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Lunch, dinner, luncheon, ladies who lunch and much more come under the spotlight in writer Andrew Martin鈥檚 second essay. Lunch as a leisure activity, and the working lunch, or indeed the business lunch - are these in decline as a result of a new puritanism? The class implications of lunch, and what you call it, are legion, and Martin takes us on an intriguing whistle-stop tour of lunching through the ages from medieval times to the era of Covid.

The Lost Hours is a series of essays about how the day used not to be so monolithic; about how it was punctuated by rituals that lent a character to different hours. All the rituals described seem to be in decline, but none can be written off completely. And, a cheering thought, perhaps some will revive post-Covid as we rediscover the social possibilities of our days. They reflect a way of life both more leisured and more regimented, and one of their virtues might be that as well as enriching our days they actually slow them down too, and paradoxically give us more time.

Written and read by Andrew Martin
Produced by Karen Holden