Press

Guardian Review of Bad Habits

o Elisabeth Mahoney

o The Guardian, Wednesday November 12 2008
Richard Herring's short programmes on Bad Habits (Radio 4) are proving an endearing series. The format is hybrid: part serious consideration and part dryly delivered comic asides. Last week's topic was workaholism, which featured a self-confessed workaholic in the form of writer Jon Ronson ("If I don't work for a day I feel itchy"). Herring reminded us that, in Hollywood at least, the overworking always finally realise it's family that matters. "Except," he added, "I've worked so hard I don't even have a family to neglect."

Yesterday's theme was laziness, for which Herring mulled over the Royal Mail's once-legendary problems with absenteeism: "11,000 posties pulling sickies every day," Herring exclaimed. "Those figures are incredible. Who knew it was so few?"

The contributors are uniformly likable, so much so that you can feel yourself swaying their way. But Tom Hodgkinson, author of How to Be Idle, is hard to argue with. He spoke winningly of the pleasure of fake sick days from work ("to lie in bed and read Sherlock Holmes books") and the active life-plan that idleness, rather than laziness, can be. "Idleness is a grabbing hold of life," he mooted, "but one you created for yourself."