The big issue - GrabCondom by Quynh Anh

CONTENTS EST. 1991

SEPTEMBER 5-11 2016 NO. 1221

REGULARS CORRESPONDENCE 4 EDITOR & PAUSE 6 HIDDEN BRITAIN & MY PECCADILLO 9 Daniel Ryan picks the Artiphon

JOHN BIRD 11 COMMENT 13

Hello, my name is June. I started selling the magazine four years ago. Because I’d lived locally, my customers got g to know me and warmed ck is with me to me. My dog Jac all the time – he’s h as good as gold. I like walking him ach in the along the bea ead more of evenings. Re n page 46. my story on

The Archers Effect: pregnancy and prison

STREET ART 15 LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF 16 Matt Berry

THE BEATLES (STILL) GOT A TICKET TO RIDE 18 HOSTELS AND ‘TRACY BEAKER CULTURE’ 23 JEREMY VINE INTERVIEW 24

THE ENLIGHTENMENT BOOKS 30 FILM 33 LIMMY & GEEK 35 SAM DELANEY, EVENTS & MUSIC 36 SPOT THE BALL 45

THE BIG ISSUE MANIFESTO

WE BELIEVE in a hand up, not a handout... Which is why our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. WE BELIEVE in trade, not aid… Which is why we ask you to ALWAYS take your copy of the magazine. Our sellers are working and need your custom. WE BELIEVE poverty is indiscriminate… Which is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. WE BELIEVE in the right to citizenship… Which is why The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and ﬁnancial exclusion.

Photos: Louise Jolley

WE BELIEVE in prevention… Which is why Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities an businesses which deliver social value to communities.

WIN!

FULL STEAM AHEAD SERIES S ONE ON DVD TURN TO PAGE 44 4

THE BIG ISSUE / p3 / September 5-11 2016

CORRESPONDENCE Write to: The Big Issue, Second Floor, 43 Bath St, Glasgow, G2 1HW Email: letters@bigissue.com Comment: bigissue.com @bigissueuk

facebook.com/bigissueUK

@bigissue

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Right to Buy policy drove me up the wall I had a career for more than 30 years in housing management with several councils; starting as rent collector and ending up as chief housing officer. In the early days I had no problem with the tenants’ Right to Buy, so long as they paid the full value. I disagreed strongly at the introduction of a 30 per cent discount, and even more so when the discount was increased. It was a monstrous policy! As a local government officer I had to remain politically neutral but I became so angry that, at our national conference on housing, I went up to the podium to make my contrary views known. At the summing up, the minister for housing said: “I have some good news for Mr Pryor, for we are putting the discount up to 60 per cent.” I understood the policy prevails but have lost track of the discount, if any. Brian Pryor, Peterborough

Lost for words I enjoyed watching the Olympics (on and off) and am astonished at our athletes’ dedication and achievements. But, as a retired public librarian, I cannot help thinking that the sum spent (some quarter of a billion to £270m) would have kept the whole of the public library system in this country running for the best part of two years – without the loss of libraries, librarians and other essential services. M Underwood, Birmingham

Passing the buck I feel I must reply to John Ward’s letter in The Big Issue [August 8-14] where he speaks of supermarkets in the US who ask customers at the checkout if they’d like to help the homeless. A good idea it may sound on the spur of the moment at the checkout but I would cast doubt personally on whether it is such a good idea. We need to ask where exactly these donations are going. Does the whole donation ‘help the homeless’ or does the supermarket take a bit? Is the supermarket accountable for these donations – in other words, can we see where the money has gone, can we see receipt and donated total amounts? How exactly are ‘the homeless’ helped? I would

suggest this is a scheme open to abuse, if that hasn’t occurred already. Give that small donation not to the supermarket cashier but to The Big Issue, for example. Rupert Nicholson, Peterborough

Oﬀ key The article about Chet Baker did not entirely ring true with me [July 25-31]. Mellow, melancholic and shaky playing?! Try tenderness, passion and downright aggressive swing. I was the bass player on stage with him for those nights, Easter week 1983. With Chet’s permission

I recorded and subsequently produced what has resulted in a double live CD. Chet’s playing is stunning to hear. Jim Richardson, London @oteyza_soche he is a very talented actor, we care about Ross Poldark because of Aidan Turner but have to admit he’s so handsome

@ItsC0mplicated_ Got @BigIssue mag this morning. Finally #poldark allowed to talk about the actual story. Poldark4PM

MARX THE SPOT

@cookster101 @BigIssue after reading the piece on things found inside library books I had my own discovery #thingsfoundinbooks THE BIG ISSUE / p4 / September 5-11 2016

@sparefruitco Fab stuff from @RealJunkFood keeping pupils on the ball and tackling #foodwaste!

@andrewtrowe Inspired by Paul Brown’s story in @BigIssue today. Thanks for the uplift!

Hitting home I feel despair at the rising number of homeless people. I believe the root cause is partly the decline of marriage and family values, which provided security and stability for many children and their fathers. The media is also responsible as they think that multiple ‘partners’ is so wonderful. The cost of houses is also a big factor, even so I am a Conservative member (I often find Labour doctrine naïve or hypocritical). I was appalled by the sale of council houses, which depleted, at a stroke, the stock of affordable homes for people who do not earn enough or have not the discipline to budget for mortgages and maintenance of a property. Why don’t councils put up factory-built units as they did after the war to rehouse people who lost their homes with the bombing? They cost a fraction of a brick-and-cement dwelling. An article in The Big Issue brought a smile to my face – Plastic Fantastic [Off the Grid, July 11-17] – not only can the plastic bricks be assembled in five days by four people but it also makes use of all those plastic bottles, which I pick up regularly on the foot paths or are even thrown into my garden by passing motorists. Where have good manners gone? By the way, I’m an elderly fit woman (80) who married an Englishman in 1959 and hates litter. Mrs C M M Milner, West Byfleet

OFF THE GRID...

THE EDITOR

ow far we have come. The Taxman used to be a ﬁgure of ridicule, an establishment representative to be annoyed by, to be got round a bit but ultimately to pay attention to. He even changed the cultural face of Britain for a time. The Beatles and The Kinks, working class boys destroying class barriers and setting templates for a generation, were so aghast at the amount of the newly acquired wealth they had to hand over, they wrote songs about him. Songs! Rod Stewart was so peeved he ran to America and discovered Lycra. Lycra! But now it feels like we’re on the Taxman’s side. He is a caped crusader for equity and truth. To chase taxes now is a moral issue, nowhere more clea rly tha n in hunting dow n tax-dodging multinationals. We want our tax investigators to be like Theseus, heading into the labyrinth to take out the Minotaur. To what end? To find money, of course, but really to cut the head off the beast and show it who is boss. Apple’s case with the EU is a watershed moment. It feels like a curious reverse PPI claim. The Irish government is entitled to payback – the EU is acting like a TV ad promising returns. But the Irish don’t want it. Even though the £11bn would pretty much fund their health system for a year. We have to ask why a government that is being offered a huge amount of money has been so reluctant to take it. Especially as the people offering it, the EU, has helped fund major infrastructure projects in Ireland over the last generation. Multinational tax affairs are hugely unpopular. Surely taking the money is win-win for any government. At stake is Ireland’s position as a ta x-friendly location for big

companies. But more than that, the answer is with the people, not those governing them. It’s about jobs. Apple employs 6,000 people in Ireland. In Cork, where there is a high percentage of those jobs, people expressed annoyance about the tax findings but mostly they focused on the work Apple brought. And this is where the nitty-gritty gets very nitty and very gritty. If Ireland hadn’t worked with Apple to present favourable tax conditions, those jobs may well have gone elsewhere. It’s not clear if this is the case with other companies yet. And if the jobs go elsewhere, Ireland has fewer people employed, less chance of pulling itself out of the financial mire and less chance of planning for the future. The same is true of any nation. It’s why the question over corporate tax affairs is not so cut and dried. If a company is using all means at its expensive fingertips to avoid taxes in a country yet brings little in the way of work or good, then of course the tax authorities should get on their chargers and seek what is theirs. But who really profits and who loses by overturning agreements that exist for the benefit of the citizens of a sovereign state? This leads to wider questions about the role of the EU. But that’s a whole other bucketful of snakes. There is another ongoing irony about our complaints over Google and Apple and others with complex tax arrangements. We Google the information then post our annoyance using our iPhones. Does that make us correct or complicit? Tax, it is said, doesn’t have to be taxing. Aye right.

Illustration: Lauren Crow

A taxing question

@pauldmcnamee

FROM THE VAULT... SEPT 2006 NO. 811 Keira Knightley is our cover star and talks about the pressures of fame as she promotes The Duchess. “People were incredibly savage. For a 17/18-year-old to be ripped apart publicly was hugely difficult,” she told us. THE BIG ISSUE / p6 / September 5-11 2016

WEDDING BELLS FOR STREET PAPER COUPLE A homeless couple who both sell Denmark’s popular street paper Hus Forbi became a media sensation after TV crews and newspapers turned up to watch them tie the knot. Thanks to the generosity of friends and customers, Gilbert and Cappella Fricke – better known as Teddy and Catﬁsh – were wed in an unconventional ceremony in the town of Vejle. “I hope to show other street paper vendors that even if you have a hard life, love may come your way,” said Gilbert.

WALK IN MY SHOES Kind-hearted cop Brent Gaither was captured on CCTV helping a homeless man who turned up at his police station in Oregon. The man had walked barefoot for six miles after his shoes, along with his other possessions, were stolen. As the man sat in the waiting room, Gaither nipped to a nearby charity shop and bought him hiking boots, socks and a blanket. His act of generosity was shared across the globe.

MAKE A DRAMA OUT OF THE HOUSING CRISIS What is the future of housing? Big Issue vendors will be coming up with thhe answers when h th they become part of a major new arts project. A Moment’s Peaace theatre creators will canvas vend dors on their ideas for ways to taackle the housing crisis. Project leaader Lewis Hetherington said d it will “give a voice to thee people who are often the most impacted but the least consulted”.

PAUSE

THE RANT DON’T IGNORE THIS VITAL FOOD ISSUE

Illustration: Mitch Blunt

PALM OIL IS HERE TO STAY SO MAKE IT SUSTAINABLE, SAYS SIMON CHRISMAS OF GREENPALM

JOHN RENSTEN

How to forage in the city

oraging redefines your map of the city. It makes the most unlikely places ones you’ll love and cherish and return to, like a weird little suntrap around the back of a tennis court because there is an apricot tree growing there. It turns the city into a network of green spaces, borders, edges and peripheries, rather than divided by grey. Since I’ve become obsessed with foraging, everywhere I go becomes a multisensory treasure hunt. I’m in a permanent state of foraging. Even if I’m not picking, I’m looking – seeing what is coming in and out of season, what I recognise and what I don’t. I call it green vision. If you turn your green vision on you can’t really turn it off again. It is always a good time of year to be foraging. There is some fruit coming through, such as cherry plums, and the

black mulberries right now are astonishing. They are like big elongated blackberries that taste inﬁnitely better. Hogweed seeds, which have a very bitter orange flavour, are great as an ingredient in all sorts of things. The seedheads of ribwor t plantain can be used as a cereal grain – there is more fibre in a teaspoon of plantain seeds than there is in a whole bowl of porridge. It was a Scottish lady who told me that, so I’m sure it’s true. I also forage for stinging nettle seeds at this time of year. Nettles should be our national dish. They ’re ridiculously nutritional, have masses of protein in them, silica, iron, tonnes of calcium – they are a genuine bonaﬁde superfood. Start with the plants you already know – nettles, dandelions, crab apples, elderflowers – and find one more every month so you will have 12 new

things to forage for throughout the year. Each is going to give you multiple crops. For example, a dandelion will give you ﬂowers you could use to make syrups and sauces and wines and vinegars. The leaves can be eaten as a salad green like chicory or you can sweat them or blend them into smoothies. Dandelion root can be cooked like a little root vegetable or marinated or roasted – it comes out like caffeine-free coffee. Foraging seems like it might be an inaccessible topic but if you can recognise a dandelion, suddenly you’ve got a source for three or four new foods. With 11 other plants, you have almost 50 new foods, and if you cook them all in three different ways you have 150 different recipes! The possibilities are inﬁnite. John Rensten is author of The Edible City: A Year of Wild Food, which is out September 8

THE BIG ISSUE / p7 / September 5-11 2016

A crusading social media meme this week ordered me to shun palm oil. Sadly, the simple message hid a complex issue. Palm oil is globally ubiquitous – and it’s a vital food source for millions of people living in poverty and hunger, who don’t have the same choices as consumers in the West. If we stopped using palm oil, the environmental impact would be far greater. Palm oil requires about one-tenth of the land needed to grow other vegetable oils, such as soya. Palm oil is also efficient and versatile. Its molecules become ingredients for more than 50 per cent of packaged products, from sauces to hand cream. The food industry switched to it as a healthier option than lard, trans fats and hydrogenated fats, at a time when the global population wasn’t seven billion and countries like China were not as developed. But global demand fuelled rainforest destruction to make way for new plantations, and this should never have been allowed to happen. That’s why

the only answer now is to support sustainable production that protects the remaining rainforest, animals and people. Shun palm oil if it makes you feel better but it won’t go away. Global demand is expected to rise 50 per cent by 2050. greenpalm.org

O Tell us about a campaign or issue you care about and the change you want. @bigissue; editorial@bigissue.com

SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2016 The Aast Cight magic live in Hyde Park

FRANKIE VALLI and THE FOUR SEASONS ABC • ALL SAINTS • RICK ASTLEY • THE FEELING JUAN DIEGO FLÓREZ • SIR JAMES GALWAY TIM MINCHIN and THE CAST OF MATILDA

Roger Sargent (ABC), Kristin Hoebermann (Flórez)

ROYAL CHORAL SOCIETY • BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA conducted by RICHARD BALCOMBE presented by MICHAEL BALL

with thanks to

BOOK NOW bbc.co.uk/promsinthepark General Admission £40 (plus booking fee) Gates open 3.00pm, entertainment from 5.00pm (times subject to change)

HIDDEN BRITAIN

MY PECCADILLO

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WALKINGWORLD.COM

DANIEL RYAN MOUNT PLEASANT ACTOR

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

No.89

High Cup Nick EDEN VALLEY, CUMBRIA

uring the Carboniferous Period, 350 to 299 million years ago, the landmass that is now England and Wales was located near the equator and was drifting slowly north. The North Pennines area was periodically covered with shallow, tropical seas, vast river deltas and lush rainforest as sea levels rose and fell. The cycle created repeating layers of limestone, shale, sandstone and coal. Around 295 million years ago, volcanic magma from deep within the earth rose up and was injected between the existing rock sandwich. The hot magma never reached the surface but hardened

Pennines in an ice sheet one kilometre thick. During this period geological features were carved that are more dramatic than anything formed through erosion by wind and water. The Whin Sill juts out as cliffs and waterfalls in Teesdale and along the Pennine escarpment, particularly at High Cup Nick, which is a classic glacial valley ringed by a curtain of the igneous rock. It is one of the highlights of the Pennine Way. OS Grid Reference: NY 745260 as igneous rock within the carboniferous layers. Locally this band of grey-blue dolerite is known as the Whin Sill. The last Ice Age was at its peak about 20,000 years ago, enveloping the North

Get instructions and OS map for this walk (ID 2539) for free until September 18 at walkingworld.com. Use discount code HB5 to access over 6,000 routes for just £15.

Share your photos of this Hidden Britain and ideas for others @bigissue; editorial@bigissue.com

FORWARD THINKING... Emergency Wi-Fi A group of Croatian tech-developers who had been working with refugees realised one of the major issues in emergency situations is lack of communications. So they invented MeshPoint, a lightweight, easily portable Wi-Fi hotspot that withstands extreme conditions (water, sand, mud, impact) to supply reliable internet access for up to 150 users. They’ve made it open-source, so it’s free to download the plans and print it off on a 3D printer. THE BIG ISSUE / p9 / September 5-11 2016

I’d always rather be playing music than learning lines. And I’m always on the lookout for new instruments. I’m excited about a new one called the Artiphon. I invested in the Kickstarter two years ago and now they’re sending them out. You can strum it or play it like keys, so I will vanish into another strange instrumental world. Me and Mark Benton became guitar buddies on a tour with the RSC. We toyed with names, including Danny Bingo and the Full House because my dad had a bingo hall. We got to the ﬁnal of a songwriting competition but got jobs so couldn’t go. Maybe the world is telling me something! Bobby Ball’s a mean guitarist and we jam on set of Mount

Pleasant. I took up the ukulele while working with Victoria Wood on a Christmas special. She said: “That’ll take ﬁve minutes to learn.” She was right. I started learning guitar aged 10. My school band, Darker Than Shark (it was the ’80s), became quite well-known in our area. I was a big U2 fan, so when a local newspaper described me as the new Jim Kerr I was horriﬁed. At drama school, I played synth in The Mole Grips – a 13-piece band with a full horn section. I still miss my band. I’ll always wonder, what if. Mount Pleasant airs Tuesdays at 9pm on Sky1 and at go.sky.com

W & HE E

er b m e v o 25th N 2016 terloo,

W HE

Charity no. 1049077 England & Wales

Wa h c r u h C s St Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; m registration 8p London, gh to 6am throu st. breakfa

Join us for an vening of e g in n e p o e ey nt and entertainme r from Big a e h & n io t a inspir s in an Issue vendor anel interactive p discussion.

ABANDON YOUR E N O Z T R O F M O C to support Big Issue vendors

TO REGISTER Book your place at

www.bigissue.org.uk/sleepout W TheBigIssueFoundation/ B @TBIF

JOHN BIRD

Poor or in poverty? The diﬀerence is opportunity

Illustration: Lauren Crow

he nationalisation of poverty replaced what formerly was a religious task. Priests, monks and nuns concerned themselves chiefly with the care and repair of the poor. As well as the education and social training, and at times the labour of the needy. For God in his infinite wisdom – who are we to know its key – deigned that there should be poor people. And obliged his nobler children to look after his needy children. Of course Henry VIII’s reform of all that by closing monasteries and driving religion out of everyday life put the kybosh on social succour. So then the parish got brought in, and then more so the state. Over centuries poverty was one of the earliest “industries” to increasingly be taken over by the state. And now we have reached the state spending about a third of its nearly £1 trillion income on some form of need relief. The 20th century was the period of mass mobilisation of poverty programmes by the state. Two world wars brought most people into contact with government. An at-times distant presence came into the lives of all, and the poorer you were the more the state seemed to be covering your back, picking you up, dusting you down; and feeding you, educating you and curing you. To think of it: up until the 1866 Education Act, if you kept your nose clean, you might never actually feel the effects of government in your everyday life. Then with the Education Act it built on the poor acts and laws which only brought you into contact with “officialdom” if you were financially incontinent. In other words, if you were broke. I am reminded of this nationalisation because I found I had to define what I believe is the difference between being poor and being in poverty. To most commentators they are one and the same thing and you find yourself using them interchangeably. But they are distinct. Poverty seems to me a state of mind, body and spirit where

The poverty of despair… A detail of William Hogarth’s print, Gin Lane (1751)

all oxygen and hope has been sucked out of the air around you. All culture, all sensitivities have been beaten or removed from you. In fact, as I have witnessed, you don’t actually have to be poor to be in poverty. A family of heavy smoking, fughing the world, including fughing hospitals and fughing children, sat outside a pizza café recently. I sat among them reading. They ate copious amounts of meat-piled pizza, and smoked and fughed the fughing fughers, and it reminded me of my own upbringing. We were knee-deep in self-defeating poverty, in post-war poverty. The only difference in all those decades seemed

“Poverty seems to me a state of mind, body and spirit where all oxygen and hope has been sucked out of the air around you” THE BIG ISSUE / p11 / September 5-11 2016

the fughing family outside the fughing pizza café had an ample supply of money. And when they left they left in a vast bus of a shiny car. Being poor often means making the most, carefully, out of the least. French cuisine owes its depth to the poor peasant who utilised everything. Being poor with most people was once the bedrock on which they built a better life. But what happens when the state nationalises poverty? When it destroys one’s innate ability to ascend out of poverty through careful husbanding of scarce resources? That’s one of the biggest conundrums of modern life: making sure that you make the most out of being poor; and don’t get parked up in poverty that even the arrival of money cannot eradicate. Poverty kills opportunity. Only improved government help, not its current heaviness of hand, can aid people from being poor to being socially rich and stupendously wealthy in the happiness department. And not getting tucked up in poverty. John Bird is the founder and Editor in Chief of The Big Issue. @johnbirdswords john.bird@bigissue.com

NAOMI DELAP

The Archers Eﬀect has got people listening. Radical change must follow

as there ever been such concern for the fate of a ﬁctional radio character? The story of the unfortunate Helen Titchener in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers has been the focus of sustained public and media interest this year, building through increasingly disturbing scenes of domestic abuse towards an explosive denouement, in which Helen stabbed her husband, was sent to prison on remand and gave birth in custody. This week sees the start of Helen’s trial and, her fate hanging in the balance, there has been a renewed online surge of interest, the #FreeHelen Twitter movement springing up, with supporters ranging from Anneka Rice to the WI. There have been very positive outcomes of this attention: increased public understanding of the issues around coercive control, raising money for domestic violence charities, garnering support for ‘real-life Helens’ everywhere. The ‘Archers Effect’ has also drawn attention to the situation of a small but equally vulnerable group of women: those who are pregnant or have their babies whilst serving a prison sentence. The media has always played an important part in interrogating the conditions in which pregnant women and new mothers are held in prison. In 1996, a Channel 4 documentary showed secretly shot footage of a woman from Holloway Prison shackled during her labour. In the furore that followed, a small group of women in north London came together to give birth support to mothers in Holloway. This group became the charity Birth Companions. Women prisoners are no longer handcuffed to their beds during labour. However, despite national and international legislation to protect their health and well-being, standards of care vary widely and many women do not get the care and support to which they are entitled. Pregnant women often report feeling hungry and unsafe. Women describe situations in prison where they could not contact qualiﬁed healthcare staff to advise them on pregnancy-related

concerns, unlike in the community where advice from midwives is available 24 hours a day. They face long, anxious waits to ﬁnd out whether they have a place on a mother and baby unit. Joanna, who was pregnant in Holloway, told us: “It was a very lonely and dark time in my life… No one to feel your baby kicking except other inmates. Nobody to talk to about your worries and fears. The officers monitoring you. I could not talk to them in fear that if I said something like ‘I’m scared’ or ‘I feel so down’, they would not let me keep the baby.” Women offenders typically have a history of domestic and sexual violence, neglect, time spent in care, substance misuse and mental health problems. They are particularly vulnerable due to the effects of poor health, poverty, lack of

Helen (Louiza Patikas) and Rob Titchener (Timothy Watson) from The Archers

“Custody is not the place for most oﬀending mothers and their babies” THE BIG ISSUE / p13 / September 5-11 2016

support from family and friends, and isolation. Outcomes for their babies can be very poor. With the issue of reform for this group in the public’s eye once again, Birth Companions published The Birth Charter for women in prison in England and Wales – a comprehensive set of recommendations designed to improve practice and inform policy. The Birth Charter sets out the evidence base, cites examples of good practice, and gives a voice to many women who were pregnant and had their babies in prison. Interest in The Archers has indeed contributed to widespread reporting of the launch of the Birth Charter and discussion of the issues facing real women in Helen’s position. And it is starting to take effect. The body that runs prisons, the National Offender Management Service, is in the process of reviewing the legislation governing the care of pregnant women and new mothers in prison, and has asked Birth Companions to contribute expertise and ideas. Individual prisons are starting to implement recommendations set out in the Charter, and some pregnant women are reporting a change in attitude towards them from staff. This movement in the right direction needs to be sustained and, ultimately, it needs to be radical. Despite the very positive work done to support women on mother and baby units in prison, custody is not the place for most offending mothers and their babies, and there is political will to bring the numbers down. We are urging the government to explore community sentences that help women address their offending behaviour and access support to enable them to be successful parents. Depending on the outcome of the trial, Helen and her baby may soon leave prison (#FreeHelen!). But interest in Helen’s story will eventually wane. Let’s make sure real-life women like her aren’t left behind. Naomi Delap is director of Birth Companions, a charity supporting pregnant women and new mothers who are at risk of being detained. birthcompanions.org.uk @Brthcompanions

ADVERTISING PROMOTION

757 MILLION PEOPLE CANNOT READ THIS SENTENCE You can help change this by buying a T-shirt from The Big Issue Shop. How?

he Big Issue is a partner with Project Literacy – a global movement to make signiﬁcant and sustainable advances in the ﬁght against illiteracy. We represent the letter ‘H’ for homelessness in their ‘Alphabet of Illiteracy’, which visually demonstrates how illiteracy underpins some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. For more info: projectliteracy.com/abc All proceeds from this T-shirt (right) go to the 22 partners of Project Literacy.

One-in-two homeless people in the UK lack the basic English skills needed for everyday life. This ﬁgure compares with roughly one in six (15 per cent) of the general population who struggle to read.

This ethically sourced T-shirt is available in grey and white, both in a male and female ﬁt. £15 plus p&p

Every purchase through The Big Issue Shop directly supports the work that we do, offering a HAND UP and a chance to earn a legitimate income to those affected by poverty. To check out this T-shirt and more products visit

shop.bigissue.com NEED TO GET IN TOUCH? JUST EMAIL SHOP@BIGISSUE.COM

BUY STREET ART! You can buy prints of some artworks featured in Street Art through The Big Issue Shop. At least half of the proﬁt from each sale goes to the artist. Order at shop.bigissue.com

STREET ART

KNOCK KNOCK

WAVE

BY MARC CARVER

BY DAVID BIRD “I suffer from mental-health problems and have experienced homelessness,” says David. “I draw and write about human predicaments.”

I fell asleep pen in hand empty notebook on bed. When I woke up the book was full.

I waited a long time but didn’t have the heart to read them after all they may have been better than mine.

BUTTERFLY BY SOPHY SNOWBALL Sophy, 19, is long-term unemployed. She is supported by the Sussex Community Development Association in ﬁnding her career through art. “I have had a love for art since I was a little girl,” she says. “I had a great opportunity at working as a volunteer in a tattoo studio for a few months, learning all the necessities and even tattooing on the fake skins. This experience has helped me out a great deal towards achieving my life ambition of becoming a tattoo artist in the future.”

Homeless when he ﬁrst started writing poetry seven years ago, Marc has written many hundreds of poems since. “I really owe my life to poetry,” he says, “and have tried very hard to promote poetry in various places but alas to not very much success. I recognise the importance of poetry as an outlet and a way to express yourself in a very positive way.”

Street Art is created by people who are marginalised by issues like homelessness, disability and mental health conditions. Contact streetlights@bigissue.com to see your art here. THE BIG ISSUE / p15 / September 5-11 2016

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF Matt Berry The toast of comedy

t 16 I was an unremarkable teenager in a comprehensive. I wasn’t interested in sport or anything obvious so I didn’t stand out. I was interested in music but I couldn’t read music so I wasn’t allowed to do the GCSE. I was interested in painting but no one’s interested in a 16-year-old boy who’s interested in painting. I wanted to get out of school very, very quickly. I’d like to go back and tell that boy – none of this will have any bearing on your future. Or who you are. This stuff… it doesn’t mean shit. I never thought about looks or a style or anything like that. My musical taste didn’t fit with the rest of the class – basically I was listening to Mike Oldfield, Roxy Music. And I’d just discovered Erik Satie. People at school would have just said, what the fuck is this? If it didn’t have drums, you were poncey and odd. Phil Collins was on Radio 1. Mainstream music was either that or Iron Maiden. I couldn’t really give a fuck about either. My parents were, and are, brilliant. It was them who bought me my organ, which I tried out my Erik Satie stuff on. They didn’t have any records, they weren’t interested in art or music. But they were into my enthusiasm and they did everything they could to encourage it. They’re very proud now, which is all you can ask of your parents, isn’t it? If your parents think you’re a huge bellend you should probably change your ways. Strange and dark things are the most interesting so they form the basis of my work. I did have an active and vivid imagination. I remember going to Madame Tussauds. The chamber of horrors was such a big deal, all forms of executions, which I found fascinating. I didn’t know we’d done that to each other. I had a kind of hippie-ish reaction. It just seemed the cruellest thing ever. That formed my views on capital punishment ever since. I think a lot of what I’ve done goes back to that visit when I was young. My reaction still creeps out in my work, in a song or a character, all the horrible stuff from my childhood keeps coming back. Like Watership Down. And The Elephant Man. If I met 16-year-old Matt Berry now, he’d be really shy and only give one-word answers. He’d look at your hand rather than in your eye. I don’t know why I was so shy. I was never one who cared about being the fastest runner, who thrust himself on people, who gave it the large one. If you’re a thoughtful person you won’t want to be in people’s faces all the time. I don’t think of myself as a comedian. It’s just one thing I’m interested in, and not the first thing. I knew I wanted to be in the arts when I was 16 but either music or painting would have made me happy. And I accepted that with music, I’d have to stand up and perform at some point, to get better gear at least. But if I went back and told my teenage self that he’d be on TV, and recognised in public, he’d have thought that was bullshit, he’d never have believed it. I’d tell my teenage self he did the right thing

From the top: Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace; The IT Crowd; starring in Toast of London

IN 1990 THE YEAR MATT BERRY TURNS 16… The demolition of the Berlin Wall officially begins / Twin Peaks premieres in America / The Poll Tax is introduced in England and Wales, causing mass demonstrations

never getting a proper job. I always felt it would fuck up my chances of doing what I wanted. So I only did temp jobs and jobs I could get fired from. I ended up going into The London Dungeon. It was a temp job but it was closer to what I was interested in. You’d do things like Jack the Ripper shows where you were the judge. Or you’d conduct these tours and scare people, test out jokes and timing. I loved every minute of it. I didn’t think for a minute I was the best at it, I just enjoyed it. The turning point for me was in my late 20s, when I got to do Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace on Channel 4. I knew Noel Fielding a bit, not that well. I was invited to do some shows for The Mighty Boosh when they were starting out, playing the Hen and Chickens pub in Islington. I’d come on before them. I adapted some of my songs to be preposterous and funny to fit with what they were doing. And that led to Darkplace. None of us knew exactly what we were doing or where it might go. I don’t dwell on the stuff that didn’t work, otherwise I’d just stop. I just feel lucky that anything worked at all because it was never my plan to make TV. It’s all a bonus. Closest to my heart is probably Toast of London because I came up with the character, based on a bunch of people I worked with in the industry. And Channel 4 didn’t mess with it. Head to screen, it was exactly as I wanted it. And the little Matt Berry Does… films I did for BBC iPlayer, they’re very satisfying. Because they’re not broadcast, you can do absolutely anything, you can use the c-word. The main joke with them… when someone publicly gets someone’s name wrong, it’s the funniest thing in the world to me. Or stressing the wrong syllable in the name, that always makes me laugh. The way it stops you concentrating on what they’re saying, this thing just hangs in the air. If I went back to my teenage self to try to impress him with something I’d done – well, first he’d think I was a huge wanker doing that in the first place. But I think what would impress him would be to get a vinyl copy of an album I’ve made and show him the copyright with my name on. That’s all he wanted back then. Would he like the music? I don’t know. He’d hear bits of things he was interested in. Other bits he’d say, what the fuck are you doing? If I showed him the Bafta it wouldn’t make any connection. It’s too far removed from his life. I still feel that way now. If I could go back to any moment of happiness in my life… There are so many but most are too rude to print. It was a good moment when I told the London Dungeon I couldn’t come back because I had a job on Channel 4 doing Darkplace. I like thinking of that because now I know it was the end of that time and the beginning of this one. Matt Berry’s new album The Small Hours is out September 16 on Acid Jazz. He tours the UK with his band The Maypoles from October 25: themattberry.co.uk. Interview: Jane Graham @Janeannie

THE BIG ISSUE / p16 / September 5-11 2016

“I had a temp job in The London Dungeon – scaring people, testing out jokes and timing” THE BIG ISSUE / p17 / September 5-11 2016

The Beatles during rehearsals for the Royal Variety Show at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London, in 1963

LOVE LOV TICKET TO RIDE: THE FALL AND RISE OF THE BEATLES BUSINESS EMPIRE

1968

The Fab Four start their own company, Apple Corps, mainly for tax purposes, but it descends into an acrimonious mess after the band breaks up in 1970.

The Beatlesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; partnership is legally dissolved. The dissolution of Apple Corps was considered but it is agreed to keep it going as a small holding company. 1975

More than half a century since Beatlemania erupted, the Fab Four remain cultural giants. As their classic live shows get back in the spotlight, keepers of their legacy explain why the magical mystery tour goes on. Words: Adam Forrest

hen The Beatles split up in 1970, John Lennon was typically scornful and dismissive. “People keep talking about it like it’s the end of the Earth,” he told an interviewer. “It’s nothing important – it’s only a rock group.” Almost 50 years on from the split, The Beatles appear to have defied Lennon’s own brush-off, becoming bigger, and more important, than ever. The Fab Four may no longer occupy a central space in the music industry, yet they still loom larger than everything else, hovering over pop culture like omnipresent gods – the ultimate arbiter of artistic quality and commercial success. There is the apparently unending stream of books, documentaries, photo exhibitions and repackaged music. Cynics may wonder whether it ever stops, what more there now is to say, to look at or hear. Such is the insatiable demand for Beatles product, the stuff keeps on coming anyway. This month sees the release of The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years, director Ron Howard’s look at the band’s live performances and life on the road. Rather good it is too, successfully capturing the riotous spirit swirling round Brian Epstein’s boys wherever they went. Released alongside the

documentary is a newly remastered version of the Live at the Hollywood Bowl album, featuring the best songs from scream-smothered shows in 1964 and 1965. The remastered LP is another project undertaken by Giles Martin, son of the band’s legendary producer, George Martin, who died earlier this year. Giles has become keeper of the sacred flame, at least in terms of the recording catalogue, having rearranged The Beatles’ music for Love, the theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil, and reworked the songs again for The Beatles: Rock Band video game. Martin tells The Big Issue he spent five months “demixing” the screams to make the live stuff worth listening to again. “I’m interested in new ways music can make you feel – getting people to hear the stuff like it’s the first time again or getting a new generation to hear it,” he says. “I think we’ve got the sound quality to a level that’s probably better than what it was like actually being there because the PA systems at the time were so poor.” Martin has two young daughters but he says he’s careful not to force The Beatles’ music on them. “It’s mostly Katy Perry and current pop, and I encourage that because it’s important to discover things in your own way, in your own time,” he says. The producer admits he worries The Beatles’ mighty reputation could became so hallowed, so shrouded in reverence, it could stifle the most important thing: pure listening pleasure. E

Photo: Keystone USA/Rex Features/Shutterstock

LOVE

COVER FEATURE

“A kid can listen to The Beatles and Radiohead and Justin Bieber and get enjoyment out of all three. The thing is, it’s not up to critics or music historians to decide anything. It shouldn’t be held as some kind of unassailable standard. 1995 “My fear is that certain pop music becomes like classical music – people don’t want to accept The Beatles Anthology new stuff because there’s a certain snobbery, series – a TV documentary, you know, like, ‘We have our standards now, book and series of outtakes thank you very much. Rock music? Well, we have albums – is released. The Led Zeppelin’. That said, I think The Beatles three volumes sell more will last beyond us because people seem to get than 15 MILLION a huge amount of pleasure out of the music.” copies worldwide. Writer Jon Savage, author of En nd’s Dreaming, the best book ever writ n about punk, charts The Beatles’ involv ment in the white heat of cultural experimentat n in his new book 1966. Savage finds it amusing t emember the only time in half a century – the e of the 1970s – when interest in the Fab Four h waned, and The Clash sang about how the “pho y Beatlemania has bitten the dust”. “The re utation was actually at quite a low ebb, as the pu and new wave bands around then were so bu trying to overthrow the previous generation,” e writer recalls. “But in the 1980s quite a few bands began to cover them, and then their stock began to 2000 soar into the 1990s, with The Beatles Anthology project and Oasis always talking about how From The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The much they loved them. The Beatles’ 1 album, Touring Years, showing “The thing is, the music is fantastic – that’s a compilation of the the Fab Four backstage why people are still obsessed with them,” in Coventry Theatre in band’s chart-topping Savage continues. “I still play the records and November 1963. Top singles, is released. It goes on to sell 11.4 I still really enjoy them. It’s also just a fucking right: the Love Cirque du antastic story. When you examine the story Soleil show in Las Vegas. MILLION copies: – ur guys who took on the world by working Inset top right: The the bestselling album as a eam, each bringing something to the Beatles perform at the of the decade. Hollywood Bowl in 1964 table, ach supplying something the others can’t – i has a mythic quality, almost like The Wizar of Oz.” The Beatles were the first global music phenomeMark Lew ohn has spent more time pon- non, which makes attempts to assess the band’s true dering the story nd researching The Beatles’ impact all the more head-spinning. Historians in personal and pr fessional history than former communist countries are discovering how anyone else. Lewis hn has embarked on a important they were in changing attitudes to the West three-volume biography that h expects will finally among young people behind the Iron Curtain. Czech amount to around 5,000 pages wh n it’s done (the first film director Miloš Forman has insisted The Beatles volume, Tune In, covers the Liverp l and Hamburg were “partly responsible” for the fall of communism. years in exhaustive and fascinating d tail). Ron Howard’s new film shows the unsung role they 2011 The author describes their output as the greatest played politically in America by insisting on the British contribution to 20th-century cult re” and is desegregation of concert venues in the uth The Beatles’ music confident the greatness is now secure for l time. during their US tours. Larry Kan , ormer news is finally released “Having sustained such huge interest for half a ce tury, anchor and author of eral Beatles books, on iTunes. While one imagines it will go on and on,” he says. “Everyt ng spent a lot o me interviewing the boys the sums remain suggests they are now going to be listened during their stateside adventures unknown, iTunes 2009 in 1964 and 1965. to, talked about, studied and appreciated paid royalties from for a long, long time.” “They were spectacular, downloads directly The Beatles: Rock Why? Why the unending obsession, remarkable people – very smart to Apple Corps, Band game is released all over the world? “Well, the music they and funny,” he says. “They changed making it the most and goes on to sell produced was very, very good,” he laughs. a lot of things – fashion, the music lucrative digital 3 MILLION copies. “It was of such astonishingly high quality industry, they changed how women music deal in history. The deal with Viacom – the composition, the originality, the expressed themselves in public, was estimated at $40m, creative ways they recorded – that it’s and they did have an impact on lasted through many fads and fashions. based on royalties. segregation. They couldn’t believe “The interest is also partly about someone would be banned from certain what they stood for: be true to yourself. seating areas because their skin had a It’s a great lesson in the TV talent show era different colour. They fought that and they won.” The ongoing commercial success of music because The Beatles created the music they made in the 1960s is all the more remarkable wanted to – you couldn’t have possibly manufactured it.” considering The Beatles as a business entity

COVER FEATURE

2014

The Beatles surpass 600 MILLION in worldwide album sales on all formats.

Netﬂix, has licen The Beatles’ tracks and used them to teach infants a range life lessons in song. Each episode’s story is loosely base n a set of LennonMcCartney lyrics: Pearl Jam’s Eddi dder sings Magical Mystery Tour and Robbie Williams kles Good Day Sunshine. 2016 “As a young parent I thought it would be great to have a show that would be engaging for kids and adults to watch together as a The Sunday Times Rich family,” says creator Josh Wakely. “The List estimates Paul Beatles songs are full of these amazing McCartney’s wealth at melodies, and the messages in songs £610M, Ringo Starr’s like All You Need is Love – that’s a at £200M and George pretty great message to teach your Harrison’s estate at children. A bit like Shakespeare, I think £220M. The estate of people will be reinterpreting The John Lennon is thought to Beatles’ work hundreds of years from be worth around £200M. now.” Giles Martin considers Paul McCartney “something of a pied piper genius” for writing songs with such vivid and colourful images to enthral successive generations of children. It’s enough to make you believe in the inevitability of The Beatles’ elevated status, a masterplan for the ages. But there never was one. Back in 1964, McCartney was asked whether he thought The Beatles would have a place in the history of western culture. “Culture? It’s not culture – it’s just a good laugh.” It was, says Giles Martin, a tremendous attitude. We should all be grateful the little rock and roll band from Liverpool were too quick, too curious, too unpretentious, spontaneous and wildly creative to ever become burdened by the weight of expectation. “Although they all took recording sessions seriously, my dad always said that they were never trying to make these great, mighty bastions of popular culture. They were too busy having fun and trying to do something new to amuse themselves to worry about all that.”

was in tatters not so very long ago. Back in 1975, when The Beatles’ partnership was legally dissolved, the dissolution of the group’s chaotic company Apple Corps was considered. But John, Paul, George and Ringo agreed to keep it going as a small holding operation. In 1995, The Beatles Anthology – a TV documentary, book and series of outtakes albums that went on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide – relaunched Apple Corps as a money-making machine. Slightly ludicrously, The Beatles’ 1 album, a straightforward compilation of the band’s chart-topping singles, became the bestselling album of the 2000s. And when the back catalogue was ﬁnally released on iTunes in 2011, it was reported to be the most lucrative digital music deal in history (although the sum remains undisclosed). “Their ﬁnancial impact today is bigger than any other artist, living or deceased,” says David Fiorenza, a Villanova University economics professor who specialises in entertainment. “The surviving members and the group’s holding company continue to search avenues that weren’t available to them in the mid-1960s. They’ve always been on the cutting edge.” The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years is The tentacles continue to reach into new areas. in cinemas from September 15. The Beatles: Live at the Animated series Beat Bugs (pictured above), now on Hollywood Bowl is out from September 9. @adamtomforrest THE BIG ISSUE / p21 / September 5-11 2016

A GREAT WAY TO FIGHT POVERTY FROM CARE INTERNATIONAL UK

Analyn’s small shop will prov ide an income for her young family

eds a loan to Jose is a farmer who ne cultivate his land

Raised: £30.00 Needed: £82.86

Raised: £680.00 Needed: £1476.86

WHOSE LIFE WILL YOU CHANGE WITH AN INVESTMENT OF JUST £15? At CARE International, we know that sometimes, all people need is a little investment to change their lives forever. That’s why we’ve set up this revolutionary new way to help some of the world’s poorest people. It’s called lendwithcare – and instead of giving a donation, you can lend from just £15 to fund a ﬂedgling business. Analyn Abarico and Jose Armijos are just two of the people you could help to work their way out of poverty when you make a loan through lendwithcare.org.

How does it work? 1

You choose an entrepreneur at

www.lendwithcare.org 2

You invest any amount from £15 in their business

The entrepreneur’s business beings to grow

Your loan is repaid back to you

You re-invest in another entrepreneur, you withdraw your money or donate it to CARE International

VISIT LENDWITHCARE.ORG NOW TO MEET MORE ENTREPRENEURS AND DECIDE WHO YOU INVEST IN

Z /ŶƚĞƌŶĂƟŽŶĂů h< ZĞŐŝƐƚĞƌĞĚ ĐŚĂƌŝƚǇ ŶŽ ϮဓϮϱϬϲ Z ဒဓ ůďĞƌƚ ŵďĂŶŬŵĞŶƚ >ŽŶĚŽŶ ^ ϭ ϳdW The loan status and amounts required were correct at the time of creating this advertisement.

MAKE A LOAN – CHANGE A LIFE

A DIFFERENT VIEW Roughly half the youngsters in this hostel have families they could return to if they wished, mostly typical working-class homes. Several don’t wish to live at home because they dislike the ordinary rules around bedtimes, domestic chores and the expectation of good behaviour. In a petulant series of absences from home, truancy and tantrums, they’ve convinced social services they require accommodation and care in the hostels designed for care-leavers aged 16 to 21.

ON THE FRONTLINE Is ‘Tracy Beaker culture’ creating a generation of spoilt teenagers bullying their way through the care system? David Stokes oﬀers a hostel worker’s point of view

eannie demands a £100 pair of trainers and doesn’t want any argument. She rings her social worker from her hostel’s cramped office; they explain Jeannie had a pedicure, manicure and hairdo on social services’ tab last week. She screams. If she doesn’t get the money quick there’ll be hell to pay, someone will lose their job. She slams the phone and storms from the office. Hostel staff are determined not to give into Jeannie. She’s broken so many rules the disciplinary system is utterly subverted. She insists she doesn’t care and tells staff to eff off on an hourly basis. Jeannie’s toxic influence on other young people in the hostel has destroyed any sense of structure and interpersonal respect the hostel manager and staff set in place. The evening before, one female worker went home in tears after a bellyful of abuse. The day before that, Jeannie emptied a fire extinguisher on to the hostel manager’s car. After a minute or two the social worker rings, Jeannie is allowed another £100, paid from the hostel’s petty cash. The conversation is quick. There’s never time to talk things through, to examine the underlying complexities. It’s easier to give in. She self-harms from time to time when she doesn’t get what she wants. Jeannie and others in the social services-funded hostel are bribed continually, inducing an unhelpful expectation that if they scream loud enough they’ll get what they want. Other teenagers in the hostel ask for very little. They’ve overcome adversity, the deficit of care within their families and ongoing societal disadvantage. It doesn’t take long to see they’re inspirational, heroic.

It’s a growing industry of state intervention in families who may not themselves be dysfunctional but have a teenager particularly infected with the narcissistic standards of a troubled age. One father explained his family would love his daughter to return home but it was her choice to ask for help from social services. He is adamant it began when she became obsessed with the Tracy Beaker TV series about young people in local authority care. She became determined to act out the fantasy of living in a young person’s hostel. She rightly assessed the rules were pliable and more often than not barely existent. On one occasion in Jeannie’s hostel, a 17-year-old boy ﬁred an airgun at a hostel worker. The incident was brushed off. The reality of the hostel is constant cannabis use and alcohol misuse, sexual acting out and histrionics. Hostel workers are pranked and manipulated, occasionally assaulted, often abused. Most staff are young themselves, aged early to middle 20s. Nearly all have what are disparagingly described as ‘hobby’ degrees: photography, English literature, urban studies. The Children Act (Leaving Care) of 2000, the Children Act of 2004 and the Children and Adoption Act of 2006 redress in law what is being redressed in society regarding the power dynamic between children and the state, children and adults. Sexual abuse against kids in the Rochdale care home in the 1960s linked to MP Cyril Smith; cover-ups in the 1990s at Hackney council around staff sexual abuse of boys; the 1,400 girls as young as 12 abused by gangs of men in Rotherham – such cases cast a long shadow over the capabilities of local authorities and police to protect young people. While a lack of investment in public services by central government is not the solitary contributing factor in sordid or criminal outcomes, irresponsible chopping of 500,000 public sector jobs in a few short years under austerity policies merits mention. The vile legacy of such abuse affects how frontline hostel workers relate to young people in their care, who are more empowered and clued-up, willing to assert their rights and demand privileges. There’s a mostly unspoken fear of refusing an unwarranted treat, issuing a warning or reasserting a house rule as it might provoke a disproportionate response. The power dynamic has rightly shifted from the adult to the young person. Staff will take the abuse and pranks, for fear of having their name included on a social services’ internal inquiry. There’s always another air-riﬂe pellet, exhausting weekend shift. Jeannie reappears. When she hears the £100 is approved she runs laughing from the office. New footwear is the last thing on her mind. She has a serious skunk dependency so she’ll call her dealer as a priority. While the money lasts there’ll be peace. David Stokes has worked in social care and mental health in London for 20 years

THE BIG ISSUE / p23 / September 5-11 2016

O Y

E A SURE M U T

BG BI

4 2 6

CRIME CORRESPONDENT

Expertise versus anecdote – Sultan of Swing Jeremy Vine asks who can be trusted in our social media-powered political age. Interview: Adrian Lobb

“W

UT Photo: Camera Press

e are in the post-factual has witnessed first-hand the recent rapid decline of world,” says Jeremy Vine. the fourth estate in Britain. He started out at the “It all comes down to this Coventry Evening Telegraph in 1986 as one of 85 idea that you can basically journalists. Today, he says, it has seven. He looks create your own reality back fondly on his time as a cub reporter for Radio 4’s now. A big broadcaster has to ask themselves where Today programme, which preceded a spell as the BBC’s that leaves us.” As we sit in a basement room of New Africa correspondent. He charts events in his life by Broadcasting House in London, who better to discuss general elections and has covered every one since the evolution of media in the modern age with than Margaret Thatcher left office, becoming the sultan Vine: Newsnight and Panorama alumnus, Radio 2 of the BBC’s election night Swingometer. He has daytime stalwart, Strictly Come Dancing hoofer and also spent the last 12 years building a bond with his new host of Crimewatch. Radio 2 audience every weekday lunchtime. “In terms of content, my initial thought with Twitter Of his latest assignment, taking the helm of and the unruly nature of the internet was that you would Crimewatch, he admits: “It is a great brand but it is end up in a situation where we wouldn’t like being handed a very expensive vase. need presenters or channels or big broadThe first thought is that you mustn’t drop it. A lot of shows start with the casters,” continues the 51-year-old. “But the number of times stuff goes out on idea that we entertain and say, oh, and Twitter and is not true, or is five years we also educate or we also inform. This show starts with information old, or the photo is not what it purports and education. They are the two key to be. I think the answer is that people will, in the end, say, ‘There are facts and elements. It tells you what crimes have we have to work out where to get them been committed and hopefully gives you from’. It is not just a Wild West of opinion. information that will help you avoid “You realise that the source is all being a victim of crime yourself. important. The newspaper masthead, “It is not a case of modernising the brand – be it the BBC or The Big Issue Crimewatch. The central proposition is really solid. It is a trusted place where – and the presenters become so important in trusting the content. So in a funny viewers can help us and the police get sort of way it has been the reverse effect. information. That is the central thing. People are returning to trusted brands.” When it started, Crimewatch was one of Even the trusted brands failed the the very first interactive shows, with its public in recent years, however. Erring phonebanks. Lots of other shows have followed it. Now we have a very powerpollsters skewed coverage of the EU referendum, as well as recent elections. ful return path to the audience through Most broadcasters were criticised for Twitter, which all helps. As soon as it is on air, it is trending. Some people have their failure to investigate the statistics and ‘facts’ reported by campaigners. theories, some have evidence and can We may never know quite where that call in or people just want to comment.” mythical £350m a week ended up. Vine discusses how Crimewatch “I think the use of statistics is one of the directly led to the arrest of Michael Sams unsolved areas,” Vine says. “Statistics on kidnap and murder charges but also are absolutely the battleground of cites the Madeleine McCann case as modern journalism and I do not see how proof of the show’s power and reach. we work out how to use them. “Although there is no outcome to that “Somebody said during the Brexit During the 2015 general election; yet, it went truly viral. The broadcasting dancing with his partner Karen campaign that we now seem to be living Clifton on Strictly; he made the went all over the world, and it brought under the tyranny of the anecdote, news last week after a run-in with in a lot of new information. Even though where facts mean nothing, statistics a motorist while cycling in London the whole media had been saturated mean nothing, and the last thing you with the story, Crimewatch was able to remember is the last strong opinion you heard. And it take it to a different level. may just be that is where we are at the moment. “A lot of it is to do with the power of the smallest I’m not sure we can regulate that as broadcasters. voice,” he says. “With Crimewatch, the victim is central, “It is something I have been thinking about a lot then the viewer is the second-placed person – to help because on my radio show we are absolutely pivoted the victim. It is really audience-facing broadcasting. on the listener experience. We have two groups of I think that is also the central bit of the Radio 2 shows, people. We have experts and we have listeners. The the listener who just wants to say something that experts have got expertise and the listeners have got is very important to them. They come on the air, and experience. Now, you can have them both on, it is fine. for the moment they are speaking, they are more But how you actually measure them against each other important than any politician or cabinet minister.” is a really big issue and I’m not sure of the answer.” It’s a typically candid admission from Vine, who Crimewatch airs on Mondays at 9pm on BBC One @adey70 THE BIG ISSUE / p25 / September 5-11 2016

ADVERTISING PROMOTION

ukonzo Co-operative started out as a group of six coffee farmers who went on to revolutionise coffee production in Uganda. They inspired other farmers to embrace organic methods, such as conserving the soil by growing coffee under trees and using goat manure instead of artiﬁcial fertilisers. They have also made a huge impact on their local community, particularly on the lives of women. Traditionally a ‘man’s crop’, Bukonzo is one of the few coffee co-operatives in Africa with a female management team. One initial drawback was the intensity of the labour in organic production. The hours spent growing their crops by natural methods meant farmers were not getting the best price compared to those farming in a more conventional way. Since discovering Fairtrade, the co-operative has been able to overcome this problem. Now they are guaranteed a fair price for their crop. As a result, their membership has quadrupled from 500 to almost 2,000 farmers. By encouraging farmers to share ownership of their business with their children, Bukonzo has shown the importance of passing down coffee farming to the next generation. Now the future looks bright for Bukonzo, with their plan to allow a further 400 farmers to join the co-operative. They also hope to build more than 20 new washing stations, to upgrade the hulling area where they remove the coffee bean from the fruit, and install a grading plant so that they can assess the quality of their beans. This year they plan to install a roasting plant so they can start selling to the local market. Bukonzo is using a Shared Interest loan to help more Ugandan farmers earn a fair price for their organic coffee.

FARMING FOR THE FUTURE THANKS TO FAIRTRADE HELP THIS UGANDAN COFFEE CO-OPERATIVE TO GROW

Bukonzo farmers are using organic methods, which are then passed to the next generation

Kabugho Josinta, general manager, said: “The loan from Shared Interest has allowed us to double our coffee sales and pay the farmers on time. “With the increased income from coffee sales, people have been able to educate their children, which was not a possibility before.” You can help coffee farmers like Bukonzo to thrive by investing in Shared Interest. By opening a Share Account with £100, you can start investing in a fairer world.

While it is with Shared Interest, your money will be loaned out time and time again to organisations in disadvantaged communities. For more information on how to get involved, visit shared-interest.com/ explore, email membership@ shared-interest.com or call 0191 233 9100. Your investment may not make you rich but it will enrich the lives of others.

Buy your ticket to the future today_ Brian Eno_Will Self Rhianna Pratchett Oliver Peyton_Kate Russell DJ Spooky_Cindy Gallop and many more_

17â&#x20AC;&#x201D;18 September 2016 Tobacco Dock_ London futurefest.org

THE ENLIGHTENMENT B O O K S / F I L M / G E E K / T V/ M U S I C

THE F WORD

SICK OF SEXISM The See Red Women’s Workshop was set up in 1973, uniting women from all walks of life to combat sexism, using wit and bold graphics which challenged ingrained notions of sexuality, identity and oppression. A new book collating their posters illustrates that, sadly, 43 years after the collective was founded, some of those sexist attitudes persist. X See Red Women’s Workshop – Feminist Posters 1974-1990 (Four Corners Books, £19.99)

BOOKS Fighting chance Algerian national pride took a serious blow under colonial rule. But it was restored in the boxing ring, says Yasmina Khadra

Photo: PA

see the boxing ring as a mirror image of humanity. A two-way mirror, a parallel universe in which passions swing from euphoria to indecency. It’s a strange paradox. On one side we have our enthusiastic spectators, and on the other, semi-gladiators sweat blood and tears for a semblance of prowess. Punches, punches, and yet more punches are the rhythm of our delirious shouts, as we revel in their suffering, even as they thrill us. I’ve always wondered where that strange jubilation that boxing provokes comes from: the spectacle or consenting martyrdom? It’s an absurd fascination which inhabits our hearts and minds, and nobody ever finds, in the brutality, and sometimes, the ferocity, anything other than overflowing adrenaline. In the 1920s, in Algeria, boxing was more than just a sport, it was a burst of pride from a people who had been reduced by a century of colonial rule. The ring became a tribune from where each punch thrown to the opponent became a stand against unfairness and racism. The despoiled Algerians had stagnated in their objectification. They weren’t even considered citizens in their own right in their own land. Many places were forbidden to them; the beaches, faculty, academies, certain cafes. All of our women were called Fatma and were reduced to skivvies. Even Albert Camus never thought it useful to give his ‘Arab’ characters names, be they Berber, Tuareg or native Jews. For him, they were just shadow puppets, featureless beings, anonymous Arabs. This was a time when people spoke of races, some of which were considered superior, and therefore legitimate rulers. The balance of power created a hierarchy within communities. There was no common ground, virtually no place where Europeans and Araberbers could find any affinity or, with some effort, a common destiny. But though the communities couldn’t have been more divided, the boxing ring brought them together. And the ring was an equaliser: the only place where Europeans and Araberbers could at last sit together in the same room. And it was through boxing that the Algerian could become visible. Their boxers

regained for their people their lustre of yore. When they climbed into the ring, they became living proof that their defeat on the battlefield hadn’t affected payback in the stadium. Never will Algeria again know so many champions, such talent, such living gods, as they did under the colonial yoke. In their hearts, the Algerians needed to demonstrate that they could bounce back, astonish, and defeat. And boxers excelled at this, taking punches with a rare courage, and returning them with panache, knowing with certainty that they weren’t just fighting for money, or a trophy, or for prestige, but to show their people that they still had enough fight in them to take up challenges, and to taste freedom. Nothing could intimidate the Algerian boxers, they accepted every challenge. It was a matter of honour! The world champion Marcel Cerdan learnt this lesson when

Omar Kouidri was one of Algeria’s boxing gladiators

“They weren’t just ﬁghting for money or prestige but to show their people they still had enough ﬁght in them to taste freedom” THE BIG ISSUE / p30 / September 5-11 2016

he was roundly defeated by the Algerian Kouidri during a slagging match. Thus the Algerians rediscovered their longforgotten class, their elegance. They were a sight to see, in the post-war years, freshly shaven, hair waxed, in old but clean and ironed clothes, a rejection of those degrading portrayals which showed them in dirty hooded cloaks, turbaned and downtrodden. The ring demanded that they operate at full capacity. Those who dragged their slippered feet around all day would never show up at a boxing match without shoes polished to a shine, a fez on their heads and a tie around their necks. It was the start of a change in mentality, a rejection of their status as untouchables, an awakening of ancestral pride. In a way, it was through boxing that Algeria took its first steps on the road to independence. Every victory in the ring hinted towards a victory over colonialism. The heroes of this sporting war were legion, including Chérif Hamia, born in 1931, who brought down Golden Glovers in New York and Chicago, Bob Omar, Omar Kouidri and Godih Lahouari (a close relation of my wife) who died an old man in self-imposed exile in the US. These are the modest giants who taught Algerians to fight, and would later inspire Olympic champions such as Hocine Soltani (gold medal in Atlanta), Zaoui and Moussa (bronze in Los Angeles), and the fabled Loucif Hamani, champion of Africa in the 1970s before his defeat in 1980 at the hands of Marvin Hagler. The list is endless. I wrote The Angels Die to pay tribute to these pioneers of our renaissance, and to revisit an extraordinary era of colonial Algeria which has been so unexplored by historians and writers. They would unleash our popular uprising, and were indispensable in the fight for our independence, which itself would go on to launch the process of decolonisation in the rest of Africa and elsewhere.

The Angels Die by Yasmina Khadra is out now in paperback (Gallic Books, £8.99)

REVIEWS TOP 5 BOOKS ABOUT LOVE AYELET GUNDARGOSHEN

2. DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS Jorge Amado After her disloyal husband dies in the middle of the carnival, Flor is wooed by a respectable pharmacist. A Brazilian masterpiece about the clash between passion and respectability – with a surprising twist. 3. THE BLUE MOUNTAIN Meir Shalev What can you expect of a marriage that was decided by a socialist-group vote? Funny, smart and moving, this is one of the best Israeli novels about love. 4. FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD Thomas Hardy One woman, three men, big problem. This classic remains contemporary even today, thanks to Hardy’s precise distinctions about the nature of romantic love. 5. HOMESICK Eshkol Nevo Noa and Amir, a student couple, thought that the tough decision was to move in with each other. They were wrong. An irresistible novel about love, intimacy and home. Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is out now in paperback (Pushkin Press, £8.99)

Critic’s choice A leukaemia diagnosis hasn’t stopped Clive James taking pleasure in one of his greatest loves – TV

ookcriticsoftenwrite about the importance of a distinctive authorial voice but there can’t be many writers whose voice is as clear and as dear to its readers as Clive James. Thanks to his constant presence on TV in the 1980s and ’90s, when you read a James critique – whether he’s employing his droll, withering tone or that of the excitable fanboy – not only can you hear him, you can also see him raising an quizzical eyebrow. (It’s not hard to imagine him describing: “Jump, in which minor celebrities were equipped with skis and goaded into jumping off the end of a very short ramp, to the astonishment of nobody who was watching.”) In short, if you’ve long craved a good long chat with Clive James on who was the real Gatsby in The Wire or who got the best speeches in The West Wing, this lively, funny, conversational set of think-pieces is as close as you’ll ever get. By refusing to accept the consensus view that TV was innately inferior to cinema or literature, the 1980s James was decades ahead of his time. In the current golden age of TV drama and box-set bingewatching, everyone else has ﬁnally caught up. His democratic – one might call it typically Australian – approach to ‘art’ (for him, a term as applicable to Parks and Recreation as it is to The Faerie Queene) is what makes Play All such a fun read. Yes, most critics now recognise the high cultural status of TV drama but not so many are celebrated poets with a translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy under their belt. (He is still in thrall – The Wire’s Jimmy McNulty is our representative traveller through the horror of the inferno, he says, ‘staying in the ditch to watch the ruined people’.) Few so successfully combine the

Illustration: Dom McKenzie

1. MY BRILLIANT FRIEND Elena Ferrante The best love story I’ve read this year is between two girls, set in a poor neighbourhood in Napoli during the 1950s. Elena and Lila ﬁrst meet at the age of six – and reading this novel I also became six again – with all the love, envy and hate that kids experience so dramatically.

PLAY ALL / THIRTY DAYS

erudition of the academic with the giddiness of the true fan, capable of analysing The Wire via Camus and Nietzsche without sounding like a pretentious/delusional fool. Instead James sounds thoughtful, conﬁdent and generous. Not all of his arguments are new – most of us now acknowledge the superiority of longform TV drama when it comes to exploring moral and psychological complexities. But he is intriguing on the unique effect of the smaller living-room screen, noting for instance that James Gandolﬁni, who often faded into the background in films, became immense and powerful on television, a “magnetic mountain, pulling towards him all legends of

Play All Clive James Yale Univesity Press, £14.99 Thirty Days Annelies Verbeke World Editions, £11.99

THE BIG ISSUE / p31 / September 5-11 2016

loneliness and seismic inner violence”. Well, quite. Belgian writer Annelies Verbeke, though relatively obscure here, is beloved in her native land. Her latest novel, Thirty Days, about a Senegalese immigrant who moves to a quiet Belgian suburb, which turns out to have the highest suicide rate in the western world, was a huge hit at home. I applaud the good taste and open minds of Belgian readers. Verbeke has a wonderful knack of bringing characters vividly to life in a few expertly chosen evocative words, through gesture, knowing looks and clever metaphors. She is thought-provoking on our naturally self-preserving, suspicious, fearful instincts regarding outsiders, explored when Alphonse starts helping Syrian and Afghan refugees in a nearby camp. And there is poetry too; for anyone sceptical that translation is an art, lines like ‘Hop poles bear fat baubles, drunk on themselves, ready for harvest’ should do the trick.

Words: Jane Graham @Janeannie

The JOSEPH Communications

If you only read one spiritual book in your lifetime, make it this one. OBLIVION

OR OPPORTUNITIES AND

– just what, precisely, awaits beyond physical death? Authored by ‘Joseph’ from an advanced reality ‘beyond the veil’, this internationally a c c l a i m e d b o o k d e l ive r s arguably the most comprehensive, no-nonsense account ever written of what lies

WONDERS

‘Thanks to Joseph I am having a fabulous old age – hope is one thing, knowledge another.’ Pauline Hutchins.

ahead upon leaving this world behind. Revealing, inspiring, comforting ...Your Life After Death dares to draw back the final curtain and demystify the mystery. Read it and you’ll never look at the next life, or, indeed, this one, in quite the same way again. ‘Over the years I have read many books on this subject but none have been more informative and in-depth.‘ Peggy Sivyer.

AVAILABLE FROM: www.josephspeaks.com or amazon.co.uk or send cheque for £16.95 (includes p&p) made payable to Band of Light Media Ltd.

to: 10 Sparrable Row, Briercliffe, Burnley, Lancashire, BB10 3QW. eBook versions available from:

4'%14&+0)5

YEARS OF THE

BLUE SHEEP

20% DISCOUNT OFFER CODE: SHEEPSHOP5 Appearing Àrst on the NMC Sampler Pastures New in 1996, the Blue Sheep has come to represent the musical independence of NMC, the individuality of our composers, and the adventurous tastes of our listeners. EOXHVKHHS SHOP: www.nmcrec.co.uk

www.nmcrec.co.uk

“A richly allusive work of considerable scope and ambition” Oliver Coates | Julian Warburton BBC NOW / Llewellyn Hyeyoon Park | Huw Watkins

CD | DL: MP3 & LOSSLESS

NMC D226

NMC DL3027

A musical response to Waterloo Bridge: its history, its structure and its surrounding landscape. Claudia Molitor | SJ Fowler Stick In The Wheel | AK/DK DOWNLOAD/STREAMING ONLY

@nmcrecordings

MUSIC FOR BRASS BAND

DL: MP3 & LOSSLESS

CD | DL: MP3 & LOSSLESS

CD | DL: MP3 & LOSSLES

“The The music is lucid and beautiful … an original voice” Liverpool Philharmonic / Gourlay Lucy Goddard | Simon Whiteley Alexandra Dariescu | scapegoat Elias String Quartet

CLAUDIA MOLITOR NMC D214

MARK BOWDEN NMC D219

EMILY HOWARD

Music by Britten, Holloway, McCabe, Pankhurst and others, performed by the Cory Band (No.1 ranked brass band in the world for the past eight years) and Tredegar Town Band (2016 Welsh Champions).

Distributed in the UK by RSK Entertainment Our recordings are available worldwide in CD, download & streaming formats 4GIKUVGTGF %JCTKV[ PQ

FILM

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

Starman Nicolas Roeg holds up a mirror to Bowie’s otherworldly genius

n 1974 the BBC followed David Bowie charisma that Bowie exuded ‘playing’ around on tour in the west coast himself in Cracked Actor is amplified to an of America. Music documentaries extraordinary degree in Roeg’s film, rereare slippery things: rock stars are leased this week. Crash-landing on Earth, exhibitionists who don’t like to give the alien, or Thomas Newton as he’s called, anything away. Faced with the scrutinising is a hyper-intelligent, addictively inclined, gaze of the camera they tend to deflect the skin-changing cultural sponge in humanoid film-maker’s earnest truth-seeking efforts. form, which sounds like a pretty close Bowie, of course, was a master at this definition of Bowie himself at the time. If art of dissemination, and the ensuing BBC nothing else, The Man Who Fell to Earth is doc, the pointedly titled Cracked Actor, a record of one of Bowie’s greatest personas. is one of the summations of his art. But The Man Who Fell to Earth is much It’s terrific, partly because it stands in more. While Cracked Actor works largely awe of Bowie’s mystique rather as a tribute to Bowie’s chamethan attempting to probe it. leon genius, this film is also a staggering example of director A stick-thin, vampyric, delicate Nic Roeg at the height of his and aloof figure cocooned in the powers. Centred on Bowie’s back of his limo, subsisting on dazzlingly enigmatic turn, it’s milk (and – as Bowie himself a complex, melancholic, subtly famously admitted some years political portrait of Newton’s later – industrial quantities of encounter with his earthling cocaine), the Bowie that emerges here is as much a work of artifice counterparts. Humanity doesn’t as the wax figures that the Affair: Stéphanie Cléau emerge from its contact with a film-makers chance on in an and Mathieu Amalric higher force with much credit. incongruously situated desert museum. Aside from a brief tender relationship Broadcast in 1975, Cracked Actor struck between Newton and an unworldly young a chord with film director Nicolas Roeg, woman (Candy Clark) in a town in New who immediately cast Bowie in his upcom- Mexico, Newton is viewed with horror and ing film: as the marooned alien in his 1976 cynical opportunism. Having made a sci-fi The Man Who Fell to Earth. The fortune by patenting his alien technology tremulous strangeness and otherworldly through a company he sets up, Newton is THE BIG ISSUE / p33 / September 5-11 2016

effectively imprisoned by shady government agents and he slowly wastes away through a potent cocktail of television and liquor. Watching The Man Who Fell to Earth can be a strange, sometimes disorientating experience, as if Roeg is telling the story through the dislocated point of view of his title character. There are leaps in narrative logic, abrupt shifts in time – Newton can somehow pick up on fragments from history as he drives through the desert – and breathtaking switches in location that even include snatches from Newton’s home planet. But while The Man Who Fell to Earth is – thrillingly – hard to follow, it is underpinned by a moving lyricism: among many things, it remains one of cinema’s saddest and most honest portraits of alcoholism, with Newton succumbing to this uniquely earthbound disease. This rerelease is inevitably weighted with poignancy given Bowie’s death. But above all, the film impresses as a fiercely imaginative hit of pure cinema, a masterwork from one of Britain’s greatest film-makers which, compared to the play-it-safe offerings today, looks like it’s landed from outer space. The Man Who Fell to Earth is in cinemas from September 9

FINAL REEL... French actor Mathieu Amalric is best-known as the Quantum of Solace villain but his new ﬁlm, which he stars in and directs, is far from the certainties of Bond. The Blue Room is a thriller about the dark consequences of a passionate affair. It’s a little frustrating if you want a straight whodunnit but delivers a rewarding atmosphere of intrigue and psychological unease. Words: Ed Lawrenson @EdwardLawrenson

Courses

񡑈񡑧∀񡑀񡑒񡑧񡑀񡑆񡑔񡑩񡑦񡑀 #񡑄񡑄񡑂񡑀񡑉񡑘񡑩񡑀񡑈񡑧 񡑩 񡑓񡑧񡑩񡑣񡑢񡑦񡑠 񡑇񡑩񡑧񡑥 񡑈񡑧񡑥񡑘񡑁 񡑁񡑱񡑀񡑔񡑀񡑙񡑰񡑘񡑘񡑥񡑔񡑧񡑖񡑘񡑀񡑩񡑰񡑨񡑨񡑙񡑰񡑘񡑔񡑗񡑘񡑰񡑀񡑔񡑧񡑗񡑀񡑖񡑨񡑩∃񡑀񡑘񡑗񡑣 񡑨񡑰񡑀∃񡑨! 񡑖񡑔񡑧񡑀񡑘񡑔񡑰񡑧񡑀񡑔񡑀񡑡񡑨񡑨񡑗񡑀񡑣񡑧񡑖񡑨񡑦񡑘񡑀񡑦񡑔񡑤񡑣񡑧񡑡񡑀񡑱!񡑰񡑘񡑀 񡑢񡑔 񡑀񡑖񡑨񡑩∃񡑀񡑣񡑱 񡑩񡑰񡑨񡑙񡑘񡑱񡑱񡑣񡑨񡑧񡑔񡑥񡑀񡑔񡑧񡑗񡑀񡑘񡑰񡑰񡑨񡑰񡑀񡑙񡑰񡑘񡑘(񡑀񡑃񡑔񡑰񡑧񡑣񡑧񡑡񡑀∃񡑨!񡑰񡑀񡑱񡑢񡑔񡑰񡑘 񡑖񡑔񡑧񡑀񡑕񡑘񡑀񡑙!񡑧&񡑀∀񡑔񡑰񡑣񡑘񡑗񡑀񡑔񡑧񡑗񡑀񡑩񡑰񡑨񡑠 񡑔񡑕񡑥񡑘( 񡑕1+񡑀 񡑖+((񡑱+񡑰񡑦񡑩#∋!񡑀 񡑦∋񡑩񡑀 񡑃()5񡑀 񡑅񡑩#.∋!񡑀 񡑃(1+,񡑰񡑀 3#%% ,∀(3񡑀5(1񡑀∀(3񡑀−(񡑀,񡑰−񡑀5(1+,񡑰%񡑱񡑀1)񡑀񡑦,񡑀񡑦񡑀񡑱+񡑰񡑰%񡑦∋񡑨񡑰+񡑀< 񡑰#−∀񡑰+񡑀񡑱1%%񡑀(+񡑀)񡑦+−;.&񡑰񡑀<񡑀)10∋!񡑀5(1񡑀#∋񡑀񡑨(∋−+(%񡑀(񡑱 5(1+񡑀3(+∃#∋!񡑀%#񡑱񡑰6񡑀񡑤(1:%%񡑀+񡑰񡑨񡑰#2񡑰8 = 񡑁񡑀 +,−;񡑨%񡑦,,7񡑀∀(&񡑰;,−1񡑩5񡑀񡑨(1+,񡑰񡑀񡑨+񡑰񡑦−񡑰񡑩񡑀 񡑧5񡑀)+(񡑱񡑰,,#(∋񡑦%, = 񡑅4)񡑰+−7񡑀)񡑰+,(∋񡑦%񡑀−1#.(∋񡑀񡑱+(&񡑀5(1+񡑀−1−(+ = 񡑁񡑩2#񡑨񡑰񡑀(∋񡑀񡑦%%񡑀−5)񡑰,񡑀(񡑱񡑀)+((񡑱+񡑰񡑦񡑩#∋!񡑀񡑦∋񡑩񡑀񡑨()5 񡑰񡑩#.∋!񡑀−񡑰񡑨∀∋#∗1񡑰, = 񡑃(∋.∋1#∋!񡑀񡑖+(񡑱񡑰,,#(∋񡑦%񡑀񡑄񡑰2񡑰%()&񡑰∋−񡑀񡑃񡑰+. 񡑨񡑦−񡑰9 񡑉񡑱񡑀5(1񡑀3񡑦∋−񡑀−(񡑀񡑧񡑰񡑀񡑦񡑀)+((񡑱+񡑰񡑦񡑩񡑰+񡑀񡑦∋񡑩񡑀񡑨()5񡑀񡑰񡑩#−(+7񡑀−∀#, #,񡑀 −∀񡑰񡑀 3񡑦5񡑀 −(񡑀 ,−񡑦+−6񡑀 񡑉−:,񡑀 #񡑩񡑰񡑦%񡑀 񡑱(+񡑀 񡑧񡑰!#∋∋񡑰+,9񡑀 񡑔( )+񡑰2#(1,񡑀񡑰4)񡑰+#񡑰∋񡑨񡑰񡑀(+񡑀,)񡑰񡑨#񡑦%񡑀񡑰񡑩1񡑨񡑦.(∋񡑀+񡑰∗1#+񡑰񡑩9 񡑤(1񡑀񡑨񡑦∋񡑀񡑧񡑰񡑀񡑰񡑦+∋#∋!񡑀#∋񡑀񡑦,񡑀%#/%񡑰񡑀񡑦,񡑀Α;Β񡑀&(∋−∀,9񡑀≅Χ񡑀񡑩񡑦5 −+#񡑦%9񡑀񡑆(+񡑀񡑱+񡑰񡑰񡑀񡑩񡑰−񡑦#%,񡑀2#,#−񡑀(1+񡑀3񡑰񡑧,#−񡑰񡑀(+񡑀񡑨񡑦%%񡑀1,񡑀−(񡑩񡑦56

∀∀∀񡑃∀񡑕񡑨񡑩񡑧񡑧񡑙񡑩񡑘񡑔񡑗񡑢񡑦񡑠񡑃񡑖񡑧񡑥 񡑒񡑖񡑑񡑑 񡑐񡑉񡑓񡑓

񡑁񡑆񡑁񡑁 񡑆񡑄񡑅 񡑃񡑁񡑁񡑆

񡑕񡑣񡑡񡑢񡑙 񡑖񡑙񡑠񡑈

񡑗񡑘񡑂񡑃񡑇񡑂񡑅񡑔 񡑓񡑃񡑉% 񡑇񡑥񡑘񡑔񡑱񡑘 񡑱񡑘񡑧񡑗 񡑦񡑘 񡑙񡑰񡑘񡑘 񡑗񡑘 񡑔񡑣񡑥񡑱 񡑨񡑙 񡑢񡑨# 񡑨 񡑕񡑘񡑖񡑨񡑦񡑘 񡑔 񡑱!񡑖񡑖񡑘񡑱񡑱񡑙!񡑥 񡑩񡑰񡑨񡑨񡑙񡑰񡑘񡑔񡑗񡑘񡑰 񡑔񡑧񡑗 񡑖񡑨񡑩∃ 񡑘񡑗񡑣 񡑨񡑰( 񡑔񡑁񡑓񡑅 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 񡑁񡑄񡑄񡑗񡑅񡑘񡑘 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

WHY NOT BE A

񡑀

񡑖%񡑰񡑦,񡑰񡑀∗1(−񡑰񡑀+񡑰񡑱8

Writing Competitions!

񡑇񡑧#񡑙 !񡑀񡑣񡑧񡑀&񡑨∀񡑱 񡑙񡑥񡑠񡑀񡑕񡑧񡑘񡑀񡑣񡑧񡑀&񡑨∀񡑱񡑀񡑠∀!∀񡑱񡑙񡑂 񡑇񡑩񡑀񡑰 񡑤񡑩 񡑠&񡑰񡑠 񡑤񡑠񡑨񡑘񡑠񡑀񡑩 񡑀񡑱#񡑖񡑦񡑤񡑡񡑤񡑘񡑖∀񡑤񡑩񡑨!񡑀񡑨񡑠񡑠񡑙񡑠񡑙񡑀∀񡑩񡑀񡑠񡑨 񡑩񡑦񡑂 񡑕񡑩#񡑀񡑣񡑖∃񡑠񡑀񡑖񡑀!񡑠∃񡑠񡑨񡑀񡑙񡑖∋񡑀∀ 񡑤񡑖񡑦񡑀∀񡑩񡑀񡑧񡑖񡑥񡑠񡑀!# 񡑠񡑀∀񡑣񡑠 񡑘񡑩# !񡑠񡑀񡑤!񡑀 񡑤񡑢񡑣∀񡑀񡑡񡑩 񡑀∋񡑩#񡑂񡑀񡑓񡑤!񡑤∀񡑀񡑩# 񡑀!񡑤∀񡑠񡑁񡑀񡑘񡑣񡑩񡑩!񡑠 ∋񡑩# 񡑘񡑩# !񡑠 񡑖񡑨񡑙 񡑠񡑨 񡑩񡑦 ∀񡑩񡑙񡑖∋)

񡑒񡑤񡑧񡑠񡑀񡑆񡑖񡑨񡑖񡑢񡑠񡑧񡑠񡑨∀ 񡑑񡑖񡑦񡑠!񡑀񡑒񡑠񡑘񡑣񡑨񡑤񡑱#񡑠!

Great Cash Prizes To Be Won For details visit:

www.wbcompetition.com

񡑆񡑧񡑱񡑨񡑥 񡑒񡑨񡑘񡑕&(

񡑒񡑡񡑘 񡑅񡑰񡑰񡑧񡑖񡑢񡑔񡑱񡑢񡑧񡑦 񡑧񡑙 񡑇񡑩񡑘񡑘񡑤񡑔񡑦񡑖񡑘 񡑓񡑩񡑢񡑱񡑘񡑩񡑰 񡑂񡑰񡑨(&񡑰 񡑦 &񡑰&񡑧񡑰+ 񡑦∋񡑩 !񡑦#∋ ,(&񡑰 !+񡑰񡑦− +񡑰,(1+񡑨񡑰,񡑀−( ∀񡑰%) 3#−∀ 5(1+ 3+#.∋! 񡑨񡑦+񡑰񡑰+ #∋񡑨%1񡑩#∋!8 = 񡑓񡑰&񡑧񡑰+,∀#) 񡑃񡑦+񡑩 = 񡑄#,񡑨(1∋−, (∋񡑀񡑢+#−#∋!񡑀 񡑗񡑰,(1+񡑨񡑰,7񡑀񡑃(1+,񡑰,7񡑀 = 񡑆+񡑰񡑰 񡑕∋%#∋񡑰 񡑃(1+,񡑰 񡑃(&)񡑰−#−#(∋,񡑀>񡑀񡑓(+񡑰 = 񡑂#;񡑦∋∋1񡑦% 񡑔񡑰3,%񡑰−−񡑰+ 񡑐񡑨񡑀񡑅񡑨񡑣񡑧񡑀񡑀񡑒񡑣񡑱񡑣 ∋ 񡑆񡑧񡑥∃񡑀∗+,(−−񡑀񡑇񡑘񡑰񡑀񡑓񡑘񡑔񡑰

񡑃񡑘񡑠񡑀񡑡񡑔񡑓񡑕񡑕񡑡񡑀񡑢񡑒񡑇񡑢񡑀񡑐񡑖񡑙񡑕񡑘񡑦񡑐񡑠񡑡񡑀񡑤񡑇񡑕񡑣񡑐񡑀 񡑤񡑓񡑡񡑓񡑢񡑀񡑘񡑣񡑠񡑀񡑥񡑐񡑈񡑡񡑓񡑢񡑐񡑀񡑄񡑅񡑆񡑁

񡑥񡑥񡑥񡑂񡑘񡑗񡑕񡑓񡑗񡑐񡑕񡑐񡑇񡑠񡑗񡑓񡑗񡑑񡑉񡑓񡑠񡑉񡑕񡑐񡑂񡑉񡑘񡑂񡑣񡑔

###(#񡑰񡑣 񡑘񡑰񡑱񡑕!񡑰񡑘񡑔!(񡑖񡑨񡑦)񡑔񡑙#

WRITER?

As a freelance writer, you can earn very good money in your spare time, writing the stories, articles, books, scripts etc that editors and publishers want. Millions of pounds are paid annually in fees and royalties. Earning your share can be fun, profitable and creatively most fulfilling. To help you become a successful writer we offer you a first-class, home-study course from professional writers – with individual guidance from expert tutors and flexible tuition tailored to your own requirements. You are shown how to make the most of your abilities, where to find ideas, how to turn them into publishable writing and how to sell them. In short, we show you exactly how to become a published writer. If you want writing success – this is the way to start! Whatever your writing ambitions, we can help you to achieve them. For we give you an effective, stimulating and most enjoyable creative writing course… appreciated by students and acclaimed by experts. It’s ideal for beginners. No previous experience or special background is required. You write and study at your own pace – you do not have to rush. Many others have been successful this way. If they can do it – why can’t you?

We are so confident that we can help you become a published writer that we give you a full refund guarantee. If you have not earned your course fees from published writing by the time you finish the course, we will refund them in full.

If you want to be a writer start by requesting a free copy of our prospectus ‘Write and be Published’. Please call our freephone number or visit our website NOW! = = = = = = = = = = =

񡑂񡑆񡑑񡑈񡑉񡑃񡑀񡑄񡑃񡑁񡑐񡑑񡑈񡑃񡑉 ΑΕ񡑀񡑆񡑁񡑃񡑙;񡑖񡑁񡑃񡑑񡑅񡑄񡑀񡑓񡑕񡑄񡑠񡑒񡑅񡑘񡑀 Α񡑀񡑘񡑖񡑅񡑃񡑉񡑁񡑒񡑉񡑘񡑙񡑀񡑘񡑠񡑖񡑖񡑒񡑅񡑓񡑅񡑔񡑙񡑘 Α?񡑀񡑢񡑗񡑉񡑙񡑙񡑅񡑔񡑀񡑁񡑘񡑘񡑉񡑇񡑔񡑓񡑅񡑔񡑙񡑘񡑀 񡑁񡑄񡑡񡑉񡑘񡑕񡑗񡑤񡑀񡑘񡑅񡑗񡑡񡑉񡑃񡑅 񡑙񡑠񡑙񡑕񡑗񡑉񡑁񡑒񡑀񡑘񡑠񡑖񡑖񡑕񡑗񡑙 񡑆񡑒񡑅񡑣񡑉񡑂񡑒񡑅񡑀񡑘񡑙񡑠񡑄񡑤񡑀񡑖񡑗񡑕񡑇񡑗񡑁񡑓񡑓񡑅 񡑘񡑙񡑠񡑄񡑅񡑔񡑙񡑀񡑃񡑕񡑓񡑓񡑠񡑔񡑉񡑙񡑤񡑀񡑁񡑗񡑅񡑁 񡑈񡑕񡑢񡑀񡑙񡑕񡑀񡑖񡑗񡑅񡑘񡑅񡑔񡑙񡑀񡑤񡑕񡑠񡑗񡑀񡑢񡑕񡑗񡑑 񡑈񡑕񡑢񡑀񡑙񡑕񡑀񡑘񡑅񡑒񡑒񡑀񡑤񡑕񡑠񡑗񡑀񡑢񡑗񡑉񡑙񡑉񡑔񡑇 ≅Χ񡑀񡑄񡑁񡑤񡑀񡑙񡑗񡑉񡑁񡑒񡑀񡑖񡑅񡑗񡑉񡑕񡑄 񡑆񡑠񡑒񡑒񡑀񡑗񡑅񡑆񡑠񡑔񡑄񡑀񡑇񡑠񡑁񡑗񡑁񡑔񡑙񡑅񡑅

www.writersbureau.com FREEPHONE 24 HOURS

Quote: SZ12916

0800 856 2008 email: 16W1@writersbureau.com Please include your name and address

= 񡑆#񡑨−#(∋ 񡑂((∃, = 񡑔(∋;񡑆#񡑨−#(∋񡑀񡑂((∃,񡑀 = 񡑖(񡑰−+5 = 񡑂%(!,

Call: 0161 819 9922 񡑘񡑥≅ΑΦ≅Δ񡑗 Email: randa@writersbureau.com www.writersbureau.com/randa/

񡑈񡑨񡑀!#񡑘񡑘񡑠!!񡑡#񡑦񡑀񡑘񡑩񡑧񡑰񡑦񡑠∀񡑤񡑩񡑨񡑀∋񡑩#񡑀񡑙񡑩%񡑨񡑦񡑩񡑖񡑙񡑀∋񡑩# 񡑅񡑠 ∀񡑤񡑡񡑤񡑘񡑖∀񡑠񡑀񡑖!񡑀񡑰 񡑩񡑩񡑡񡑀񡑩񡑡񡑀∋񡑩# 񡑀∀ 񡑖񡑤񡑨񡑤񡑨񡑢񡑀񡑧񡑖񡑥񡑤񡑨񡑢 ∀񡑣񡑠!񡑠񡑀 񡑘񡑩# !񡑠!񡑀 񡑤񡑙񡑠񡑖񡑦񡑀 񡑡񡑩 񡑀 ∋񡑩# 񡑀 񡑄񡑨񡑧!񡑣񡑧∀񡑣񡑧񡑡 񡑉񡑱񡑨񡑠񡑙 񡑣񡑨񡑧񡑕񡑥񡑀񡑅񡑙#񡑙񡑥񡑨񡑩񡑦񡑙񡑧!񡑂

񡑅񡑓񡑁񡑉񡑒 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Please include your name and address and ABCC www.facebook.com/thewritersbureau www.twitter.com/writersbureau

= 񡑘∀(+− 񡑘−(+#񡑰, = 񡑁+−#񡑨%񡑰, = 񡑗񡑦񡑩#( 񡑦∋񡑩 񡑙񡑡 񡑘񡑨+#)−, = 񡑘−񡑦!񡑰 񡑖%񡑦5,

񡑕񡑩# 񡑀 ∀ 񡑖񡑤񡑨񡑤񡑨񡑢񡑀 񡑤!񡑀 񡑙񡑠񡑦񡑤∃񡑠 񡑠񡑙񡑀 񡑩񡑨񡑀 񡑖񡑀 񡑘񡑩񡑨∃񡑠񡑨񡑤񡑠񡑨∀ 񡑩񡑨񡑦񡑤񡑨񡑠񡑀񡑰񡑦񡑖∀񡑡񡑩 񡑧񡑀!񡑩񡑀∋񡑩#񡑀񡑘񡑖񡑨񡑀!∀#񡑙∋񡑀%񡑣񡑠񡑨񡑀񡑖񡑨񡑙 %񡑣񡑠 񡑠񡑀 ∋񡑩#񡑀 񡑰񡑦񡑠񡑖!񡑠񡑂񡑀 񡑃񡑨񡑙񡑀 ∀񡑩񡑀 񡑧񡑖񡑥񡑠񡑀 񡑤∀񡑀 񡑠񡑖񡑦񡑦∋ 񡑡񡑦񡑠&񡑤񡑗񡑦񡑠񡑀∀񡑣񡑠񡑀񡑘񡑩# !񡑠!񡑀񡑣񡑖∃񡑠񡑀񡑧񡑨񡑀񡑠񡑣%񡑙񡑘񡑀 !񡑕񡑱!񡑀񡑘񡑕!񡑙 !񡑩񡑀∋񡑩#񡑀񡑘񡑖񡑨񡑀񡑠񡑨 񡑩񡑦񡑀񡑖񡑨∋∀񡑤񡑧񡑠񡑂񡑀񡑉񡑦#!񡑁񡑀∋񡑩#񡑀!∀񡑤񡑦񡑦񡑀񡑣񡑖∃񡑠 񡑖񡑘񡑘񡑠!!񡑀∀񡑩񡑀∀񡑣񡑠񡑀񡑘񡑩# !񡑠񡑀񡑧񡑖∀񡑠 񡑤񡑖񡑦!񡑀∀񡑩񡑀 񡑠񡑡񡑠 񡑀∀񡑩񡑀񡑖񡑡∀񡑠 ∋񡑩#(∃񡑠񡑀񡑘񡑩񡑧񡑰񡑦񡑠∀񡑠񡑙񡑂񡑀

999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 񡑖񡑕񡑘񡑙 񡑃񡑕񡑄񡑅 99999999999999999999999999999999

񡑄񡑰)− 񡑘񡑥≅ΑΦ≅Δ񡑖 Years of Writers Bureau 27 Success 񡑓񡑦∋񡑨∀񡑰,−񡑰+7 񡑓Β ≅񡑒񡑅 email: 16FP@writersbureau.com Members of BILD

񡑓񡑩񡑢񡑱񡑘񡑩񡑰∃񡑀񡑐񡑘!񡑢񡑘∀񡑀񡑑񡑘񡑩!񡑢񡑖񡑘 Have a piece of your writing reviewed by a professional writer. Includes assessment and comments on style, content, suitability for chosen market and any other aspect considered neccessary. Competative rates. We review:

񡑇񡑦񡑩񡑱񡑨#񡑙񡑀&񡑨∀񡑱񡑀񡑗񡑕񡑱񡑙񡑙񡑱񡑀񡑩񡑱񡑨 񡑩񡑙񡑗! 񡑀∃񡑣!񡑢񡑀!񡑱񡑕񡑣񡑧񡑣񡑧񡑡 񡑠񡑱񡑨񡑦񡑀񡑙%񡑩񡑙񡑱! 񡑂񡑀񡑓񡑱񡑣!!񡑙񡑧񡑀񡑖&񡑀񡑩񡑱񡑨񡑠񡑙 񡑣񡑨񡑧񡑕񡑥 񡑀!񡑢񡑙 񡑙 񡑨񡑧񡑥񡑣񡑧񡑙񡑀񡑗񡑨∀񡑱 񡑙 񡑀񡑕񡑱񡑙񡑀񡑩񡑕񡑗񡑤񡑙񡑘񡑀∃񡑣!񡑢񡑀񡑣񡑧񡑠񡑨񡑱񡑦񡑕!񡑣񡑨񡑧񡑁 !񡑣񡑩 񡑀񡑕񡑧񡑘񡑀!񡑙񡑗񡑢񡑧񡑣񡑰∀񡑙 񡑀&񡑨∀∋񡑥񡑥񡑀񡑠񡑣񡑧񡑘񡑀񡑣񡑧#񡑕񡑥∀񡑕񡑖񡑥񡑙񡑀񡑕! ∃񡑨񡑱񡑤񡑂񡑀

񡑄#!񡑤񡑨񡑠!!񡑀񡑔 񡑤∀񡑤񡑨񡑢

The Writers Bureau

For Writers

񡑅񡑨񡑧∋!񡑀񡑈񡑙!񡑀񡑉񡑨񡑨񡑱񡑀񡑃∀ 񡑣񡑧񡑙 񡑀 񡑑񡑤񡑣񡑥񡑥 񡑀񡑐∀񡑣񡑧񡑀񡑔񡑨∀񡑱񡑀񡑄񡑕񡑱񡑙񡑙񡑱(񡑀

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

񡑆+񡑰񡑰)(,− 񡑗񡑘񡑘񡑑;񡑐񡑥񡑁񡑃;񡑐񡑃񡑐񡑇

Courses

Rachel Dove “I won the 2015 Flirty Fiction Prima Magazine and Mills and Boon competition. The prize was £500, and the chance to work with Mills and Boon on my book which came out in April 2016. “Also I have three stories in three anthologies with other authors – we’ve raised almost £2,000 for cancer charities.”

George Stewart “I am delighted to tell everyone that the course is everything it says on the tin, excellent! I have wanted to write for years, and this course took me by the hand and helped me turn my scribblings into something much more professional. I am delighted that my writing is being published and I am actually being paid. All thanks to the Comprehensive Creative Writing course.” Katherine Kavanagh “I have been publishing my own website for circus critique. This work has led to recognition in my field, with work offers ranging from writing book reviews for scholarly journals to running master classes for young people. I have had two paid writing residencies at festivals this year and have been employed to write tweets. Payments total £2575, plus expenses for travel, tickets to events and payments in kind in the form of review copy books.” 񡑓񡑃񡑉% 񡑇񡑥񡑘񡑔񡑱񡑘 񡑱񡑘񡑧񡑗 񡑦񡑘 񡑙񡑰񡑘񡑘 񡑗񡑘 񡑔񡑣񡑥񡑱 񡑨񡑧 񡑢񡑨# 񡑨 񡑕񡑘񡑖񡑨񡑦񡑘 񡑔񡑀񡑱!񡑖񡑖񡑘񡑱񡑱񡑙!񡑥&񡑀񡑙񡑰񡑘񡑘񡑥񡑔񡑧񡑖񡑘񡑀#񡑰񡑣 񡑘񡑰( 񡑔񡑁񡑓񡑅񡑀 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 񡑁񡑄񡑄񡑗񡑅񡑘񡑘񡑀9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 񡑖񡑕񡑘񡑙񡑀񡑃񡑕񡑄񡑅 999999999999999999999999999 񡑅񡑓񡑁񡑉񡑒 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Freepost RSSK-JZAC-JCJG

񡑀

Courses

The Writers Bureau Dept SZ12916 Manchester, M3 1LE

Writers Bureau

Years of Success

www.facebook.com/thewritersbureau Members of BILD and ABCC www.twitter.com/writersbureau

WEEK IN GEEK

INTERVIEW

in association with

IT’S GRIMM FOR GAME OF THRONES FANS BUT YOU CAN’T DENY POTTERMANIA

Photo: Mark Runnacles /Daily Record

A few television series are ending. Grimm will draw to a close after its sixth season. Pretty Little Liars (pictured), as had been rumoured, will end once season seven is done. In other news, the BBC plans to run Bargain Hunt until the end of time. Those seeking solace in Game of Thrones need to wait until next summer for the (shorter) seventh season of the show. But a crumb of comfort has been thrown, with the news that the wonderful Jim Broadbent has been added to the cast, in a “signiﬁcant” role. No idea what it is or if he will be required to wear clothes.

Rumours abound that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is to form a trilogy of ﬁlms. In spite of author JK Rowling denying the play would ever be turned into a ﬁlm, and in spite of Daniel Radcliffe denying any plans to return to the role, the internet has made its mind up. Warner Bros is believed to be pursuing the idea but all those aforementioned denials are still in place.

Words: Simon Brew @simonbrew; denofgeek.com

Beyond the pale Weekly Wipe star and comedy genius Limmy creates laughs out of darkness

“C

ult is the nice way of saying unpopular,” says Brian Limond, better known as Limmy. Yet cult is the best – perhaps only – word to describe the Glaswegian comedian. Even the word comedian does not begin to capture the unsettling absurdness, menace, the pathos and paranoia that permeate his characters and sketches, alongside the laughs. After Limmy’s Show on BBC Scotland, appearances on Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe, live dates and a book, Daft Wee Stories, Limmy has retained success on his own terms, using Twitter and YouTube as his primary platforms. It is often said there is a thin line between comedy and tragedy but with Limmy tragedy is evoked before anything humorous happens – if it ever does. His comedy feels disconcertingly real. “I think everybody’s got some tragedy and sad stuff,” he says. “I’m interested in dark things and a certain emotion when something isn’t quite funny and isn’t quite sad. I like weird things, people losing the plot, insanity. I ﬁnd tragic things funny. I was on antidepressants for a year around 2013. My attitude has completely changed from before. Something switches in my brain. You take things seriously, you worry, then something happens in your brain where you think about it so much you start giggling.” Most of the recent content uploaded to his YouTube channel is of Limmy playing Grand Theft Auto V, almost using the video-game world as a set for sketches. One clip that captures the wild oscillation between comedy and tragedy sees Limmy’s avatar trying to make a friend. When his attempts are spurned, a punch is thrown and the situation

escalates into a virtual reality massacre. “A dark commentary on the solitude of modern life,” reads one viewer comment, “Genius satire of the American shootings narrative in recent years,” adds another. Others write that it only shows “the twisted mind of a broken man” – but which is Limmy, satirical genius or twisted mind? “It kind of ruins it if you say I am 65 per cent serious and 35 per cent not serious,” he says. “I don’t kill people in real life but for some reason – I don’t

“I ﬁnd tragic things funny. I was on antidepressants for a year” know what it is about human nature – I like killing people in games. Nobody has tweeted me to say, ‘I’m deeply offended by your Grand Theft Auto videos’, but you do get people who think you shouldn’t be able to shoot people in games.” Grand Theft Auto regularly reignites the ‘video games encourage violence’ debate but Limmy defends it with the passion only a 41-year-old gamer with the mind of a

THE BIG ISSUE / p35 / September 5-11 2016

twisted satirical genius could. “I don’t think anybody [who commits violence] was fucking hunky-dory to begin with,” he argues. “They didn’t have a fantastic family and future until this game came along and put these ideas in their mind. I can imagine there is a tiny element that does inﬂuence people but I can imagine seeing something out the window on a bus puts ideas into their minds. “If you start banning things, where do you draw the line? Next it’ll be taking Columbo and Murder She Wrote off the telly. There could be an argument that showing those things at two o’clock in the afternoon subconsciously puts it in people’s minds that murder isn’t a big deal. It’s so much not a big deal that we have this light, lovely music – da-da-da-dada – Angela Lansbury smiling all the way through and a laughing freeze-frame ending as the credits come up. If murder was a terrible thing you wouldn’t put it on a Sunday afternoon for kids to see. At least Grand Theft Auto has an 18 rating.” Limmy’s Show Live, The Lowry, Salford, Sept 13; The Apollo, London, Sept 16. Words: Steven MacKenzie @stevenmackenzie

OUT AND ABOUT

TITLE SEQUENCES

Introducing great television

odern TV considers itself to be too cool for proper intro sequences. Many of the cooler shows start without so much as a ‘hello and pleased to meet you’. You might occasionally get the name of the show flash up silently onscreen before the action gets underway. Some shows, like Mad Men and True Blood, create sequences that are mini-epics in themselves. They are artistic, stylish, bold and a bit cryptic. But they don’t really tell you a hell of a lot about the show you’re about to watch. I grew up enslaved by TV in the 1980s, when opening titles delivered not only great music and action but a heavy dose of exposition too. Dallas spelt out its very essence in its famous split screen introduction, showcasing the beautiful cast, massive skyscrapers, some oil wells and various expensive cars. All set to a magnificent orchestral funk soundtrack. It was actually in the 1970s that US cops series introduced the idea of theme tunes that transcended the show and became pop classics in their own right. You’ll find the themes to both The Streets of San Francisco and Starsky and Hutch in most respectable soul and funk DJs’ record bags. Later, CHiPS continued the slightly homoerotic soft porn approach to openers that Starsky and Hutch had pioneered. With their extravagantly tight motorcycle jodhpurs, leather gloves, sexy truncheons and mirrored aviators, Ponch and Jon sped down the

freeway on their gigantic motorcycles. The theme tune was pure high-energy disco, dripping with brass, and the show introduced British schoolboys like me not only to the demanding work of highway patrol men in Reagan’s America but, rather more subtly, to southern California’s thriving gay scene of the time. But it wasn’t just the Yanks knocking out these masterful openers. Over here we had The Professionals. The titles featured a bombastic theme tune so liberal in its use of the wah-wah pedal that George Cl i nton h i m sel f might have blushed. The imagery opened with a Ford Cortina smashing through a shop window in slow mo. From there, the show’s protagonists (secret service men Bodie and Doyle) appeared, performing a fast-cut sequence of all their characteristic activities: kung-fu, sliding across car bonnets, lifting weights in a gymnasium, wearing cool leather jackets, eyeing up birds and ﬁring pistols at a shooting range. It was bloody sensational, plonked you right into the heart of the action and told you exactly what to expect from the next half hour. Those sort of intro sequences became a thing of the past once telly decided it was cool a few years ago. But like all things that regard themselves as cool, it don’t half get boring sometimes.

“Dallas spelt out its essence to a funk soundtrack”

Words: Sam Delaney @delaneyman THE BIG ISSUE / p36 / September 5-11 2016

REBEL REBEL ‘Rock’ as a museum piece has been around since the days of prog in the 1970s but only in recent years have museums treated rock as something more important than a prop in the Hard Rock Café. After the incredible David Bowie is at the V&A and the not quite as incredible but still enjoyable Exhibitionism (around the Rolling Stones) at the Saatchi Gallery, here’s You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970 (from September 10, South Kensington, London; vam.ac.uk). It looks at how music, art, fashion, philosophy, politics and protest (the main image shows anti-Vietnam War demonstrators at the Pentagon in 1967) created upheaval in the 1960s, and how we are still living in the aftershock.

In their own way, comic books also marked a type of popular protest, satirising mass culture and politics amid things being smashed up in great ﬁghts. Marvel Universe Live! (September 7-11, Nottingham; motorpointarena nottingham.com) is a live-action show featuring iconic

Marvel marvels such as The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man and Captain America, as they race through stunts, martial arts and, of course, explosions. It might not have the same pulling power as the Notting Hill Carnival but the Hackney One Carnival (September 11, various locations, Hackney, London; hackney.gov.uk) is steadily growing. It takes place over one afternoon so is going

MUSIC ORCHESTRAL SPECIAL

Autumn glory

S to be smaller (and easier to navigate) than its west London counterpart. There will, of course, be dancers and costumes, food and crafts, with the whole thing ending up at Ridley Road. While there is endless beauty in the natural world, it does not follow that the ‘unnatural world’ is ugly. The London Design Biennale (September 7-27, Aldwych, London; londondesignbiennale. com) is proof of that. Designers from more than 30 countries will display their work, with new pieces exploring the idea of ‘utopia by design’. Related to design, the power of engineering is the focus of The International N Gauge Show (September 10 & 11, Royal Leamington Spa; ngaugeshow.co. uk). Bound to elicit whoops of joy from normally reticent railway enthusiasts.

Nottingham Mela (September 9-11, Nottingham; nae. org.uk) is the city’s celebration of South Asian culture

and has been running since 1988. Performances, food, games and workshops are all on offer in different locations in the city centre. For the super-energetic, Brighton and Hove Triathlon (September 11, Brighton; brightonandhove triathlon.com) will take place on the seafront. Either compete or stand on the sidelines eating ﬁsh and chips while promising yourself you’ll do it next year. Maybe.

Eamonn Forde

o it’s goodbye to the lazy, hazy expanse of summer and hello to the reality of life away from icelollies. Orchestras, too, return to the (relative) normality of regular concert seasons, back in home towns after weeks away on tour, in English country gardens or at the Royal Albert Hall. But, unlike schoolkids returning in drab uniforms to dingy classrooms – can you tell I loved school? – orchestral autumns are to be celebrated, heralding nine months of world-class music-making. Here’s a whistlestop tour of how Britain’s major orches- Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra binge on Beethoven tras open their 2016/17 seasons. Plenty of dates for the diary, wherever you are… concerto in London on September 23. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orches- Works by Debussy and Bartók complete tra open with a Beethoven binge on what for me looks the most intriguing of September 15: his first three symphonies this initial salvo of symphonic programmes. back-to-back. The contrast between the Having said that, the Philharmonia first two – works in the classical vein of Orchestra’s Myths, an all-Stravinskian Haydn and Mozart – with the Eroica, which affair on September 25, is a fascinating jolted music into the Romantic period, will prospect too. Stravinsky also features in the Roya l Philha rmonic be revelatory. A week later in Orchestra’s 70th anniversary Manchester, the Hallé take on gala concert (September 19), his ‘Pastoral’ symphony (No. 6), complete with cuckoos and which includes performances by thunderclaps; down the M6 on soloists Pinchas Zukerman and Martha Argerich. Huge works the same evening (September 22), the City of Birmingham help other orchestras set off with Symphony Orchestra play his a bang: the BBC Symphony Orchestra play Strauss’ heroic Egmont Overture and his Piano Ein Heldenleben (September Concerto No. 1 (with pianist All Together Now: double 28); BBC SSO tackle Bruckner’s Steven Osborne). A far rarer bassist, Chi-chi Nwanoku piece, Walton’s Symphony No. 2, receives Ninth (September 22); BBC Philharmonic a performance in Bournemouth Symphony play Haydn’s Creation (September 24) Orchestra’s first concert of the season, at and the London Symphony begin at the end with Verdi’s Requiem (September 18). Poole’s Lighthouse on October 12. Tchaikovsky is another symphonic big What a way to kick-start autumn! hitter well represented by both the Hallé and BSO, while the BBC National Orchestra of Wales welcomes its new principal guest LAST NOTE... conductor, Xian Zhang, with the Fourth It’s not all about professional orchestras, as Symphony at Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall on the latest in the BBC’s ‘Great British’ brand September 27. Another of his best-loved of TV contests shows. All Together Now: The works, the Violin Concerto, is part of the Great Orchestra Challenge, on BBC Four, Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s bill in sees five UK amateur orchestras compete for Edinburgh on October 7, featuring violin- the chance to play at this Saturday’s Proms ist Nicola Benedetti. She’s also assisting in in the Park. Batons at the ready! the opening of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s season, playing Szymanowski’s Words: David Fay @themerelistener THE BIG ISSUE / p37 / September 5-11 2016

ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

Offering Big Issue Readers a Big Treat to Bleat About! A special opportunity to beneﬁt from cruelty-free, hypoallergenic natural duvets, pillows and mattress covers

Purchase any Southdown wool bedding up until 30th November 2016 and enjoy a £20 discount and complimentary courier postage.

For more details visit www.southdownduvets.com or call Jessica on 01730 827 148 quoting coupon code BIG TREAT

CARE 4 CATS IBIZA SINCE THE YEAR 2000 WE HAVE NEUTERED OVER 17 000 CATS IN IBIZA.

THIS IS WHY OUR WORK MUST CARRY ON... “I am nobody’s tomcat. I am the tomcat you couldn’t be bothered to neuter, I strayed, you thought it was “natural” to let me live this way. I wandered away from home, you thought I was having fun living the natural way. I fought, I got sick. People scared me away from their door when I came begging for food, covered in ﬁght wounds, sick from abscesses I stunk of male piss spraying over territory. Then I found a house that wanted to care because I looked so sick – but it was too late by then, I was dying. Help came too late and now I am dead. This didn’t need to be this way – you would have neutered me if you cared about me, I wouldn’t have fought, I wouldn’t have got sick, I would have stayed at home and gladly kept the mice away. Now I am gone and you still think I am out having fun the natural way. I am nobody’s tomcat.” RIP sweetness, you are out of pain now. Donations needed please for our neutering programme and the purchase of our own veterinary clinic. You can donate on our website: www.care4catsibiza.org or by cheque to Care 4 Cats, Brimar House, East Street, West Chiltington, RH20 2JY www.facebook.com/ibiza.care4cats Registered charity : 1106345 THE BIG ISSUE / p38 / September 5-11 2016

ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

#BachBelshazzar

WILLIAM WALTON

BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA

PLUS:

SONG TO THE SOUL | Stanford London Premiere

Conductor DAVID HILL

SUNDAY 30TH OCTOBER 2016 | 3pm

THE LARK ASCENDING | Vaughan Williams

Baritone MARK STONE

ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON

YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA, OP.34 (VARIATIONS AND FUGUE ON A THEME OF PURCELL) | Britten

TICKETS | £10–£49 (Children ages 6–15 £5) Transaction fees apply: £1.75 online, £2.75 over the phone 020 7960 4200 | southbankcentre.co.uk

Free Sterling silver earrings

pewterhooter designer jewellery

pewterhooter are so excited about their new range of 925 Sterling silver stud earrings made with sparkling crystal from SWAROVSKI® that they are giving away 3 pairs of Volcano crystal earrings each day during the month of September. Just email your name and UK address to sales@pewterhooter.com and pewterhooter will pick 3 at random each day. Offer limited to 1 free pair of earrings per email address. pewterhooter jewellery is for sale on Amazon in more than 40 SWAROVSKI® crystal colours.

Which one is your favourite?

THE BIG ISSUE / p39 / September 5-11 2016

ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

Are you the Special Person we are looking for?

Looking for love? You’re preaching to the choir — Join the Friends1st off-line Christian dating community, where everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Call: 0208 088 1910

To advertise here please call Jenny on 0207 907 6635

One in every 100 babies worldwide are born with heart disease Chain of Hope is a children’s cardiac charity, which runs an International Child Referral Programme. We provide vital treatment to children from countries where there is little or no access to cardiac care. We bring children to the UK for surgery and we are looking for Host Family volunteers to help care for the child and their guardian whilst they are in London. Do you have a spare room in your home to host a child and their guardian? Do you live within the M25? Are you passionate about helping others? If the answer to any of these is YES, get in touch today! Contact Hannah via hannah@chainofhope.org or 020 7351 1978 for more information. www.chainofhope.org • www.facebook.com/ChainofHopeUK Chain of Hope is a registered charity in the UK no. 1081384

Be labelled an expert. Complements your passion perfectly. Anyone can say they’re an expert in wines and spirits, Zon qbna X TPAQ koXebƄ [Xnbih you can prove it. Open yourself to a World of Knowledge. Visit wsetglobal.com to Ƅ h\ na] lb`an [iolm] ^il sioΥ

wsetglobal.com /wsetglobal @wsetglobal /wsetglobal

Top-quality creative writing courses at The Groucho Club in Soho, London’s wellknown literary venue, and at nearby premises, for anyone who wants to start or improve their writing. The Complete Creative Writing Course has a range of fiction-writing courses throughout the year to suit your individual needs, with beginners, intermediate and advanced levels, and weekend workshops. Our next courses start in October. All our tutors are experienced writers and teachers. Published former students include Dreda Say Mitchell, Clare Sambrook, and Naomi Wood.

www.writingcourses.org.uk THE BIG ISSUE / p40 / September 5-11 2016

ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

Adult learning in the heart of Westminster WAES is Westminster’s adult college, offering full-time and part-time study in the daytime, evenings and at weekends. We offer courses at locations across Westminster, and with so many subjects on offer from accounting to ﬂoristry, you are sure to ﬁnd a course you’ll love. Visit us online at www.waes.ac.uk, call 020 7297 7297 or drop in to one of our centres for more information.

Enrol now for September courses!

THE BIG ISSUE / p41 / September 5-11 2016

ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

The property-owning democracy is a lie. All the government cares about is creating more mortgage debt for its friends the bankers and selling more houses to push GDP ﬁgures up. The third of the population who need somewhere affordable to rent don’t matter at all. Britain needs more council houses. We are building them with a strong assets lock to prevent their being sold to speculators. Invest with us in the people’s revolution.

AEOBhousepeople.org.uk • Facebook: AEOBhousepeople 3 Windsor Terrace, Bristol BS8 4LW • Tel: 0117 926 5931

THE BIG ISSUE / p42 / September 5-11 2016

ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

RESEARCH VOLUNTEERS WANTED tĞ ĂƌĞ ƌƵŶŶŝŶŐ Ă ƐƚƵĚǇ ƚŽ ƚĞƐƚ ƚŚĞ ĞĨĨĞĐƚŝǀĞŶĞƐƐ ŽĨ Ă ŶĂůƚƌĞǆŽŶĞ ŝŵƉůĂŶƚ ǀĞƌƐƵƐ ŶĂůƚƌĞǆŽŶĞ ƚĂďůĞƚƐ ĨŽƌ ŬĞĞƉŝŶŐ ƉĞŽƉůĞ ŽĨĨ ŚĞƌŽŝŶ zŽƵ ŵĂǇ ďĞ ĞůŝŐŝďůĞ ŝĨ

zŽƵ ŚĂǀĞ ƌĞĐĞŶƚůǇ ĚĞƚŽǆĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ ŽƉŝŽŝĚƐ Žƌ ĂƌĞ ǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ƚŽǁĂƌĚƐ ĂŶ ŽƉŝŽŝĚ ĚĞƚŽǆ

zŽƵ ŚĂǀĞ ŶŽƚ ƵƐĞĚ ŽƉŝŽŝĚƐ ĨŽƌ Ăƚ ůĞĂƐƚ ƐĞǀĞŶ ĚĂǇƐ

zŽƵ ǁŽƵůĚ ůŝŬĞ ĂĚĚŝƚŝŽŶĂů ƐƵƉƉŽƌƚ ǁŝƚŚ ƌĞŵĂŝŶŝŶŐ ĨƌĞĞ ŽĨ ŚĞƌŽŝŶ

zŽƵ ůŝǀĞ ŝŶ >ŽŶĚŽŶ Žƌ ^ŽůŝŚƵůů

,Žǁ ůŽŶŐ ǁŝůů ŝƚ ƚĂŬĞ /Ĩ ǇŽƵ ǀŽůƵŶƚĞĞƌ ƚŽ ƚĂŬĞ ƉĂƌƚ ǇŽƵ ǁŝůů ƌĞĐĞŝǀĞ ĂŶ ŝŵƉůĂŶƚ ĂŶĚ ƚĂďůĞƚƐ ĨŽƌ ϭϮ ǁĞĞŬƐ zŽƵ ǁŝůů ŶĞĞĚ ƚŽ ĂƚƚĞŶĚ ŽƵƌ ĐůŝŶŝĐ ƚŚƌĞĞ ƚŝŵĞƐ Ă ǁĞĞŬ ĨŽƌ ϭϮ ǁĞĞŬƐ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞŶ ƚŚƌĞĞ ƚŝŵĞƐ ŽǀĞƌ Ă ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ Ϯϰ ǁĞĞŬƐ ĨŽƌ ĨŽůůŽǁ ƵƉ zŽƵ ǁŝůů ƌĞĐĞŝǀĞ ƵƉ ƚŽ άϰϬϬ ŽĨ ƐŚŽƉƉŝŶŐ ǀŽƵĐŚĞƌƐ ĨŽƌ ǇŽƵƌ ƚŝŵĞ If you would like to hear more about this study, please contact: Alison Peachey on 0203 228 1557 or Rob van der Waal on 07813 055 732 in London or Shabana Akhtar on 07985 882 165 in Solihull ZĞƐĞĂƌĐŚ ƚŚŝĐƐ ŽŵŵŝƚƚĞĞ ZĞĨĞƌĞŶĐĞ EƵŵďĞƌ% Z ϭϰ&>K&ϭϲϭϱ sĞƌƐŝŽŶ ϭ Ϭ ϭϲ Ϭဒ ϮϬϭϲ

RU W H Q

# q q

Ϯ ϯ ϰ Žƌ ϳ EŝŐŚƚ ^ĞůĨ 'ƵŝĚĞĚ ,Ƶƚ ƚŽ ,Ƶƚ dƌĞŬƐ ůƐŽ a ƵƐƚƌŝĂŶ ůƉƐ WǇƌĞŶĞĞƐ Θ WŝĐŽƐ ĚĞ ƵƌŽƉĂ WůƵƐ ŽƚŚĞƌ ƚƌĂŝů ǁĂůŬŝŶŐ ŚŽůŝĚĂǇƐ ŝŶĐůƵĚŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĂŵŝŶŽ ĚĞ ^ĂŶƟĂŐŽ

VVV BN D

R BN T

. 1q " q - q

THE BIG ISSUE / p43 / September 5-11 2016

$%7$ 1R :

COMPETITION FOUNDERS John Bird and Gordon Roddick Group executive chairman Nigel Kershaw Managing director Russell Blackman

WIN!

ALL ABOARD FOR TRAINSPOTTERS’ DELIGHT FULL STEAM AHEAD

EDITORIAL Editor Paul McNamee Deputy editor Vicky Carroll Senior reporter Adam Forrest Features editor Steven MacKenzie Social media editor Andrew Burns Web content manager Theo Hooper Books editor Jane Graham Television editor Adrian Lobb Film Edward Lawrenson Radio Robin Ince Music Malcolm Jack and David Fay Special correspondent Mark Hamill Business support manager Robert White PRODUCTION Art director Scott Maclean Designer Jim Ladbury Production editor Ross McKinnon Assistant production editor Rosanna Farrell Production journalist Sarah Reid Production co-ordinator Terry Cimini ADVERTISING 020 7907 6637 Advertising director Andrea Mason Display Brad Beaver Classiﬁed and Recruitment 020 7907 6635 Jenny Bryan & Imogen Williams Marketing and communications director Lara McCullagh THE BIG ISSUE FOUNDATION Chief executive

Stephen Robertson 020 7526 3458 Editorial

Second Floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW 0141 352 7260 editorial@bigissue.com Distribution / London: 020 7526 3200 Printed at William Gibbons. Published weekly by The Big Issue, 3rd Floor, 113-115 Fonthill Road, Finsbury Park, London, N4 3HH

PPA Cover of the Year 2015

PPA Scotland Cover of the Year 2015

The age of steam was an era of extraordinary change, which utterly transformed every aspect of British life – from trade and transportation to health and recreation. And in their own inimitable way, living the life and experiencing the blood, sweat, tears and enlightenment that came as the railways cut across Britain, much-loved TV historians Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn guide viewers through this remarkable period of history in six-part BBC Two series, Full Steam Ahead – Victorian Railways. The trio, who ﬁrst teamed up on The Victorian Farm documentary series, set off down the line on an old-fashioned locomotive, visiting different parts of the country and immersing themselves in the workings of the railways. They get their hands dirty, from driving the train to working in the station, manning the signal box and learning how to run every aspect of a 19th and early 20th century railway.

Send your answers with FULL STEAM AHEAD as the subject to competitions@bigissue.com or post to The Big Issue, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW. Include your name and address. Closing date is September 18. Include OPT OUT if you don’t want to receive updates from The Big Issue. We will not pass your details to any third party. For full T&Cs see bigissue.com

Out on DVD (Acorn DVD, £19.99), we have ﬁve sets of series one to be won. To enter, tell us: Presenters Ruth, Alex and Peter ﬁrst got together on a documentary about what period of farms?

Still time to win…

LIVERPOOL MUSIC DOCUMENTARY GET BACK ON DVD Enter at bigissue.com/mix/competitions THE BIG ISSUE / p44 / September 5-11 2016

GAMES & PUZZLES SUDOKU

SPOT THE BALL

A B C D

There is just one simple rule in sudoku: each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the numbers one to nine. This is a logic puzzle and you should not need to guess. The solution will be revealed next week.

ISSUE 1220 SOLUTION

F 1

To win The Book of Loud by Nick Harper, mark where you think the ball is, cut out and send to: Spot the Ball (1221), 2nd ﬂr, 43 Bath St, Glasgow, G2 1HW, by September 13. Include name, address, phone no. Enter by email: send grid position (eg A1) to competitions@bigissue.com. Issue 1219 winner: Pete Hewitt from Oldham.

(Last week’s Spot the Ball revealed: Ipswich v Watford, 1984)

PRIZE CROSSWORD QUICK CLUES

CRYPTIC CLUES

To win a Chambers Dictionary, send completed crosswords (either cryptic or quick) to: The Big Issue Crossword (1221), second ﬂoor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW by September 13. Include your name, address and phone number. Issue 1219 winner is Joel Hankinson from London.

Across 1. The result is a lob perhaps (6) 4. Dad goes back to see doctor with selfpossession (6) 9. Simple book has nothing on an old card game (7) 10. Reginald, that is, back at the Swiss mountain (5) 11. Insect form that Sal, Chris and Yankee discovered (9) 12. Born in the Pyrenees (3) 13. Draught excluder on a building site? (6,5) 18. Drink, it’s half a meal (3) 19. Excellent winning speed (5-4) 21. Child turned out to be Brian (5) 22. Annoyed when stung (7) 23. Despite having part sent, I rejected it all (6) 24. Naturalist in tropical Australia (6)

Down 1. Reverse one’s selection? (6) 2. Captain very quietly left winter sportsman (5) 3. Bishop is thus to act as superintendent (7) 5. Exert force on newspapers (5) 6. Caring about nothing ﬁrst? That’s natural (7) 7. Placed in a grave situation (6) 8. Idiot’s to make a mistake and have a wasted journey (5,6) 14. Put another coat on (7) 15. Ale, it repeatedly upset the lady (7) 16. High-class fur that can be put to some purpose (6) 17. One had crashed – like this? (4-2) 19. Infer what could be better (5) 20. Let candlemaker be decapitated (5)

Across 1. Most sagacious (6) 4. Scooped up with the tongue (6) 9. Clothing (archaic) (7) 10. Ravine (5) 11. Laxity (9) 12. Hair mousse (3) 13. Capsizing (11) 18. Coach (3) 19. Cricket ﬁelding position (6,3) 21. Faithfully (5) 22. Erudite (7) 23. Mythical monster (6) 24. Flat ring (6) Down 1. Cautiously (6) 2. Irish county (5) 3. Female carnivore (3-4) 5. Protection (5) 6. Model of excellence (7) 7. Profoundly (6) 8. Energetically (11) 14. Polish river (7) 15. Blissful state (7) 16. Calmed down (6) 17. Moroccan port (6) 19. Final authority (3-2) 20. Midday meal (5)

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Issue 1220 solution CRYPTIC: Across – 1 Capital; 5 Scrag; 8 Motto; 9 Moresco; 10 Bridging loan; 12 Advent; 14 Blades; 17 Here and there; 21 Elision; 22 Vista; 23 Egypt; 24 Seeking. Down – 1 Coma; 2 Peter; 3 Trodden; 4 Limpid; 5 Sprig; 6 Respond; 7 Goodness; 11 Cashmere; 13 Varsity; 15 Le Havre; 16 Adonis; 18 Atilt; 19 Rishi; 20 Bang. QUICK: Across – 1 Warship; 5 Comus; 8 Visit; 9 Dwindle; 10 Mythological; 12 Hearty; 14 Stalin; 17 Mysteriously; 21 Funchal; 22 Total; 23 Lilac; 24 Winched. Down – 1 Wavy; 2 Risky; 3 Hatchet; 4 Paddle; 5 Cling; 6 Medical; 7 Swelling; 11 Shameful; 13 Arsenal; 15 Taunton; 16 Billow; 18 Ethic; 19 Latch; 20 Fled.

THE BIG ISSUE / p45 / September 5-11 2016

Photos: Action Images

MY PITCH

June Fullerton, 59 OUTSIDE ICELAND, WESTBOURNE

“I liked the idea of being able to work your way out of trouble” FACTS ABOUT ME... MY BEST HOLIDAY Inverness in Scotland. I’d always wanted to go, and a few years ago I ﬁnally went. It was beautiful – as lovely as I’d imagined. MY FAVOURITE PLACE Bournemouth Pier. I have fond memories of spending six-week summers off school along the beach and around the pier. Fantastic.

ON MY PITCH… I’m outside Iceland, Poole St, Westbourne, from 9am until the early afternoon

’ve been a vendor for over four years now. I ﬁrst heard about it listening to John Bird on the TV or radio – I can’t remember which – and I liked the idea of working your way out of trouble. I was doing badly at the time. My husband had died a year earlier and I’d struggled to cope with everything on my own. I was unemployed, I let the bills go, I was in a lot of debt – a hell of a lot of debt. I was facing losing the house and really worried if I’d be able to keep a roof over my head, that was the worst thing. So I started selling the magazine in Westbourne. I really enjoyed it. Because I’d lived locally all of my life, a lot of my customers got to know me and seemed to warm to me. And of course it put some money in my pocket, as I tried

to deal with the debts and kept the electricity on in the house. Thanks to the staff at The Big Issue and some help from the local Citizens Advice Bureau, I managed naged to get a debt relief ord der, and slowly but surely I beegan to get on top of thinggs. I got a companion about a year ago – my dog Jack k. I’d never had a dog but we’ve got along great. He’s a Staffie-cross and a good-natured soul. I inherited him because a previous owner was mistreating him. Jack’s with me on my pitch all the time – even when it’s raining he’s as good as gold. One of my favourite things to do is walk Jack along the beach between Westbourne and Bournemouth in the

THE BIG ISSUE / p46 / September 5-11 2016

evenings. I like it when it’s quiet. But in summer, when it’s still light, it’s a very nice stroll. I have fond memories of growing up here and spending the summer on th the beach. I love Westbourne and Bournemouth – it’s quite a posh areaa but people are very friiendly. I recenttly completeed a level two door su upervision coursse at one of the hotels here, with the aim of working as a door supervisor. It’s just very tough ﬁnding work. In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away. I’m certainly very grateful to The Big Issue and all my customers for the support I’ve had. Interview: Adam Forrest Photos: Louise Jolley / Paul Underhill

WEAR JEANS, CHANGE LIVES SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE FUNDRAISING PACK TODAY JEANSFORGENES.ORG

1 in 25 children is born with a genetic disorder. Join Nicola Roberts and wear your jeans on Friday 23 September. By wearing your jeans and making a donation you will make a real difference to these children’s lives. Jeans for Genes ® and ™, © 2016 Genetic Disorders UK. Registered Charity Number 1141583.

#JEANSFORGENES