Delayed Gratification co-founders Rob Orchard and Marcus Webb discuss with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Rob Orchard and Marcus Webb are co-founders of Delayed Gratification, the world’s first Slow Journalism magazine, launched in 2011. Delayed Gratification revisits events after the dust has settled and makes a virtue of being “Last to Breaking News.” 

Rob and Marcus have been named Independent Editors of the Year three times by the British Society of Magazine Editors. Prior to launching the magazine, both Rob and Marcus worked for Time Out and have written for Esquire, Time and the Guardian. 

Delayed Gratification has been profiled by media organisations including the New Yorker, the Telegraph, the Economist, El Mundo and Die Zeit. The pair have spoken about Slow Journalism on ABC, PBS, the BBC and Sky News as well as in an influential Tedx talk.

Along with Delayed Gratification’s art director Christian, Rob and Marcus are co-authors of An Answer For Everything, the critically acclaimed book of infographics published by Bloomsbury. Their new book Misc., a compendium of delightfully random facts discovered in 13 years of research for the magazine, was published by Bloomsbury in October 2024.

1. Drowning people pulled from the Thames used to be treated with tobacco enemas https://bcmj.org/special-feature/special-feature-tobacco-smoke-enemas

2. Andre Agassi used Boris Becker’s tongue to win tennis matches https://www.businessinsider.com/andre-agassi-beat-boris-becker-watching-tongue-serves-2021-4

3. Life on Mars sounds horrible https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2845199/

4. Movie star Hedy Lamarr is the unsung heroine of Bluetooth https://www.forbes.com/sites/shivaunefield/2018/02/28/hedy-lamarr-the-incredible-mind-behind-secure-wi-fi-gps-bluetooth/

5. One hardy entomologist set himself the task of being bitten by as many insects as possible, and recorded the experiences in lyrical prose https://www.chemistryworld.com/careers/the-man-who-gets-stung-by-insects/2500173.article

6. Many of the very worst films ever released have made more than half a billion dollars at the box office https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

Andrew Hindmoor discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Andrew Hindmoor grew up in Sheffield, left, went to Australia, and boomeranged back to Sheffield in 2013. He is a Professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute. He recently published Haywire: A Political History of Britain Since 2000 with Penguin which was the Times’ ‘book of the week’ when it was released. He has previously published 12 Days Which Made Modern Britain with Oxford and academic books on the financial crisis and the state. He makes a mean lemon meringue pie.

1. North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. https://stradbrokeisland.com/

2. The Americans boxset https://www.amazon.co.uk/Americans-Complete-Seasons-1-6-DVD/dp/B07FYBZMN5

3. Hitchhiking https://medium.com/@korkmazlarr/the-exhilarating-journey-unveiling-the-benefits-of-hitchhiking-27f996c6d2ca

4. The Office for National Statistics data on happiness and life satisfaction (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/measuringnationalwellbeing/april2022tomarch2023 for the most recent release)

5. Philip Short’s biography of Vladimir Putin https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/430057/putin-by-short-philip/9781784700935

6. The alternative walk from Wasdale. Don’t go East from Wasdale up Scafell Pike. Go West and walk the horseshoe across Red Pike, Pillar and Great Gable.

Josie Lloyd discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Josie Lloyd, also writing as Joanna Rees, is the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling international author of over twenty novels and has been translated into 27 languages. Come Together, which she co-authored with her husband Emlyn Rees, was number one for 10 weeks and made into a Working Title film. Josie Lloyd recently wrote contemporary women’s fiction novels The Cancer Ladies Running Club and Lifesaving for Beginners, which was a #1 Bookseller Heatseeker. Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency is her first crime novel.

1. Isabella Beeton – she of the ‘Book of Household Management’ fame is still relevant today.  Her weighty Victorian tome was full of common sense advice on how to run a household, but lots of it still rings true: like cooking a big meal on a Sunday and using the left-overs all week. Making sure that you find the best quality ingredients at the lowest price and learning how to budget properly. And, just when we thought it was a new idea, one of her pieces of advice is for the mistress of the house to rise early and take a cold bath.  She was the perfect inspiration for my latest novel, Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency.

2. Creative collaboration is a magical thing. When I first met Emlyn, my husband, he was my agent’s assistant and we came up with a crazy idea to write a book together. He went away and wrote a chapter from a boy’s point of view, then I wrote a response from the female point of view. The book went on to be Come Together, a number one hit which was translated into 26 languages. Over the following seven novels, we learnt how to write collaboratively and still have a thriving writing partnership and have just written another rom com together. Learning how to plan and give feedback is key, but it’s so exciting to be involved in a creative project together.  It’s true that two heads are better than one.

3.  There’s no perfect way to be ‘a writer’.  And certainly staring at a blank screen is not necessarily a good way to start. I’ve learnt that it’s crucial to accept and embrace your own method. Like most writers, I’ve always had a slight imposter syndrome, not really thinking I’m a ‘proper’ writer – even after 22 published novels. When lock-down happened, I thought it would be a fabulous time to write, but it was tumble-weed. I realised that I need interaction with people and that I write on the hoof, in brief snatches. I also always write ‘You are free to write the worst junk in the world’ at the top of every document – which tends to shut up my inner critic.

4. It’s breast cancer awareness month and having been through it – and having been inspired to write The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club – it’s important that people know that there are two types of breast cancer – lobular and ductal. Lobular accounts for 15 per cent of all breast cancers, which doesn’t sound much means that 22 women a day are diagnosed with it – often many of them too late.  I am now patron of Lobular Breast Cancer UK and do a lot of work to support women through breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. A large part of that is educating people that women are not just looking for a lump, but any change in breast tissue.

5. Having breast reconstruction surgery is not the only option after breast cancer. I had a prosthetic breast made that matches my bumpy chest wall and it’s a game-changer. More people need to know that this is a great alternative to surgery.

6. Daily Qi Gong is amazing. As a busy mum of three with a successful career, cancer came as an enormous shock. I realised that I’d put my own well-being at the very bottom of my list. After I’d been through treatment, I discovered Qi Gong the ancient art of moving meditation. I religiously do a fifteen minute routine upon waking – in my dressing gown, outside, and it has profoundly changed my life and wellbeing. Putting a ‘me-time’ routine into your day, but keeping it consistent is the key to well-being.

Historian Alice Hunt discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alice Hunt is Professor of Early Modern Literature and History at the University of Southampton. She is the author of The Drama of Coronation (Cambridge University Press) and has previously written about the Tudors and James I, and often appears in the media to discuss monarchy. Her new book is Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade 1649-60. She lives in Winchester.

1. The Republic. The fact that we once were a republic, that it was called and known as a republic, and what this republic was actually like should all be better known.
2. Richard Cromwell. Eldest surviving son of Oliver Cromwell who succeeded his father as Lord Protector. That he once held the top job should be better known, but also what he was really like, and why he didn’t survive, should be better known. He has been misrepresented cruelly by history as ‘Tumbledown Dick’.
3. Samuel Hartlib. Polish entrepreneur who moved to England and flourished in the creative, reforming energy of the 1650s. An inveterate communicator and intelligencer, he knew everyone who was anyone at the time and had a finger in every pie. He feverishly promoted ideas to the new republican government that were way ahead of their time: paper money, a national bank, a health service, state schools, the return of the Jews.
4. The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton. This beautiful, sweet, quiet book about fishing was a huge bestseller in the 1650s. It went into multiple editions, has never been out of print, and is still in print today. Why was this book so famous? And what does it tell us about the time?
5. Forde Abbey, Dorset. I absolutely loved discovering Forde Abbey during the research for this book. This former Cistercian monastery, nestled in the valley of the River Axe, completely transformed my thinking about who the puritan, republican men were who governed England at this time, and what drove and motivated them. Edmund Prideaux – Cromwell’s attorney general and MP for Lyme Regis –bought and restored Forde Abbey in 1649. The house is now privately owned but is open to the public.
6. The Experimental Philosophy Club. This is the name of the society of young, curious, committed scientists who met in Oxford during the 1650s to share ideas and plan experiments. Its members included Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren. They later became known as the Royal Society – and their associations with the republican years papered over and forgotten.  

Nabeel Qureshi discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Nabeel S. Qureshi is an entrepreneur and researcher specializing in artificial intelligence and healthcare. He is the CEO of a new startup company and a Visiting Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Nabeel is based in New York and grew up in Manchester, England.

1. The filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/17/the-metaphysical-world-of-apichatpong-weerasethakuls-movies

2. Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1975/01/23/incomparable-empson/

3. Wittgenstein’s late notebooks, Culture and Value https://prismatically.blog/2020/08/30/wittgenstein-culture-and-value-whereof-one-cannot-speak-thereof-one-must-be-silent/  

4. The pianist Grigory Sokolov, especially his recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations https://open.spotify.com/track/0iD6SmRyOj23fCKyG4x8zj?si=decbea5bd38f4515&nd=1&dlsi=ce22c9bdf87a4ba4

5. The essay Art as Technique by Viktor Shklovsky https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/first/en122/lecturelist-2015-16-2/shklovsky.pdf

6. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n08/john-lanchester/indian-summa

Edward Carey discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator who was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. He is the author of the novels Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva: the Twins Who Saved a City, and of the YA Iremonger Trilogy, which have all been translated into many different languages and all of which he illustrated. His 2018 novel Little has been published in 20 countries. His novella The Swallowed Man, set inside the belly of an enormous sea beast, was published in 2022. His latest novel Edith Holler will be published on 3^rd October by Gallic Books.

He has written plays for the National Theatre of Romania and the Vilnius Small State Theatre, Lithuania. In England his plays and adaptations have been performed at the Young Vic Studio, the Battersea Arts Centre, and the Royal Opera House Studio. He has collaborated on a shadow puppet production of Macbeth in Malaysia, and with the Faulty Optic Theatre of Puppets.

Edward will be in the UK in October and speaking about Edith Holler in bookshops around the country: Waterstones Trafalgar Square (3^rd October), Mr B’s Emporium (4^th October), Blackwells Oxford (5^th October), Blackwells Manchester (7^th October) and Dragon Hall, National Centre for Writing in Norwich (8^th October).

1. Commonplace books https://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2023/06/what-is-a-commonplace-book.html

2. Whitby Museum https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/

3. The art of Charles Altamont Doyle https://huntington.org/exhibition/unseen-world-charles-altamont-doyle

4. The fairy tales of Giambattista Basile https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giambattista-Basile

5. Norwich undercrofts https://www.norwichunderground.xyz/undercrofts/

6. Victorian toy theatres https://craftsmanship.net/the-rise-and-fall-of-toy-theatre/

Steve Prest discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Steve Prest was a Weapon Engineer Officer who joined the Royal Navy after reading Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Loughborough University. He served in the Defence Communications Services Agency in Corsham in support of Op TELIC 1 (Iraq); undertook a short tour in Afghanistan as a Liaison Officer to Task Force Helmand; and has served on exchange with the French Navy. In the UK he has worked in Defence Equipment and Support, MOD, the Permanent Joint Headquarters and the Maritime Capability Division of Navy Command Headquarters.

At sea he was the Weapon Engineer Officer in HMS WESTMINSTER undertaking operations in the Mediterranean (Libya), Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean; and then the Commander Weapon Engineer in HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, bringing the ship out of build and home to Portsmouth.

Joining the nascent Navy Acquisition organisation in 2017, he was previously the Programme Director of the Type 31 Frigate Programme. He then became Deputy Director Navy Acquisition (Equipment and Systems), and Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the Maritime Electronic Warfare and Mine Hunting Capability Programmes. He fulfilled the role of Director Navy Acquisition from September 2022 until May 2023 and finished his career as Deputy Director People Change Programmes in Navy Command HQ.

Still working out what he wants to do when he grows up, Steve is now an independent consultant, advisor, commentator and speaker in the Defence sector and beyond. He has set up his own company, Alatar Ltd, and his self-appointed mission is “to help brilliant people to do amazing things”.

He is married to Kerry and they live on the Hampshire coast with their daughter, Emily. He enjoys reading and is a keen fan of most sports, participating when time and body allow.

1. The Royal Navy and what it does.
2. That life is stochastic not based on fate, otherwise risk management wouldn’t work!
3. The Scouring of the Shire – from Lord of the Rings. It was a crucial part of the narrative arc in the books but missed out from the otherwise brilliant films.
4. Captain Cook. Everyone knows that he “discovered” Australia (he didn’t really, but…) but his qualities as a leader and maritime professional should be better known.
5. That inclusive leadership isn’t “woke nonsense” but is, at its heart, just good leadership.
6. Bluestone 42 – a BBC comedy drama about a British bomb disposal detachment details the camaraderie and bonds shared between the soldiers in the unit as they risk their lives defusing bombs.

Ivan Wise discusses four anti-war plays which should be better known.

1. Post Mortem by Noel Coward http://www.ww1plays.com/2015/07/noel-cowards-serious-war-play.html
2. The White Disease by Karel Capek https://artsfuse.org/198970/arts-commentary-pestilence-on-stage-part-one-karel-capeksthe-white-plague/
3. O’Flaherty VC by George Bernard Shaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Flaherty_V.C.
4. Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/dec/13/artsfeatures4

Marieke Bigg is the author of Waiting for Ted, and This Won’t Hurt. Writing across fiction and non-fiction, she deconstructs the cultural givens around bodies, minds and identity. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied the technological transformation of human reproduction. In addition to her books, Marieke speaks about the sociology of medicine and psychiatry, and collaborates with biologists and artists to explore the social potential of science. She is also a training psychotherapist. She now lives in London. Her new book is A Scarab Where The Heart Should Be.

1. In Vitro Fertilisation – while most people know what it is, knowing more about this process and its history opens up new ways of thinking about the role of reproduction in society and will have us questioning what we currently regard as natural truths

2. Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Peter Zumthor – a chapel mentioned in my book,shaped by pouring concrete over 112 tree trunks that were burnt away. Designed as a space to be, and raises questions about our connection to nature, and how we nourish our need for trascnendece in a secular age. (an unmet need that drives much of my protagonists’ choices) 

3. Taxonomy – how when we learn the names of natural things, we look more closely, and experience our place in nature. 

4. In Praise of Shadows, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki – the ideas in this essay are often around for me, and also guided my thinking about my prtoagonist. The essay on traditional Japanese astheatics is a warning against an incessant pursuit of light (perfection, stimulation, happiness) in Western culture. 

5. Anne Mclaren – an embryologist who I wrote my PhD on. Fascinating scientist who worked on IVF, sending mice to space with NASA, worked with Russian scientists during the cold war, and starred in an HG Wells film as a child. 

6. The Way Out is In – podcast by followers of the Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thit Naht Tahn. A refreshing, simple and profound set of conversations that return me to the present and remind me that most answers to life’s difficulties lie in how I relate to them.

Kathy Willis discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.   Katherine Willis CBE is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Previous roles include Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a member of the UK Government’s Natural Capital Committee. In 2015, Kathy was awarded the Michael Faraday Medal for public communication of science from the Royal Society. Her new book is Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health. 1. Staring out of a window onto greenery instead of a brick wall or a general urban scene. Why? Because the view of greenery can trigger changes in our bodies that lead to a reduction in stress and improved cognitive performance (better attention to detail) when we return to the task we were undertaking before staring out of the window.   2. Having a vase of yellow or roses or houseplant with green-white leaves on your desk. Why? Because when we do so, clinical experiments indicate that even just viewing these plants on our desk can lower our blood pressure and make us less anxious.   3. Even if you only have 20 minutes for your walk or run, always head for the park/urban green space. Why? Because experiments show that there is a much greater reduction in our stress hormones (salivary amylase, cortisol and adrenaline) if we exercise in green space rather than on the streets. This stress relief is also found with sitting as well – so we don’t have to pound the pavements to gain these benefits. 4. Garden without your gloves. Why? Because experiments show when we do so the environmental microbiota (good bacteria) found in biodiverse environments, including organic soils, is transferred onto our skin and into our gut. In effect, our gut takes on the signature of the environmental microbiome that we are in. Why is this important? Because these bacteria are the same ones that have been shown to trigger all sorts of positive health outcomes (and we try to increase by drinking probiotic drinks etc). For example, experiments have shown that children and adults who garden without gloves and/or play in the soil, have a greatly increased diversity of these good microbes in their guts, and reduced inflammatory markers in their bloods when they do so. 5. Visit the Mediterranean garden at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. Why? Because this hidden gem at Kew has a whole host of health benefits associated with it due to the smells (volatile organic compounds) given off by the mediterranean herbs lavender, rosemary, and mint. When we smell the scent emitted these herbs, some of the compounds emitted by these plants pass across the lung membrane into our blood. Once in our blood they appear to interact with similar biochemical pathways to those found in some prescription drugs taken for anxiety, and various other anti-inflammatory effects. They also appear to affect brain wave activity associated with sleep. Lavender for example, is shown to result in triggering brain wave activity that results in longer intervals of deep sleep – whereas rosemary keeps us alert and awake.   6. Buy a diffuser and diffuse the scents of cypress trees in your home or office.  Why? Because clinical experiments and field trials are showing that when we do so, not only are stress hormones reduced, but also it can trigger a significant increase of natural killer cells in our blood. These are the cells that attack cancerous cells and viruses, and ones that we really want in our blood to enhance our resilience to these non-communicable diseases that currently account for over 70% of deaths globally. (Just as an aside – a lot of the smells currently sold in supermarkets for diffusers do not have any known clinical health effects – I therefore buy via the internet Japanese hinoki oil and diffuse this – along with pine oil (which again has many anti-inflammatory health benefits).