Tom Hodgkinson

All work and no play is dulling our senses

Ancient Greek philosophers reckoned that life was all about free time, but 16th-century puritanism dealt a blow to the old festive culture from which we’ve never fully recovered

Medieval villagers performing a nose dance. [Getty Images]

  • Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal

    Gary S. Cross

    New York University Press, pp. 340, £29

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