “Although the book is a good read, it is
intended to be taken seriously. I really do believe that
our system of things is anti-life,” he says.
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