Tom Hodgkinson

Although the rise of mega-cities raises disturbing questions about living standards and livelihoods, the spread of city living is not all bad, says Tom Hodgkinson

Find the hidden entrepreneur in you to free yourself from slavery to corporate and state authority, says Tom Hodgkinson

Tom launches the Idler Academy to teach us good grammar, sadly lacking practical skills like carpentry and lastly, of course, merriment

Tom partied in the fields of Somerset last weekend like the best of them, but the commercial and environmental impact of Glastonbury left a sour taste in his mouth

Idleness usually sees Tom through most of life's trials. But not gardening. Oh no. Nature took one look and ran amok

There's no great conspiracy around bee deaths - hive diseases have been with us for millennia. No one who keeps livestock should expect an easy ride...

An obsession with happiness science is just the chemistry set for a new opiate of the masses. Give me misery, says Tom Hodgkinson

We've inherited an unhealthy, puritan attitude to food and sensory pleasure, says Tom Hodgkinson. Taking a leaf out of the books of our medieval ancestors would do us all good...

Putting down some of our hi-tech gadgets and hi-octane pastimes might help us make a lot less impact...

What have the Romans ever done for us? Well, they did at least try to warn us that intensive farming would render our soils and civilisation unviable...

Tom Hodgkinson lays out the case for the return of street markets. Wouldn't we all be better off living outside the box?

He's.... wicked and he's lazy. But he's also surprisingly green. The self-proclaimed Idler on saving the planet from your armchair...

Glastonbury provides the perfect setting to reflect on free spirit. If only the wild thing in all of us could come out more often, writes Tom Hodgkinson

Giving up your car doesn't mean giving up luxury or freedom- you'll save time, money and discover a more regal existence without one.

Henry VIII’s land-grab robbed ordinary people of their commons – now a new campaign offers us the chance to take back what we’re owed.

Why are we clinging to the outmoded employment aspirations of an ailing system? You’re not redundant, you’re job-free, says Tom Hodgkinson

In writing <i>Leviathan</i>, Thomas Hobbes created a monster: us. By reasserting our humanity we can correct the mistakes of the social scientists, says Tom Hodgkinson

No more financial meltdown, poor communication and substandard food – if we ditch the middlemen and get co-operative, what couldn’t we achieve?

How to deal with the job crisis? Try saving your soul by retreating as far as possible from the system that landed us all in this sorry mess

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes: gardening will save the world. For in a garden is truth, beauty and lots of good food...

From all sides, the cry is the same: something must be done. More must be done.

At the end of May, I went to give a talk at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. John Bird, of The Big Issue, and I, sang songs to my ukulele accompaniment and enthused about the pleasures of thrift.

The internet once represented something like freedom for Tom Hodgkinson, but the honeymoon ended when the problems of the virtual life became all-too-real

Bono may be cheerleading for its charitable wing, but corporate America is not waging a war on AIDS for the sake of its health, says Tom Hodgkinson