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A HAND UP NOT A HANDOUT

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Hello, my name is Noel.

Welcome to this week’s edition of e Big Issue. e Great British Bake Oﬀ is returning to our screens, so we’re looking at our long history as a nation of bread lovers. I’ve never made my own bread but I do love my toast in the morning and a cheese sandwich for lunch, so it’s certainly a staple in my diet. You can read the feature on page 18. en on page 22 the actor Ralf Little tells us why he had to take on Jeremy Hunt over the state of the health service. I’m lucky that I’m in good health but I go in for blood pressure checks and I’m so grateful for the service I get from the NHS. You can read my story on page 46.

INSIDE... 9 FINAL DEMAND In-work poverty and the council tax debt trap

15 PAUSE Fat. Not just a feminist issue, actually

Matt Sheehan Matt 24 DANIEL MAYS Britain’s most in-demand actor on playing the role of his life Vendor photo: Vendor

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

THE BIG ISSUE / p3 / August 27-September 2 2018 CORRESPONDENCE Write to: The Big Issue, Second Floor, 43 Bath St, Glasgow, G2 1HW Email: [email protected]

bigissue.com facebook.com/bigissueUK@bigissueuk @bigissue

the use of libraries is such a good COMMENT OF THE WEEK idea. Our local library has a cafe and computer centre, and is used quite a bit but I don’t think any library is truly safe. I do think new ideas need to be listened to, Unlockingpotentialforeveryone and introduced. Julie Parkes, Taunton, Somerset Iagreethatthechallengeswefacetoend Ihaveseriousconcernsabouthowwecan homelessnessarehugeandformeitstems support people who need it most when the backtotheclassroom.Ihatebeingin ableworldisstrugglingsomuch.Britain low-paidwork,itisespeciallyhardwhen has never really solved the disability @ChelseaClinton youhaveadisabilityasyoufeelyouhaveno employmentintheyearsIhavebeenan Really enjoyed waytomoveforward.Thiscanlastfor adult(I’m42yearsoldthisyear) talking with @BigIssue about decades.Youfeelyoucan’tbetheperson andtechnologywillcontinuetochange #ShePersistedAroundTheWorld who you know underneath your limitations oursocietyandhowoureconomyisrun. & life. I remember buying you potentially could be. ChristopherBurns,Torpoint @BigIssue while at @UniofOxford & am honored to be in the current issue Don’tbeaplonker –Women’sAuxiliaryAirForce. Got you covered featuring @BlacKkKlansman. AlbertGladstone Trotter was I lived in a village near to a Insuranceallowspeopleto thebrotherofGrandadinthe middle-agedmarriedcouple. provide for risks they could not series Only Fools and Horses. Hewasalocalbuilderandhis afordtomeetfromtheirown @juliehes Hejoinedtheseriesafter wifebelongedtotheWAAF. resources. Thus we insure our #TBItakeover attending his brother’s funeral. EveryweekIsawherinher homes against ﬁre, not because Meet Stephen outside UncleAlbertmovedinwithDel WAAFuniformcatchingabus we expect them to be burnt Stockbridge Costa, whose Boy and Rodney when he was togo on duty.So I do knowthat down but because few could motto is “Prepare to plan abandoned by Stan and Jean theWAAFexisted. notafordtomeetthecostof and plan to prepare.” whohewaslivingwith. Gillian Combes, Chichester reinstatingfromtheir Great advice for the @edfringe! At the end of Argyle Street, own resources. Grab a mag & say hello! London,isBrian,BigIssue Seeing the truth Terrorism insurance @BigIssue @BigIssueScots seller.Heistherewithhisdog MichaelHughes’article[The provides cover for another risk Misty,aJackRussell.Every Emperor’snewBrexit,August most people could not aford to timeIseeBrianheisfriendly 13-19]–wasthemostsaneI pay for from their own andpolite.ThisweekBrian haveeverreadonthesubject. resources. Mr McMahon was @michaelegan86 tellsmethatbeing60,anddue Please email a copy to all 600+ askedtopay£75.88ayear Reading the life tohisage,hemaygetaplace MPsastheyclearlyneedavery [Terrorism Insurance, August experiences of @IshbelHolmes inPimlico,subjecttopassing simple explanation of the 6-12]whichequatesto£1.52a in this week’s @BigIssue was aninterview. implications of Brexit; they week–lessthanthecostofhalf particularly harrowing. I’m glad DelBoydidnotquestionwhy still don’t understand it. apintofbeer.Isthisa she found unconditional love; UncleAlbertwashomelessand Maureen Panton, Malvern considerableexpense?Iwould and to be reminded of human puthimthroughaninterview. havethoughtnotfortherisk beings’ (and animals’) capacity Hetookhiminandlooked being covered. for resiliency is always inspiring. afterhim. Keith Billinghurst FCII APFS, Whatifyouhadalong-lost London UncleAlbertlivingonthe pacha_eivissa_espaniel street?Wouldyouthinkitright e magic of libraries toputhimthroughaninter- Ihadtowriteandsaythanksfor view, and then for someone to your article entitled ‘Libraries decideifhedeservedasafeplace giveuspower’[Editor,August tosleepatnight(rememberhe 6-12].Itwassoinspiring.I is60)?Orjustprovidesome- rememberasachildmytripsto wheresafeandwarm? thelibrary,andthepowerIfelt John Chapman, email beingabletochooseabookfor myself!Thewholeplacehada Sky’s the limit magicalauraaboutit. Because I grew up during the My own children had many pacha_eivissa_espaniel Interesting Second World War, I was very happyvisits.Ifeelsosadthat articleinthisweeks#bigissueabouta interested in the article ‘Taking libraries are closing down street dog named Lucy Flight’ [August 6-12]. But there throughlackofcouncilfunds. was no mention of the WAAF Yoursuggestionsofdiversifying

THE BIG ISSUE / p4 / August 27-September 2 2018 Start your story today

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he out now in paperback. THE EDITOR

With Susie and Fergie Stand up, shout loud

spent time at the International Network Of Street Papers conference last week. It’s the annual get together of a global Icollection of over 100 street papers in 34 countries. The INSP was established 24 years ago by The Big Issue and the majority of these member titles are modelled to a greater or lesser extent on The Big Issue. The conference is an opportunity to meet and share ideas. Some of the magazines are doing incredible things. I look to Mi Valedor, for example, a title started by a determined few right in the heart of the toughest part of Mexico City and I want to stand up and applaud. They are making a difference by doing, by offering those right at the bottom of that huge metropolis an opportunity to rise. JULIE – WE SAL There are any number of similar titles, all facing challenges that are both similar and wildly different. The best of the people behind these publications are indomitable, Corrie legend is a Big Issue heero determined to wrestle with tough problems and produce a magazine after she jumped in to give ouur or paper that helps deliver proper change. And money. It’s not often you get to sit amongst a big group of international vendors a Fringe sales boost journalists and editors and have time to talk. I was interested, given the situation Britain now finds itself in, to discover how others see us, Whenex-Corrie star Julie whether Liam Fox’s message of great trading opportunities was Hesmondhalgh spotted an advert in Thhe connecting the way we’re assured. Big Issue calling for volunteers to help What is Brexit, asked colleagues from Korea. And Taiwan. And out at Edinburgh Fringe, she got Japan. Well, we know that a lot of people are talking about it here, but straight on the phone to us. Julie, who back home nobody’s talking about it. They’re more focused on what is played much-loved Hayley Cropper on the happening with José at Old Trafford and the Klopp revolution at soap, was starring in TheGreatestPlayin Anfield. And Harry Potter. They’re the parts of the UK they are most the History of the World at the Traverse fascinated by. Theatre.Butdespitebeingrushedofher It’s not just that there was no great celebration of the new ties and feet, she wanted to help out during our At The Big opportunities – there was no talk about it. They were not alone. The Edinburgh oce’s busiest period of the yeaar,say , ying Issue oice in Edinburgh Australians were, understandably, much more focused on the ongoing she was delighted to be working with the “wonderful soap opera of their frontline politics. Big Issue, meeting vendors around the city”. The idea of glorious Britannia sailing out and being welcomed Staging a Big Issue social media takeover and rallying across the globe is, from their perspective at least, a fallacy. Unless her massive Twitter following, she called on festival-goers Britannia can score 20 goals a season and get on MatchOfTheDay. It is easy to get locked into the spinning wheel of our own situation. The polarisation caused by the Brexit vote dominates a huge volume of our thoughts. But the big clanging reality of the poverty of now needs to be faced and fixed. In-work poverty is the next tsunami rolling in. Getthescrewdriverout People grafting for all their worth to bring up their families on minimum wage can’t make it – even to meet household bills. Last week as Homebase DIY, with nearly a quarter hiring a Earlier this year pressure group End Child Poverty revealed over announced the closure of more tradesman every time instead of half the children in some areas of England are living stores a hot debate hit The attempting jobs themselves. And in poverty. Big Issue oice: can you wire with 43 per cent saying they didn’t If nothing else the INSP reinforced one core belief. This matters. a plug? With responses ranging know that the live brown cow eats Street papers like The Big Issue can make a tangible and measurable from “Of course I can!” to “Why the green and yellow grass from difference to the lives of the poorest. would I need to?”, a familiar the earth under a neutral blue sky, And as we’re independent in ownership and identity, we don’t whipping boy took a we took to social media to ask follow any agenda – except to be a voice to speak up for those without a hammering for the if you were more Do-It- voice, to agitate on their behalf and also to, you know, collapse of DIY Yourself or Don’t-It- be entertaining. culture: it’s down to Yourself. You are part of that with us. Together we shall carry on millennials. Turns the fight. out they’re just not that keen on Paul McNamee is editor of The Big Issue @pauldmcnamee [email protected]

THE BIG ISSUE / p6 / August 27-September 2 2018 BIG ISSUE Hotfoot IS GETTING DOWNS Garry’s tamed WITH THE the Thames With Marian FESTIVAL VIBE Summer’s not over and Intrepid Big Issue vendor Garry The Big Issue has yet another Buchan is notching up the miles on his festival partnership coming up, epic trek from Land’s End to John as we take centre stage at O’Groats. Already he has passed St The Downs Festival in Bristol Michael’s Mount and put his best foot on September 1. We teamed up forward along the Cornish coast via with the festival St Austell, Fowey to produce a very Harbour, Looe and special exclusive Plymouth. He programme headed inland via for the event, Barnstaple and past including a his home-turf in map, all the Bristol where his Big essential info for Issue colleagues festival-goers came out to support and features on him. Now Garry has LUTE YOU! headliners and passed through stars including Wiltshire, stopping of Noel Gallagher, at Newbury and tto “big up your friendly vendors by Paul Weller, Orbital and The Reading, and last takingt a picture and letting folk know Heavy. Look out for our vendors week he navigated wherew to find them”. She went out to on-site, say hello and pick up your the banks of the meetm vendors across the city, firing copy. thedownsbristol.com Thames up through thhem up with her enthusiasm and Buckinghamshire. ennergy. Among those she met were Next up on his epic Marian on his pitch at the Book trek – a challenging Feestival, larger-than-life vendor sisters WHAT’S HOT IN THE 1,650-mile voyage Feergie and Susie – who are saving their BIGISSUESHOP.COM – is a stretch of 260 earnings from sales of the magazine at miles on the the Fringe to go on a trip to Blackpool “Improving life, one fold at a Pennine Way. Garry –and a Floare, who was selling at time,” Origami Pulse CIC helps said: “The real Chharlotte Square. You’ve been enhance and empower the lives challenge begins in maagnificent Julie and we’ve loved of people who two to three weeks haaving you on board! have experience of with the climbs!” Raisingising mental or physical funds along the way for our charitable If you’d like to ‘be more Julie’, The Big Issue health diiculties arm The Big Issue Foundation, his tally is oces in Edinburgh and Glasgow are by teaching them over £3,000 and rising. We are following looking for volunteers. Email the ancient art his Instagram updates and admiring [email protected] for info. of origami. Their the scenic countryside he’s passing origami creations along the way, showing landmarks and are turned into camping spots. eco-friendly cards, and earnings You can follow him too: @garryswalk from their sale are used to fund workshops to reach more people. INISH Pack of three cards £11.99 1,400 MILE TO GO (He’s taking the path less ON BIGISSUE.COM travelled) THIS WEEK • Bee nice and save the world

• Puppet state: Brian Heenson says don’t mention the *uppets

• Chelsea Clinton wants politics LONDON to be more West Winng STSS ART GARRY IS HERE

ANALYSIS Working families and the growing debt crisis

Liam Geraghty investigates the dire consequences of missing a council tax bill

astweek,figuresfromtheChild liabilityorders,althoughonlyasmall,yet Lastweek,CitizensAdvicerevealedthe PovertyActionGrouprevealed significant,proportionendedupinthedock. scaleofthedebtcollectionproblemfortheir that even grafting for 40 hours a Atotalof4,817peopleweretakentocourt clients,withonepersoneverythreeminutes L weekonthenationallivingwage in2016/17–afigurethathasrisenby11per contactingthecharityaboutbailifissues. isnotenoughtoliftfamiliesoutofpoverty. centinfouryears,according to the Institute TheadviceservicefoundthatUKhouseholds Drowning in ‘living debt’ ranging from of Money Advisers. have fallen behind on essential bills to the utilitiestochildcaretorent,twofull-time And62werelockedupbymagistratesfor tune of £18.9bn, with council tax arrears working parents are still clocking of on a their failure to pay, with a maximum makingup£2.84bnofthattotal.Andwhen Friday and finding the cash in their pockets sentenceofthreemonths.Theaveragedebt bailifsareonthecasetherecanbearising is£49shorteveryweek. racked up by those dragged to court mental toll on top of the financial one. That’sabigdeficit,saysreportauthor was £2,213. “Familiesarelivinginfearofavisitfrom Professor Donald Hirsch: “Current thebailifs,andsmallmissedbillscan policies will force an increasing skyrocketthroughexcessiveenforcement numberoffamiliestoliveonless Where’s the justice? fees,” says Gillian Guy, chief executive of than half of what they need.” Growing numbers face jail Citizens Advice. over household bills Council tax is chief among these “Ourevidenceshowsaggressivetactics debts.Lastyear,TheBigIssue by bailifs cause huge distress investigatedhowmissedpayments and can even push people arekickingofaspiralofmounting A total of furtherintodebt.Familiesare debtsthatclogupthecourtsand can going without essentials like easily end in homelessness. 4,817 people food or electricity to meet It startsoutsimplyenough;fail were taken their payments.” topayontimeandyou’llreceivea In 2016 the Ollerenshaw reminder two weeks later. That’s to court Report recommended the in 2016/17 whenthingsrampup.Ifyoucan’t liabilityordertobesidelinedin (That’s a rise of 11 findthecashwithinsevendaysthen per cent in four years, favour of a voluntary thecouncilcanapplyforaliability according to the agreement with the council. It order, paving the way for court Institute of was claimed this would give summons and bailif visits. The price of staying out of Money Advisers) residents the “time, Payingcourtcostsandbailiffeeswilladd prison is on the rise. David information and capacity to tothedebtforthosewhocan’tpay,whilethe Cameron’s council tax freeze, 62 people make an informed decision”. actual cost of summonsing to court can introduced in 2010, was scrapped were But there is no sign of the easilyriseupto£100despiteanactualcost last year, with cash-strapped government scrapping it in of£3.Alltheseoutgoingscankeep a resident councilsoferedtheoptiontoraise locked up favour of a softer approach. miredinthecycleofpoverty. chargesbyuptothreepercent. by magistrates They responded to the As debtcharityStepChange’ssenior Naturallylocalauthoritiesleapt for their failure recommendations in January public policy advocate Robbie de Santos atthechance,with108councils to pay, with this year, claiming the order | concludesinhisreport:“Manycouncils’ opting to increase fees by 2.95 per a maximum “protects the legal interests of practice in collecting council tax arrears cent or more while 64 chose to sentence of residents” even though they leaves a lot to be desired. A lack of focus on chargethemaximum2.99percent. three months “acknowledged the order adds affordable,sustainablerepaymentfor Thehelpinghandtocoverthose costs to debts”. strugglingresidentsispushing people into costs has also been reformed in The average Access to fair credit is key deeper financial diculty.” recent years, with council tax debt racked up and could transform the way De Santos also called for central benefit replaced in 2013 by local by those taken workingpeoplecopewitha governmenttostepinandoferprotection authority-run council tax to court was cost-of-living crisis. The Big from enforcement for people who are trying reduction schemes. £2,213 Issuehaslongbangedthedrum toliftthemselvesoutofswellingdebts. Andjustonemonthwhenthe forchangestotheindustry, Butifthemoneyowedcontinuesto fundsdon’tstretchfarenoughcan withfounderLordJohnBird’s skyrocketthenitcaneasilyleadtothestreets bring the bailiffs knocking. A House of CreditworthinessAssessmentBilloneofthe through the loss of a home or even a spell Commons Treasury committee heard in ideasthatcouldhelp people keep their heads in prison. July that local authorities passed £2.3m of above water. Lastyear,magistrates’courtsinEngland debtcasestobailifs–apracticethatwas and Wales granted 3.5 million council tax deemed “worst in class” by ministers. @Lazergun_Nun

THE BIG ISSUE / p9 / August 27-September 2 2018 STREET ART You can buy prints of some artworks featured in Street Art through bigissueshop.com RESOURCES 1 Atleasthalfoftheproﬁt BY ROBYN FORMAN from each sale goes “My work is about healing, forgiveness and reconciliation,” says Robyn, who to the artist. is in her late 50s and lives in Brighton. “I come from the school of hard knocks. A recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis on top of my bipolar is diicult. However art has rescued me – the artistic process gives me relief from the diiculties of managing my health issues.”

Street Art is created by people who are marginalised by issues like homelessness, disability and mental health conditions. Contact [email protected] to see your art here.

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With our unique Sugar Gluten Lactose Suitable for Free Free Free vegetarians blend of 13 Swiss herbs & vegans ricola.com JOHN BIRD When it comes to tackling homelessness, we need to start a revolution

he revolution beckons. But it may not in a house. But the demons that have eaten cannot simply be on this treadmill of doing look like the French, Russian or awayattheirself-resolvewillmeanthatthey more of the same – of going through the TIndustrial revolutions. Rather, it may willcontinuetobestuckoutsideofsocietyin increasingly silly churn of pilot after pilot be a revolution of thought; an incredible leap a kind of limbo of dependency. without bringing the demonstrated changes in our understanding which will allow us to The best way of sorting out a troubled into the mainstream. I hazard a guess that start solving problems across different person who has fallen into homelessness is 70 per cent of government departments’ societies and countries. to build up their ability to move away from time and budgets are spent on the problems Such a revolution may allow us to use dependency. This requires working on their thrown up by poverty – the failures in health, childhood education as a tool for bettering mental wellbeing, building up their sense of education and justice – so you could say it’s the lives of all children – without leaving 37 self-worth, buying into their creativity, and not a problem of money. Because billions are per cent behind as we currently do. A finding their best qualities – which are often being spent on not even treading water; revolution in thinking may enable us to buried below the presentation of their needs. because these problems are getting worse. tackle drug problems, drunkenness, obesity None of this is new and rocket science. I Of course, ministers from all and crime – as well as the problem of the have seen projects which are doing just that. governments over the last 20 years have put deep-seated need of expressing ourselves The problem is that it is in some small, their faith in innovations such as opening through competitive purchasing: the public purse for use by private consumerism. businesses – Virgin’s dependency on Perhaps this revolution in thought the public health purse, and G4S’s will enable governments and political dependency on the public justice leaders to realise that if the box is not purse are two cases in point. This is thinking correctly then ‘thinking seen, and has been written about over outside the box’ is simply another the years, as ‘revolutionary’. But it’s demonstration of how clever human probably not as revolutionary as we beings are and how inventive they can would like. be in all circumstances. We have also been led to believe To change the thinking inside the that the revolution may come in the box there must be a major shift in the digital world by connecting everyone way government departments to everything which will spread function, how they allocate their prosperity around. But so far it has budgets, and how they co-ordinate shown enormous signs of what the across departments. If that hap- Held to Branson: Public cash in private hands is the wrong kind of revolution late Ian Dury sang about in his song, pened, any problem – whether it be There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever homelessness, crime or child abuse – would perfectly formed initiative. And until the Bar-stewards (I paraphrase). We have seen not be seen in an isolated way. Whereas ‘box’ embraces this ‘out-of-the-box thinking’ inordinate numbers of inspiring today, we see issues and deal with issues as and makes it standard ‘inside-the-box demonstrations of the power of humans to distinct and isolated; we don’t see issues in thinking’ then it’s just another bit of think and invent – yet we have failed to health for instance, as reflecting and being cleverness; another exception to the rule. improve the lot of society’s most vulnerable. part of the failures in other areas like crime I sat with a now former minister last year But we live in this mucky world. Where and education. and told him that we had to embrace a incredible innovation and wealth can live in The melding of governmental activity holistic approach to the problems our society the same world where poor or no schooling into a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary faces. He protested loudly and aggressively and homelessness is the norm. Where response to a problem is still in its infancy; that they were doing just that in his children go to school undernourished so that but hey, we may still have this leap in department. He then proceeded to itemise they have no hope of having their brains understanding which would allow us to different projects, pilots and other nourished by knowledge. And that child will dismantle a problem from all angles. perfectly formed initiatives. I said, “So what’s be well prepared to fail and drop-out and to I have rarely met a homeless person the problem then?” And he looked become the homeless of tomorrow. whose sole problem was that they didn’t have sheepishly and said, “We can’t scale it up So where does the revolution come from? anywhere to live – it is usually just the most and take it mainstream.” I know where it will come from: first we need obvious sign of some other crisis. When you So, it was a system. And the minister was to recognise that we need a revolution. And delve deeper you find educational under- part of that system: you have to trial these that all the stopgaps and clever footwork and achievement, an insecure or dicult family pilots and create these initiatives. But you pilots and best practices are an avoidance of life, drink or drug problems; and of course, know damn well that they will never be taken getting the revolution going. the great equaliser – mental health problems. into the mainstream. Hence the need, Yet, so often, the response to homelessness presumably, to start another bloody pilot, John Bird is the founder and Editor in Chief is to give people a bed for the night, followed project, or initiative. of The Big Issue. @johnbirdswords

Photo: Mike Kemp/InPhoto: Mike Pictures via Getty Images by a room for themselves, followed by a ﬂat But the revolution beckons, because we [email protected]

THE BIG ISSUE / p13 / August 27-September 2 2018

PAUSE Illustration: Mitch Blunt Illustration:

MIKE THOMPSON How to have your fill of fat

arlier this summer, possibility of exploiting an energy and nappies, was reported to explainswhywhenfatmanifests researchersfromthe source beyond the moment of stretch the length of two football itself as an oversized belly or EUniversity of New South immediate contact with an pitches, taking workmen armed impracticalblockageofa WalesandEgeUniversityin energy source. Fat presumed the with shovels and high-powered sewerpipewesitupandtake Turkey presented ﬁndings from future. Fat presumed life. jets three weeks of around-the- notice. Perhaps this is simply their studies into the life-cycle of Fat is profoundly important, clock effort to extract. What is a misunderstood material carbon. Recreating the process butassocialcritic Susie fat if its behaviour becomes expressingitself.Seeingasewer through which carbon forms in Orbach famously so unpredictable, fatberg up close, what catches the theoutflowsofstars,theteam remarked, fat overtaking not attentionisnotarancidhulkof revealed that interstellar space is today is not so only our bodies solidified grease, but the awashwithspacegrease,afine much a descrip- but our sewage surprising evolutions of this mist of grease-like molecules tion of size but a systems? Do we substance, whether forming a sweeping through the solar moral category truly understand spongy mattress atop the water, a systemonthestreamofsolar tainted with this life-enabling limestone-like material that wind, which consists of up to criticism and substance, or do breaksapartinthehands,ora halfthecarbonavailablein contempt. In we require a fresh vibrant ecology colonised by thegalaxy.Calculatingthe 2005 it was perspective? unimaginable quantities of amount of carbon in interstellar calculated that For decades, worms, flies and bacteria spaceinchesuscloserto theglobalhuman fat, notably feastingonitsrichnutrition.A understanding the origin of biomass had saturated fat, has substance transformed. A planetarysystemsandlifeitself. reached 287 Mike Thompson is the been demonised substance reborn. At thecentreoflife’sbiggest million metric creative brains behind 3 as the antithesis Opinion goes that at one story? Fat. That oily substance tons,15million Days of Fat, anart- of a healthy miraculous moment in time, a science event at we love to hate, yet a material metric tonnes of lifestyle, culpable cluster of fatty acids combined, King’sCollegeLondon’s we share the most intimate of this caused by ArcadeatBush for maladies trapping inside a minuscule drop relationships with. Perhaps the an overweight House, October 10-12. such as obesity, of water, and most importantly a iconicsubstanceofourtime, globalpopulation. kcl.ac.uk/cultural/-/ heart disease strand of DNA, to form a rudi- fat relatestolife,health, Last November, projects/3-days-of-fat. and diabetes. mentary cell – the container for energy, beauty, ecology and the 130-tonne aspx Newer research life.Sonexttimeyouthrowthe consumption.Fatperformsa ‘Monster of leans toward oilfromyourpandownthedrain unique and vital function as an Whitechapel’ made headlines as debunking this, with sugar (notadvised,bytheway)sparea energy reserve, stored within the itwaswrestledfromthebowels replacing fat as public enemy thoughtforfat,howitmadeyou, body for times of scarcity. Its ofeastLondon.Thisfatberg,a number one. Still, mud (or in this meandallotherlivingorganisms very existence enables the congealed mass of fat, wet wipes case fat) sticks, which perhaps in the universe possible.

THE BIG ISSUE / p15 / August 27-September 2 2018 IN 1997 Josh THE YEAR JOSH GROBAN TURNS 16… Groban Tony Blair leads Labour to its biggest ever All-American singer and actor election win / Princess Diana dies in a car crash in Paris / Russian carmaker Lada ends imports to the UK after 23 years LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF

sIlookbacknow,Ijustcan’tbelievehowmanystars Bothmyparentswereverymusical,butneitherofthem werealigningformewhenIwas16.IkindofknewI went into music professionally. Mymumwasanartteacher.She couldsing,butittookmentorsandteacherstotellme‘I becameafull-timemumwhenmybrotherandIwereborn,but A thinkyoucandothis’toputmeoutthere.Itwasreallyat continuedtoloveandfollowart.Mydadwasajazztrumpetplayer, 16 that that started to happen. A producer named David Foster was buthismumsaidtohim,‘That’snotawaytomakealiving’.Fair lookingforasingerforaneventandhesaidtoavoiceteacherIwas point,buthewasreallygood.Healsohasabrilliantbusinessmind, workingwith,‘Whohaveyougotwho’syoungandcansingasong whichistheonethingthathedidnotpassdowntome,sohewent from Phantomofthe Opera?’Irecordedatapeandhesaid‘OK’.It into that. My parents made sure that my brother and I both had an changedmylife. exposure to an arts education. That’s why I’m such a proponent of EverytimeI’vebeenabletoworkwithanartistthathas arts educationinschools–becauseitwasoursafehaven. achieved legend status, the common denominator is that they I was 16 in the Nineties. Baggyclotheswerein.IronicT-shirts never stopped striving to learn more and get better. You see a weresuperin.Iwaswearingconcerttees,likeNirvana,PearlJam. lotofpeoplewhogofrombeingnobodytobeing a global star in five But honestly, I becameoneofthoseweirdtheatrekids.Ihadthis minutes.It’sreallyhardtoknowhowtodeal outfitthatIreallyliked,andeverydayIsaid withit.Ithinkthatoneofthethingsthat tomyself,‘Surelytheywon’trememberI keptmeonthestraightandnarrowwasthat wore this yesterday’. I look back at myself thepeoplethatIreallylookeduptogrowing andI’mlike,‘Josh,you’rewearingthesame up–thepeoplewhohadbeendoingthisfor damnthingineveryphotograph’.Ihadno 40or50yearslikePaulSimon,NeilYoung, fashion sense. Here’s my psychopath TonyBennett–arepeoplewhojustnever uniformfrommyfinaltwoyearsofhigh stop trying to get better. They always find school:steel-toedDocMartenboots,weird ways to scare themselves. khakisandaturtleneck.Itwasnotpretty. I’mgladIcan’tgobackintimeand It wasn’t until I got signed, at 18, that I tellthat16-year-oldkidthatyou’regoing realisedwhatastylistcoulddo. tosingwithlegendslikeAretha Iwasatanartshighschool,sothe Franklin. Iwouldhavegonefrombeinga goodnewswasthatIwassurrounded shyandhumblekidtobeingabsolutely by other students who were kind of intolerable. At 37, 38, sure you can have a quirky anddidn’tfeelliketheyfittedin.At bitofego–you’veearnedit.Butat16,you anotherschoolIwouldhavebeenreally justgottakeepthatheaddownanddon’tpay pickedon,butattheschoolIwasatIfeltlike attentiontothenoise. we were all weirdos together. Theatre is so I was still really insecure at 16, social,it’snaturalthatyoubecomefriends becausetherewassomuchcomingat withpeopleandyoustarttodatealittle.So, me. Ijustdidn’tknowwhichendwasup. at16,Igotmyfirstgirlfriend.Itwasn’talong TherewasalotofstressaboutwhetherIwas relationshipbutitwasarelationship. performing well enough for the people The datingadviceIwouldgivemy around me. I put every bit of emphasis on 16-year-oldselfwouldbe–gowiththe whetherornotIwasdoingwellforother electric face razor, not the Gillette blade people. I wasn’t putting enough on enjoying at that age. I would say, cut your hair every it, and appreciating it. So, I’d say to that kid, now and then. There is such a thing as too ‘Yes,you’vegottoworkhardbuttrytosmell wild.Andifyougotabigdatenight,getthat therosesalittlebit.’ second sweater, man. I’dalsogobackandtellthatkidthere I’ve always been rule-abiding. Anyof aregoingtobetimesthatyou’regoing myfriendscouldbreakalawandgetaway tohavetoworkreally,reallyhardwhen withit.IfIdoit,I’malwaystheonewhogets nooneislooking.You’regoingtohaveto caught.Iwassomuchofacontrolfreak relyonyourownself-confidenceandnoton when I was 16 that I was scared to do any- external validation. With anyone who has thing. Ididn’treallyallowmyselftoget acareerthatgoesbeyond15,20years,you’re caughtupindrinking,drugsandthingslike alwaysgoingtohavetimeswhenyoufeel From top: Celebrating Stephen Sondheim’s 75th birthday at the that.Iwasjustsofocusedonthework.When likeyou’rethehotthingandtimeswhenyou Hollywood Bowl with his parents; at the Mandela Day celebration you’re a singer, your instrument is inside don’t.So,I’dtellthatkidtobeprepared.Get concert with Aretha Franklin in New Yorkin 2009; with his best you,soanythingyouputinyourbody,itwill ahobbyandgetapet.Mydogis14.He’sa friend, Sweeney Todd – a demon pal haveanefectonhowyousound.Thrown soft-coated wheaten terrier. He’s been on four tours with me and intoaparty-filledbusiness,I’mactuallyproudof16-year-oldmefor hasbeenmyabsolutebestfriend. lookingtothebiggergoal.Andfornotindulginginthingsthatwould Mydreamgrowingupwastodotheatre.I’dlockmyselfin have made me feel cooler in the moment, but probably would have myroomandsingSondheimandAndrewLloydWebber.ThenIgot ledmedownadarkerpath. signedasateenagertothisrecorddealthatchangedmylife.But IfIcouldgobackintimetomy16-year-oldself,Iwould alwaysinthebackofmyheadIwasthinking,Ijustlovethetheatrical warneveryman,womanandchildin1998aboutDonald world.Inthelasttwoyears,IgottobetheleadinaTony-nominated Trump.IwouldmakesurethateveryonehadaDonaldTrumpsafety show.AndIgottohosttheTonyslastyear.Igottostanduponstage preparation kit. I’d pack a backpack at 16, preparing myself for 2017, andtelljokestoAndrewLloydWebber.So,it’sbeenaprettyincredible, to just go to the woods for a few years. full-circlepathbacktomyoriginaldream.I’dtell16-year-oldme thattherewillbeforksintheroad,butwhenyoudothingsbasedon Josh Groban’s album Bridges is out on September 21. He stars in new yourgut–andtakeariskbecauseofpassion–youneverknowhow Netflix series The Good Cop launching this month and plays live dates in thingswillcomebackaround.Andmaybeitwouldn’thavehappened London and Manchester in December. joshgroban.com

Photos: Brian Bowen-Smith; Mathew Imaging/FilmMagic;Photos: Brian Bowen-Smith; Michael Loccisano/Getty Photo/Shutterstock and Startraks Images if you’d just been stubborn and stuck to the path you had decided. Interview: Laura Kelly @laurakaykelly

THE BIG ISSUE / p17 / August 27-September 2 2018 THE BIG ISSUE / p18 / August 27-September 2 2018 Bake it til you make it Since a big white tent and some cheeky pastry puns captured the imagination of TV viewers, artisan bakeries have been springing up at an astonishing rate. Hannah Westwater looks at an industry on the rise

Nestled under railway arches in Hackney, E5 photographs of fresh bread, cakes and pastries out of Bakehouse is an unlikely success story. Its focus in the glare of the TV behind them. Viewers are counter is stacked with loaves bearing getting their first taste of high-quality baked goods mysteriously delicious, earthy names: Hackney through the show then want to seek them out. Wild, Wholemeal Miche, Gilchester Bun, Walnut Supermarkets report a huge spike in sales of home Rugbrød. E5 founder Ben MacKinnon ditched baking goods in the run up to each Bake O season. his desk job in sustainability in 2010, went John Lewis announced that the demand for kitchen exploring and had an epiphany after “stumbling equipment and cookbooks skyrocket as much as on a bag of flour and a packet of yeast whilst 50 per cent. staying in the Alpujarras, Andalucia”. Now, the Charles Banks, co-founder of culinary trend Bakehouse hosts bread-making classes, runs a experts The Food People, got it right when he satellite project for female refugees and has predicted that in 2018, bread, with a luxurious hosted a masterclass with Paul Hollywood. edge, would be king. "It’s all about those that are “The objective to make good bread stems from this crafted, have heritage foundation of trying to do it in as sustainable a way and time put in to as possible – respect for the environment and respect them. It’s ancient for the people making it,” MacKinnon says. E5’s grains and sourdoughs produce is organic and locally sourced, and real care and artisan pastas,” is kneaded into their dough. The Bakehouse also mills he raved. its own flour, producing bread which is “far more Fiona McSwein, nutritious, tastier, better for the farmer financially, chief customer ocer better for the environment, and allows bakers to be at Simply Business, much more hands-on with our products”. has recorded the When MacKinnon opened for business in 2011, Bake O impact into E5 was the only artisan bakery in the area; now it’s start-ups. one of eight. Make no mistake: a generation of “We have flour-dusted home bakers have changed the way we witnessed a significant think about bread. rise in independent Independent bakeries are blooming across the bakeries across the country, a restorative yeast that the sagging high UK in recent Make mine a Walnut Rugbrød: E5 streets knead, sorry, need. years,” she says. “As Research by Simply Business in 2017 showed that customers turn away fromsupermarketbehemoths the number of independent bakeries opening in favour of artisanal products from local producers, increased by a showstopping 1,500 per cent between there has a been an uplift in savvy entrepreneurs 2012-2016, then a further 20 per cent last year. using their kitchen skills to meet these changing This is a pattern seen across the UK. The Great consumer needs. British Bake O is a key part of that climb. The appetite “The Great British Bake O has slowly but surely for the artisan has grown in tandem with the emerged to become a national institution,” she adds. show’s ubiquity. “It reminds viewers of the variety and versatility of Bake O’s impact has been increasingly clear. For breads, cakes and biscuits, the personality, talent and an hour each week, social media overflows with graft of the bakers behind them and highlights the

THE BIG ISSUE / p19 / August 27-September 2 2018 poorer quality of mass-produced treats. adults like MacKinnon who grew tired of corporate careers. Bakeries seem to be a recipe for success for the “They’ve seen how that world operates and are ready to nation’s start-ups.” strike of on their own into something that allows them a The collective nature of shared experience that Bake O little more creativity,” he says. promotes has fired another key element. This growing Independent business in general is growing, with data breadbasket of independent bakeries is populated by people released by the British Independent Retailers Association with a passion for making a positive diference in communities showing that standalone shops are popping up at an alongside their desire to make nice bread. increasing rate, while national chains continue to sufer and “We’re at quite a big juncture,” MacKinnon says. “We downsize (Greggs being one of the only high street exceptions either give way and become ever more spoon-fed by dogma – see facing page). In the past month, retailers including that informs us of our choices, or we take matters into our Homebase and House of Fraser have announced dozens of own hands. Bread really symbolises that. It’s a metaphor for closures across the UK. Consumer experts Which? say the where we are.” high street could be saved if it becomes a “social hub” in the A New Economics Foundation study found that local future. This, combined with the customers seeking out suppliers of products like bread re-spend 76 per cent of their experiential, community-driven businesses, means income locally, external suppliers only 36 per cent. independent bakeries are key. Eyal Schwartz, E5’s head baker, was a neuroscientist But is that independent spirit enough? A question remains before switching brain power for flour power. Many of the over cost. For example, E5’s home-milled flour costs nearly country’s independent bakeries were founded by young four times that used by large companies. New bakeries are Sticky Fingers It’s crunch time for the Great British Bake Off – and the sums are adding up big time for Channel 4

These days we mark the end of summer by returning to the £5m for sponsorship rights for the upcoming series. All this adds up most famous tent in the land. The Great British Bake Of is to a tidy windfall for C4 to plough back into programme-making (or one of the key events in the television calendar – before The use as a down payment for the next three series of Bake O when the X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing take us through to the contract runs out late next year). Doctor Who Christmas special. However, will it be a case of that diicult second series for the Last year, GBBO faced its own technical challenge. Moving to cookie crew? When it comes to the biscuits and giggles, episode one Channel 4, who paid Love Productions a whopping £75m for the of the new series remains wonderfully good-natured. Very jolly. But show, and replacing beloved duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins while the contestants are taking high stakes kitchen gambles, are the with Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding, and national treasure Mary presenters playing it too safe? Berry with Prue Leith, could have removed some of the show’s Some of the naughtiness, the innuendo, the wicked wordplay that homespun charm. Toksvig excels at (picking up the baton from Mel and Sue) is missing Yet the final was watched by 10.4 million, despite Leith’s from the first serving. And Noel’s o-kilter, oddball observations are Twitter blunder naming Sophie Faldo as the winner hours before also in short supply. transmission. Down on the BBC audience maybe, but the second This heaps pressure on the contestants to do the heavy lifting. At highest viewing figures in Channel 4’s 35-year history (behind A first glance, Love Productions have again found bakers with a broad Woman Of Substance in 1985). cross-section of personalities, life experiences and backgrounds. A Although Leith also went delightfully o-message at the self-styled Bollywood Baker, a French breadmaker who first fired a programme’s launch, suggesting fans record the show so they could loaf at age three, the cheery cream of Bristolian baking, a chatterbox skip the ads, access to key consumer audiences – Bake O had the nuclear scientist and a Sheield DJ – the ambitious, aable and highest ratings among 16 to 34-year-olds on any channel last year – argumentative baking side by side. has also driven advertising revenue through the roof. The 30-second If the presenters can add a few more cherries on the top, Bake slots were reportedly selling at double the £100,000 primetime O will once again warm our hearts and fill Channel 4’s coers with average. So, with 16 minutes and 42 seconds of ads per episode, the dough deep into autumn. series will have netted C4 tens of millions. Just how tasty is the series for advertisers? The proof of the pudding came when Amazon paid Words: Adrian Lobb @adey70

THE BIG ISSUE / p20 / August 27-September 2 2018 becoming more widely available and producing high-quality, healthier goods – this is not mass market. Posh bread’s a lot of TheNationalLivingWage(NLW)fallsshortof providing a basic income for working families, dough, but greggs austerity continues to push people into poverty and demandforfoodbanksisatarecordhigh.AChild PovertyActionGroupstudyrevealedthat,on has a roll too average,asingleparentworkingfulltimefortheNLW earns£74lessthanwouldbenecessarytoprovidea Against the backdrop of the Second World War, an empire was basic,no-frillslifestyletotheirchildren.Insupport slowly being built – out of eggs and yeast. ofthis,arecentreportbytheJosephRowntree John Gregg set out on his pushbike in Newcastle in 1939 to deliver Foundation found that low-income families are his fresh ingredients to local families. His enterprise survived the conflict significantly worse of now than they were 10 years and rationing, flourishing enough to allow him to open his own store in ago. Four-pound loaves are not an option for those 1951, Greggs of Gosforth, which still stands today. living on the breadline. From there, the rise to a baked-good behemoth has reshaped the ThisApril,breadsaleswereontheupforthefirst high street and left many bakers fighting for the crumbs from the table. time in three years after slumping under the The journey from that one store up to the 1,900-plus on the popularity of carb-free and gluten-free diet trends. streets of the UK began in earnest with John’s sons Ian and Colin, With poor families growing poorer, some could be who aggressively expanded by buying bakery chains in Scotland, relyingmoreonfillingfoodslikebread.It’salsoworth noting that the additives in cheap loaves derided by Manchester, Yorkshire and more in the 1960s. foodies keep the bread edible for longer. The tactic worked – there’s now a Greggs for every 34,500 people in JaneBeedle,afinalistfromBake O’s seventh the UK and it provides a job for 22,000 people. series,isoneoftheex-contestantswhogivesBake And the sausage roll – their, erm, bread and butter – is the most WithALegendclasses,allowingamateursthechance popular lunchtime snack across the country, with five gobbled up every toshareacounterwiththebakerswhoinspiredthem. second and a staggering 145 million sold every year. Shebelievesbreadbringspeopletogether:“Evenif That’s not just in the north – you can even grab a pasty on peoplearen’tnecessarilybakingit,theyreally The Strand nowadays. appreciate good bread. Most people aren’t going to But the northern ties remain strong, and that inspired student news be making their own sourdough. But Bake O has site The Tab to use the firm as a measure of northernness last year. encouragedpeopletobuybetterbread–ifnotallthe Their data assessed the number of people per Greggs store across the timethencertainlywhentheywanttospoil country and re-sited Hadrian’s Wall based on whether there was more themselves a bit. “Itreallydepends or less than 25,000 people for each one. Manchester led the way with whichendofthesocio- just 10,500 people per Greggs while Birmingham scraped through on economic spectrum 24,500. That meant northernness was redefined with a new wall sitting youcomefrom,because diagonally from Lincoln to just north of Gloucester. As for the top people at the lower end population per bakery? It was London at 92,000. arenotgoingtobeable It’s not just the city centres that are filling up with Greggs – in 2013 to afford to buy they launched a frozen range and the first of many drive-through stores sourdough,” she adds. popped up in Salford four years later, quickly spreading across the UK. “These artisan breads When John Gregg first wheeled out his pushbike, the idea that his are not cheap. But on tiny food business could grow into a mammoth public company posting the whole, I think the £81.8m profits they reported last year would have been pie in the peoplenowknowwhat asourdoughis,whereas sky. That was a rise of two per cent while sales were up seven per cent five years ago that to £960m. wouldn’t have been In fact, it seems only Mother Nature can stand in the way of the Fired up: Jane Beedle knows her sourdough the case.” pasty-propelled empire – the company blamed the wintry weather Back in the E5 Bakehouse, MacKinnon brought by the Beast from the East for their weak performance in the acknowledges that economic circumstances can put first quarter of this year, taking a 15 per cent bite limitations on consumers. “We try to counter that by out of their share price in May. selling half-price loaves the next day or smaller ones for a pound.” He emphasises that the £4 charged for Words: Liam Geraghty their Hackney Wild or Wholemeal Miche covers @Lazergun_Nun good wages and perks for staf, the higher cost of sustainable energy, and compensates farmers well for the high-quality wheat. For the booming artisanal bakery business, micro-business also means micro-margins.

The Great British Bake O returns on August 28, Channel 4 e5bakehouse.com bakewithalegend.com @hannahjtw

THE BIG ISSUE / p21 / August 27-September 2 2018 ‘Jeremy Hunt challenged me to prove him wrong. So I did’ k c o r er e t t hut hu h /S / e/Se tl tl h e h M t P

THE BIG ISSUE / p22 / August 27-September 2 2018 Ralf Little found fame as dogsbody Antony in e Royle Family. He’d dropped out of medical school to take that role – and last year lashed out at the government over the state of the NHS. Jeremy Hunt bit back but Little had veriﬁed facts at his ﬁngertips and Twitter was gripped

ybrotherisajuniordoctorandIstartedmedicalschool sometimes.SometimesIwonderifIshouldjustdeletemyaccount, M myself–IdroppedoutafterafewweekstodoThe Royle andtherehavebeentimeswhereIlookbackatthingsI’vetweeted Family.I’vealwayshadaneyeonthatworld. in the past and realise I don’t stand by them now. I think I’ve surely Iwatched[formerHealthSecretary]JeremyHuntspinthejunior gotaresponsibilitytosaysomethinggiveneverythingthat’s doctors’strike–tellinganuntruestorytopeoplewhodon’thave goingonintheworld:theriseofproto-fascism,andtheawful timetosiftthroughallthebullshittogettothefacts.It’snotthat things people say, for example, about homeless people. I’ve got a peoplearestupidorignorant,butnowmorethanevertheydon’t responsibilitytohumanity.Thereare180,000peoplenowwho have the time. mightreadsomethingIhavetosay He spun vast sections of the anddecideIhaveagoodpoint. Britishpublicagainstdoctors– Immediately the moment after actualdoctors–doctorswhosejob Ithinkthat,Iwonder:whothehell itistokeepyoualive.Hespunit doIthinkIam?There’sacertain likedoctorsweregreedyfor self-importancethatcomeswith wanting protections to ensure thinking you have something theycoulddotheirjobsafelyand valuable to say. I have this internal receivefaircompensationforit. conflictaboutit–I’mbasicallythe Istartedarguingback.Not Schrödinger’s cat of Twitter. losing my cool, but trying to The truth is, when push comes convince people. toshove,I’mprobablyjust When the Jeremy Hunt thing screamingintothevoidasmuchas happened,itwasabsolutelynotmy anyone else is. Five years ago, I intention for it to blow up the way would’vesaiddiferent.Icertainly itdid.IsawhimlyingonTVandI don’t ever feel like I have the right wasfurious.Iwent‘You’realiar, toteachanyoneanything.Thatsaid, mate.SuemeifI’mnottellingthe sometimes – just sometimes – I’ll truth,Idareyou’.Thenhecame haveanexchangewithsomeoneon backatmeandIwasthinking– Twitter that absolutely makes my OK,Ican’tletthatgo.Heissueda week.Theymightjustsaythatthey challengetoseeifIcouldprove hadn’tthoughtofsomethinga himwrong,soIdid.Igotintouch certainwayandthankmefortaking with some of my junior doctor thetimetodiscussit. activistmatesonTwitterandwe Thereisanastonishingsenseof agreed that we couldn’t let it slide. falsebalancethatmeanspeoplein Wesatdowntogetherandsaid, power aren’t being held to account right–let’sgoathimhard. like they should. It’s not balance Propaganda is so efective. If when you’ve got someone on to talk I’mtosay–andI’mmakingthese about climate science and then numbers up – 0.003 per cent of the have someone else who comes on NHSbudgetgoesonso-called tosaythatclimatescienceisn’t health tourism and, actually, that’s real because there are fairies at farlessthan,say,parliament’s thebottomofthegarden.The spendonicecream.That’sless opposite of ‘scientist’ isn’t ‘bell-end’. compelling an emotional story Whatconcernsmeisthepublic’s than‘Lookatthesepeoplewho growinglackofabilitytodiscern have 10 kids, and live of benefits whatconstitutesajournalist.It’s fromthestate–it’sourmoney opaque, and people aren’t reporting paying for that’. the full truth about Brexit because of some idea that there must Inanybigsystem,therearebuilt-inmarginsoferror.You’re alwaysbesomeonetoplaydevil’sadvocate.Ifthechiefeconomist notlookingattheeightmillionpeoplewhowouldotherwisebe sayssomething’sgoingtobeadisaster,that’sthenews.Youdon’t strugglingwithoutbenefits–you’rejustpickingascarystory. need to find someone to refute it in contrived pursuit of balance. It’smucheasiertoscarepeoplethanitistoinform.Thereason Journalistic critique is somewhat failing, but I think what’s worse IwasabletocriticiseJeremyHuntwithfactsisbecausehegave istryingtobeajournalistinaworldwhereanyonewithmorethan me the perfect opportunity. 10,000 Twitter followers qualifies as one. Noneofthiswasdeliberateorthoughtout.Ididn’tfeela responsibilitytousemyplatformthisway.It’sjustmebeingme Ralf Little is appearing in God of Carnage at Theatre Royal Bath from –it’sanextensionofwhatI’mliketotalktointhepub.I’mhard August 29-September 15. @RalfLittle work, basically. Truth be told, it makes me pretty miserable He was speaking to Hannah Westwater @hannahjtw

THE BIG ISSUE / p23 / August 27-September 2 2018 Daniel Mays is about to make the leap from familiar face to household name. His latest role – as the father of 12-year-old Warrington bombing victim Tim Parry – has asked some of the most diﬃcult questions of his career. Interview: Adrian Lobb

THE BIG ISSUE / p24 / August 27-September 2 2018 DANIEL MAYS is one of the finest British actors working today. He’s known for bringing humanity, as well as realness, depth and integrity, to any character, whether playing gay rights campaigner Peter Wildeblood in Against The Law, Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in ITV’s Mrs Biggs, the devil in the form of a police complaints “The way they didn’t descend into anger, ocer in BBC One’s Ashes to Ashes or Vera Drake’s bitterness and resentment was incredible,” he says. son in Mike Leigh’s Oscar-nominated 2004 classic. “From that unimaginable horror, and that is how But the latest role in a long and increasingly they describe it, they have opened a Peace Centre impressive catalogue has made more impact on and tried with all their might to get some good out him than most. In Mother’s Day, a new BBC Two of pure evil. factual drama based on the aftermath of the IRA “More than any other role, I felt the level of Warrington bombings, Mays plays Colin Parry. pressure and responsibility to get it right. Playing Parry was the father of 12-year-old Tim, who died someone who is living and breathing, you want to along with three-year-old Johnathan Ball get as close as you possibly can; not imitating them following the attack on Bridge Street in 1993. but finding the essence of them. But it was clear Screenwriter Nick Leather (Murdered For that what they have done since that fateful day is Being Different) focuses on the response of to make sure Tim did not die in vain. They went to Colin and Wendy Parry (played by Anna Ireland, made a Panorama documentary, wrote Maxwell Martin), and Dublin mother Susan their book, opened the Peace Centre and set up McHugh (played by Vicky McClure) to the their charity [the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball tragedy – and how these ordinary people thrust Foundation for Peace].” into extraordinary events helped bring about Mays did not meet the Parry family before the peace process. playing Colin. Instead, he relied on footage from McHugh, compelled by her outrage at the the time and the studiously researched script. He senseless loss of young lives, set about organising had, though, received Colin’s blessing before the biggest rally for peace in two decades, engaging embarking on the project. And when Mays travelled with communities across Ireland in an attempt back to his home in London from a recent film to bring about a cessation of violence. screening in Edinburgh, the pair finally met. Colin’s furious determination to keep his boy “I said I would visit the Peace Centre once we on everyone’s minds, to “tell the world what a had finished, and I did that last week,” says Mays, cracker he is”, contrasts with Wendy’s quiet when he sits down with The Big Issue in London. strength and dignity. The pain in Mays’ eyes, as “It was quite a moment to look him in the eye, we watch Colin clinging to the hope that some shake his hand, and sit down with him and Wendy. good can come out of the tragedy, that a campaign I felt like I knew them both so well. They were for peace can keep his son alive, lovely, so down-to-earth, just if only in memory and name, is exceptional to me. impossible to turn away from. “And it was amazing to see For Mays, the way the Parry the Peace Centre. After the family fought hate with love is Manchester bomb last year an inspiration. they are treating more than

Right: Maxwell Martin and Mays with Colin and Wendy Parry; top: Mother’s Day proved

is Mays’ toughest challenge lis il

THE BIG ISSUE / p25 / August 27-September 2 2018

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@CROSSTOWN_LIVE - /CROSSTOWNCONCERTS - @CROSSTOWNCONCERTS Main pic: As Imelda Staunton’s son in Vera Drake; in Line of Duty; bottom: 500 people afected by it. It is the only Peace Mays married long-term partner Louise Burton at the end of August Centre of its kind in the whole of Europe.” In person, Mays is afable and unstarry. His enthusiasm for his work, and excitement at the hot streak he finds himself on, is infectious. He can, he says, usually snap out of the characters he is playing quickly and easily during filming. Mother’s Day was diferent. “I think we have treated the subject with as much compassion, commitment and respect as we possibly could,” he says. “But it was hard. There is no getting away from that. “My biggest concern was whether I would be able to get to that emotional place where I could start to imagine just a smidgen of what they must have gone through. And it wasn’t lost on me that I have a 12-year-old son. So I found it particularly upsetting, actually. I had to go to some dicult places, I really did. And paired with an acting He pinpoints a few I’m not normally like that.” mentor in Rada’s first highlights. Winning a Mother’s Day arrives on screen amid buddy scheme. Step Best Supporting Actor the best spell of Mays’ career. It has taken a forward Timothy Bafta nomination in while. He graduated from Rada in 2000, Spall, in many ways 2017 for Line of Duty. “I having caught the acting bug at a young theactorhiscareeris felt it was the best first age. He would jump on the Central Line beginningtoresemble episode of anything I each day after switching from his Essex the most, with heavyweight television had ever done,” he grins. “Such an amazing comprehensive to the Italia Conti stage alongside the full range of British film character, that amazing interrogation school during his third year. For Mays, who (thebleakdramastolightweightcomedies) scene – then I turned the page and he was no was captain of the local Loughton Boys plus character roles in Hollywood movies. more! But I had such a ball.” football team, choosing to follow his dreams They were co-stars within two years of Looking ahead, Mays remains one of the of performing came as a surprise. becoming buddies. hardest-working actors in the business. In “My nan had a great singing voice, but that “We were in a Mike Leigh film called All 2019 he’s part of the huge ensemble cast in was about it,” he says. “I was the first one, so Or Nothing [in 2002]. I owe everything to Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens. “I have a small there is something quite scary about that. Mike Leigh in terms of putting my name on part, as the father of the Antichrist. That cast! “There was ballet and tap and jazz themapandteachingmeaboutthecraftof David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Miranda and singing and improvisation. Everything acting,” says Mays. Richardson, that dude from Spinal Tap started to open up. I still have friends “ThenVera Drake wassuchacommercial [Michael McKean], Jon Hamm.” from back home, but my horizons were success,withawonderfulperformancefrom But he’s keeping an eye on some of his broadening. And by the time I got to drama Imelda Staunton, that it got lots of attention peers who are setting up production school, half the people there had been to andOscarnominations.Loadsofpeoplesaw companies and telling the stories they university. Or were from America. Or it.Itwasafterthatthedooropenedand really care about. Eton. People from different worlds. It things started to happen.” “I really admire Benedict [Cumberbatch], was incredible.” Mays talks passionately about the need Idris [Elba], all those people who are going Did he ever feel like an imposter? for new uncompromising storytellers to down that route of creating your own “Oh God, fuck, yes, I felt that all the time. follow in Leigh’s footsteps. “Tom Beard is destiny,” says Mays. “Maybe I need to focus

k It was never lost on me every time I walked suchanexcitingﬁlmmakerinthathewants on that and forge something myself. ck through the front door at Rada that these to tell stories about an underclass, ordinary “And I would be lying if I didn’t say I had sto ter t people could all talk the talk, philosophise people,theworkingclassthatarestruggling one eye on Hollywood. But you never know h S S about the texts and talk the cows home about to ﬁnd their place in the world,” he says. where you will end up, so there is something

h what this or that meant. “Because you do need them in the film about leaving yourself open and receptive she

Fi “It got to a point where I was like, ‘You are landscape – otherwise we do seem to be to whatever comes your way. Everyone d vid a really getting lost here,Danny’. I have never awash with the Benedicts and the Toms.” looks to the big American shows they D talked about this before,, but I remember After Vera Drake,Mayscontinued have such a through line with the to; doing Shakespeare sonnets with [voice to build his profile slowly, with a character that is really appealing. But it is Pho Ph P

ck coach] Bardy Thomas,whhereIjust debut leead role in BBC Three’s such an unpredictable business.”

Sto Stoc felt so intimated by it that I mind-benndingmysteryrompFunland. The right job, though, and the Mays y my m wouldn’t say anything.”” “It hasalwaysfeltlikeagradualh family could be on the move.

Ala A Mays recalls grittingghis prrogression. Some actors leave “I have just worked with Stephen / t teeth and vowing to “strip dramaschoolandseemtobed Graham, who was in Boardwalk Empire,” LtdLd n on o the walls of all thhis instantaneouslyHollywood he says. “And if one of those comes along I ti ci c knowledge”, coming tto stars.Imean,maybethat’s would bite their hand of. So let’s get that lle o co colle the realisation thatt all the pretty boys? But I in The Big Issue and make it happen.” ore or many of the people perceive myself as a et est es talking the talk “weren’t character actor more than Mother’s Day airs on BBC Two o ov

M on Monday September 3

:M actually that good”. In anythingelse.Iamhappyto

ts tos his final year, he was stays in that camp.” @adey70 Pho Po

THE BIG ISSUE / p27 / August 27-September 2 2018

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Books Film TV The last message of Marie Colvin page 30 Love behind the Curtain page 33 Saving Mumbai in 25 days page 35

ROCKY HORROR SHOW

This might look like a pile of It has been highlighted by German “The installations discussed here rocks – but it is in fact a tool to photographer Julius-Christian Schreiner as part become ‘silent agents’ because they control exclude the most marginalised of his Silent Agents series, a mission to document the behaviour of people without a direct people in society. Europe’s worst examples of hostile architecture. action of the respective authorities,” he explains. Forming an artificial stream under He has turned his lens on examples from “In this way, the behaviour is influenced a bridge in Hamburg, at first glance it these stones to covered ventilation shafts in cities more subtly, whereby each individual appears a picturesque way of managing including Innsbruck, London and Hamburg, perceives this dierently by social, rainfall as they fill up in a deluge. But in where his photos were exhibited in August at the cultural and economic capital.” reality it’s aimed to prevent rough sleepers Barlach Halle K gallery. Later this year he plans to bedding down for the night. reveal hostile architecture in New YorkCity. Find out more at juliuscschreiner.com

THE BIG ISSUE / p29 / August 27-September 2 2018 BOOKS

UNDER THE WIRE The final mission Paul Conroy and Marie Colvin visited the most dangerous parts of the world to report on war. But when they went to Syria and came under attack from Assad’s forces, only one of them made it out

nder The Wire was my attempt high-definition videos of smart bombs, I have addressed the accusation that war at telling the story of my own neatly picking of their targets, the world correspondents and photographers are and legendary correspondent often forgets the plight of the weakest, and simply ‘war junkies’. It’s a phrase I hear U Marie Colvin’s final often unseen victims of war. Marie never did. often and it makes me wince. I can assure assignment to Syria. Marie’s death in Baba This is what drove us to one of the most anybody willing to listen that there are far Amr, at the hands of the Syrian regime, dangerous places on the planet. easier ways to get an adrenaline hit than caused international outrage, but it’s never Working with Marie was the most being shot at. easy when the journalist becomes the story; fulfilling and productive spell of my career The bottom line is, telling the stories we the book was my attempt to refocus the glare as a photographer. We both shared a vision feel are important often involves getting to of publicity sparked by her the places where the death back onto the dangers and risks are Syrian people. highest. It’s not a When we entered Baba glamorous job and, as Amr in February 2012, the Marie once laughed, “You situation in Syria had never see Hollywood escalated to terrifying movies of war journalists proportions, but the world stuck at borders for weeks was paying scant trying to get a visa.” The attention to the besieged hours are long, the pay is neighbourhood of Homs. often risible and the Marie and I had spent the ability to live of tinned vast part of 2011 covering tuna and cheese triangles the Libyan uprising, is a distinct asset. where we spent two In Baba Amr, the day months covering the siege before Marie’s death, of Misrata. We endured a when the artillery sustained rocket and bombardment had artillery barrage from reached a sickening Gaddafi’s forces and crescendo, I was wounded thought we had seen the and all around us were worst humanity had to Marie Colvin was killed in Syria in 2012 dying, and we had ofer. After one evening of while covering the siege of Homs – acknowledged the her sidekick Paul Conroy survived to the withering artillery write their story inevitability of our own bombardment unleashed deaths, Marie turned to by Assad’s forces, we were me and asked, “If you forced to think diferently. Bashar al-Assad of how we wanted to portray war, and the weren’t being paid, would you still be here?” had surrounded the district in a ring of steel devastating efect it has on the people where “Of course I would,” I replied. I didn’t and units of the elite 4th Division, the ‘dumb’ bombs and bullets fall. In all of have to ask her the same question. commanded by his brother, Maher, and they the time we worked together I can’t ever In a world of so-called fake news and were intent on reducing the area, and its remember her saying, “Hey, take that shot”, distrust in the media in general, it’s easy to 28,000 civilian population, to rubble. Marie and I can’t recall, when reading her finished forget the likes of Marie, who gave was determined to bring this story to piece, thinking, “Damn, she missed everything to get to the heart of a story and the world. something.” It simply didn’t happen. When tell the world what’s happening. In an era Marie’s gift as a correspondent and working in such environments, you need to where despots who operate in the darkest writer was her unique approach to covering be extremely focused and the ability to be corners of the globe are prepared to kill the conflict and war. She had little time for the able to relax with your partner can’t be messenger to prevent news of their crimes weapons and logistics of war; she couldn’t overstated. On occasions too many to reaching the outside world, I ask everyone identify a MIG jet from a Lancaster bomber. remember, I can remember driving down a to remember the likes of Marie Colvin, and Her focus was on the plight of the victims, desert road, or through an abandoned town the other thousands those who feel the full force of the military and, all of a sudden, we would look at each of journalists and machine in its many guises, the women and other, nod and without a word being spoken, photographers who have the children. When Marie witnessed war, we would turn around and find another died bringing you the story. it was through the eyes of terrified children route. That’s just how it went. You can’t and traumatised parents hiding in dark define that process, and you certainly can’t Under the Wire by Paul Conroy basements, as explosive hell was unleashed recreate it. In Under The Wire I hope I have is out on September 6

all around them. In a world of explained what we do, and why we do it and (Quercus, £9.99) Conroy Paul Photo:

THE BIG ISSUE / p30 / August 27-September 2 2018

READ MORE FROM... REVIEWS JANE GRAHAM VISIT BIGISSUE.COM TOP BOOKS NORMAL PEOPLE OTHER BROTHER ABOUT RIVALS CHARLOTTE DUCKWORTH

Embracing the future REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier Jane Graham is drawn in by the tale of an odd couple whose The seminal novel about unlikely connection evolves in unexpected ways jealousy. Mrs de Winter struggles to cope with living in the shadow of her nthethrobbingnightclubof husband’s deceased first prodigious young Irish writers, wife, Rebecca. It has everything you SallyRooneyisthediscoball.The could wish for: atmospheric writing, a I27-year-old’s debut novel, compelling plot, fascinating characters ConversationswithFriends,securedher and lots of twists. an immediate fanbase and attracted ravesfromthelikesofZadieSmithand THE END OF CurtisSittenfeld.Herfollow-up,Normal THE AFFAIR People,hasgonestraightontothe by Graham Greene Bookerlonglist.Rooney,itappears,has Maurice Bendrix never notsufferedfromdifficultsecond recovered from his aair book syndrome. with married Sarah Miles. Normal People is a coming-of-age When they meet again by novel, following the relationship chance, his jealousy and obsession move to between wealthy Marianne and her a new level, but Maurice’s rival is not who charismaticschoolmateConnell,whose he thinks it is. A thought-provoking and mother cleans Marianne’s house. The moving book, covering profound themes. Illustration: Dom McKenzie twogrowuptogetherinthesmalltown ofCarricklea,wherehandsome,cooland real people are often unintentionally funny OUR KIND OF cleverConnellisA-listpopularandawkward, (Connellwouldfeel“acompleteprick”inthe CRUELTY reclusiveMarianneisasocialdisaster. waxed hunting jacket and plum-coloured by Araminta Hall A tentative romance grows between them, chinossportedbyhispeers).Her The story of a toxic keptsecretduetoConnell’sconcernaboutits unsensational prose, variously reminiscent obsession, told solely from knock-onefectonhisstatus.Whentheymeet ofElenaFerrante,DavidNichollsandSE the viewpoint of Mike, againlateratTrinityCollegeDublin,thenewly Hinton, captures exactly the agonies and who refuses to accept his elegantandself-assuredMarianneistheone almosthallucinogenicburstsofjoythatyoung ex has moved on and is happy with her with standing, while Connell has lost the big lovebrings.Andherdescriptionsofsexareas new partner. It’s unbelievably creepy and fishinasmallpondidentityheonceenjoyed. goodasanyyou’llread–tender,cautious,and compelling, with a devastating ending. Injusttwosure-footednovels,Rooneyhas highlysensual.Imagineifsoftpornmovies becomeamasteratusingsimplelanguageand were written and directed by sensitive, HIS OTHER LOVER economic sentences to depict complex, thoughtfulandromanticallyinclinedwomen. by Lucy Dawson constantly evolving characters and Ah,ifonly. Mia has the perfect circumstances. There is also a creeping Older Brother is the fourth novel by life – until she finds darknessinhernovels,whichoccasionally UruguaywriterDanielMella,whohas a text message from eruptstoshocking,blood-freezingefect.She garneredareputationfortacklingdark, another woman on her isstillfascinatedbythethingssheexplored dicult issues in original, imaginative ways. boyfriend’s phone. This is inConversationswithFriends–shiftingpower Itexaminesthevolcanicimpactofthesudden a rollercoaster read, detailing the depths balances within relationships, social status, death of beloved son and brother Alejandro she’ll go to to keep her relationship on andmostofall,theworkingsoftheanxious, onhisdevastatedfamily,and,throughthe track. Another one I couldn’t put down. conscientious, self-fixated generation she lively inner monologue of Alejandro’s older belongs to. Marianne and Connell brother,encouragesustoconsiderdeathfrom THE GRUFFALO relentlessly interrogate themselves; Am I a anumberofangles;personal,communal, by Julia Donaldson goodperson?Dootherpeoplelikemeand spiritualandritualistic.Mellaisanambitious This is my three-year- shouldIcare?WhatkindofpeopleamI intellectual,drawntobigthemeslikegrief, old daughter’s attractedto,andwhatdomychoicessayabout love,nihilism,andbothindividualandsocial favourite book, me?Howmuchisallthismessmyfault?Why violence. Thus Older Brother is as much a and so I’ve read it can’tIbreathe? philosophical think piece as it is an absorbing, approximately 8,798 Thismightsoundlikeindulgentnavel- oftentouchingtaleoffearandloss.Butdonot times. It tells the story of humble Mouse, gazing(IhatetobreakitSally,Ifearthisisn’t bedaunted,thisisatrulyrewardingread,rich who defeats his terrifying nemesis the one for ‘snowflake’-hater Piers Morgan). But withinsight,humanityandastirringbeauty. Grualo with pure thetruthis,Rooneyhas–toputitinmodern quick wits. parlance–nailedthecharacteroftoday’s Words: Jane Graham @janeannie adolescents and twentysomethings. Her Normal People Older Brother The Rival by Charlotte dialogue,mostlyinanauthenticGalway by Sally Rooney, by Daniel Mella, Duckworth is published brogue,ispitchperfect.She’softenfunny,not out on August 28 out September 6 on September 6 becauseshe’sstrivingtobewitty,butbecause (Faber & Faber, £14.99) (Charco Press, £11.99) (Quercus, £14.99)

THE BIG ISSUE / p31 / August 27-September 2 2018 Thousand Yardie stare

Kidulthood star Aml Ameen met Idris Elba on a plane and by the end of the ﬂight had a part in his hero’s directorial debut

ml Ameen is staring at me from across quite a big thing for a lot of black British Once filming began, Ameen was the table in the bar of the Hackney actors. We met Idris as an American. immersed in the character – living in A Picturehouse cinema. He’s also “I was flying from London to LA, got in the accent, answering only to D’s name, gazing out from posters on the wall, the in- the lift at the airport and heard [adopts sending letters back and forth with house film magazine, adverts on every table, Elba’s deep baritone]: ‘Hey, Aml’. I turned co-star Shantol Jackson who plays D’s T-shirts worn by the bar staf. He even gazes around. Then I looked up. And there was childhood sweetheart Yvonne, decorating out from the side of the number 277 bus. Mr Six-foot-five. his walls with posters from the time and The star of new cinema release Yardie “We were on the same flight. Idris had just waking each morning to the sound of a (Idris Elba’s directorial debut, an adaptation watched me in The Maze Runner and said, ‘I gunshot in place of his alarm. of Victor Headley’s 1992 cult novel), is thought you were wicked, bruv. I’m doing a “With method acting, you hold people demonstrating the thousand-yard stare he film called Yardie for my directorial debut.’ hostage to your process. But I loved it.” perfected for the central role of D. It’s “On the plane, he goes, ‘I’m going to send Ameen, who grew up all over north and unnerving, the ease the script to your agent.’ east London, attended stage school in west with which he can slip I said fuck that, I want London from age six to 16 (“I had too much back into the character. to read it right now and jazz hands,” he grins. “So I went to Barnet “Boom! As you can say what I’m going to say College and got a semblance of culture see I am geeking out a anyway, which is yes. and swag.”) bit,” he says, taking a One: it is you, a hero of He recalls performing across the road at photograph of the bus mine. Two: the chance the Hackney Empire and dancing on stage with his face on it. to do a film of that with Michael Jackson at Earl’s Court at the “This really feels like magnitude, in the vein 1996 Brits aged just 11 – remembered for a homecoming.” of Goodfellas or City of Jarvis Cocker’s stage invasion. Where has he been? God, is not to be missed.” “Mike was mad cool,” he says (yes, he Working solidly in After joining the refers to the ‘King of Pop’ as Mike). “We were Happy camper: Ameen knew he wanted to work America, a major role on Yardie with Idris Elba from the o mile-high casting club told no one could talk to him or look at him. alongside Kathy Bates (“I would not put it like He came in with eight bodyguards, jumped in two series of comedy drama Harry’sLaw, that...”), Ameen and Elba went deep into the on stage and I was standing right next to worldwide sci-fi smash The Maze Runner character. “I stayed with him in Vancouver. him. You can see it on YouTube. and joining Oprah Winfrey and Forest We crunched through the whole idea, what “He looked at me: ‘Yo, man, why is Whitaker in The Butler. D would look like, the accent, the sniper everyone so quiet?’ I don’t say anything. ‘My Why did he leave in the first place? On stare – I based a lot of it on my Uncle Kirk.” name is Michael.’ ‘I know. I’m Aml.’ We hung the advice of his latest director. Ameen also spent two-and-a-half months out, danced, and he taught us a secret “I have known Idris since Kidulthood. We in Jamaica. “My Auntie Hazel basically handshake that he said would make us met in 2006,” explains Ameen. “He was just knows everyone. She took me to Kingston successful for the rest of our lives.” about to pop from The Wire. He was one of Dub Club, introduced me to Sly and Robbie. It seems to be working. the first people who said to me: ‘Mate, go to After meeting those guys I understood America. They are really loving us over there.’ Rastafarian culture a lot more. I understood Yardie is out now in cinemas “When I first moved to the States it was the essence of the true Jamaica.” Interview: Adrian Lobb @adey70

THE BIG ISSUE / p32 / August 27-September 2 2018 FILM READ MORE FROM... EDWARD LAWRENSON VISIT BIGISSUE.COM

Love in a cold climate A compelling story of a tortuous aﬀair played out in the darkest days of Communist rule in Eastern Europe has the bonus of a killer soundtrack

olish director Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War younger woman, Irena calmly informs Wiktor that Zula revolves around a tumultuous love afair drawn has served time in prison for murdering her father. The P from the experience of his parents (to whom the truth is more complicated than that – or so Zula says when film is dedicated). The focus is, as you’d expect, personal Wiktor reports this rumour back to her – but it’s and intimate. appropriate the shadow of violence hangs over their first But the epochal sweep of the title promises more. Set in encounter. The afair that Wiktor and Zula embark on is Poland, Berlin and Paris from the late 1940s to the passionate, but over the long years of their on-off mid-1960s, the film has ambitions to say something about relationship, conducted on both sides of the Iron Curtain, Europe’s divided history, especially in Pawlikowski’s they inflict on one another native land – much like his Oscar-winning 2013 increasingly ingenious movie Ida. It’s a tricky balance: capturing the whims and FINAL REEL forms of emotional and impulses of a love afair between two temperamental Distant Voices, Still physical harm. people on the one hand, and accounting for the tectonic The afair is conducted in Lives is the debut feature shifts of European politics on the other. Pawlikowski the face of the mundane from Terence Davies, his doesn’t quite pull it off but the effort is remarkable regime of repression by poetic, visually breathtakingg to behold. the Communist account of a Cold War begins, like the era itself, just after the Second authorities. On a working-class WorldWar.InruralPoland tour in Berlin – the Liverpool family Wiktor, a musician in his theatrical troupe in the years 30s (the rake-thin, formedf by Wiktor after the war. languidly handsome hash now switched There’s a brutal Tomasz Kot), is touring fromf performing father figure, out-of-the-way villages aauthentic Polish communal with his musicologist folk music to kitsch singing, and long, painterly colleague(andsometime Stalinist spectacles – shots of domestic interiors lover) Irena recording Wiktor decides to defect, – the film has the intensity and cataloguing the and Zula promises to join and poignancy of a traditional music kept alive by him. Yet she stays. childhood memory. Davies the local peasants. (The songs, In the remaining years is one of Britain’s finest filmedliketherestofthe the lovers are occasionally filmmakers, and this might movie in creamy black and reunited, but Wiktor, be his best. It’s on welcome white, are hauntingly working as a jazz pianist – re-release from the British performed – Cold War is, cue more music – is too Film Institute. See it! amongotherthings,a scarred by his years of exile kind of musical). to fully commit, and Some time later Zula is drinking to self-destructive extremes. They can’t Wiktor and Irena are help being with one another, but do they even like each auditioning people from other? It’s a toxic situation. Politics is certainly the surrounding a factor, but coursing between Wiktor and Zula is a villagesforplacesina dynamic of mutually assured destruction far more potent state-run academy than ever existed between Western Europe and the dedicated to Polish folk art Eastern Bloc. and at these open-call If I have one reservation about the film, it’s that I wasn’t sessions Wiktor spots Zula quite convinced by the mad love between Wiktor and Zula. (the remarkable Joanna In their separate roles Kot and Kulig are superb, but Kulig).Zulaisastriking- together they lack that required inefable chemistry – and looking young woman. She is Pawlikowski is too controlling a director to let the beautiful and poised with a relationship breathe (for me, his finest work remains his penetrating look, her eyes early, fairly anarchic BBC documentaries). Still, this is a diamond-hard jewels of remarkable achievement – sumptuous, ambitious, ambition and self- intelligent and with a knockout soundtrack. possession. And Wiktor Cold War is in cinemas from August 31 is smitten. Seeing her loverfallforthis Edward Lawrenson @EdwardLawrenson

THE BIG ISSUE / p33 / August 27-September 2 2018 Quality BUCKINGHAM OF Teaching

UNIVERSITY THE

University of the Year for MA by Research in DICKENS STUDIES October 2018 - September 2019

A one-year, London-based programme of supervised study and research, with a stimulating For further details, please Google ‘University of Buckingham London Programmes’. programme of seminars and research workshops, led by Professor John Drew and Dr Pete For enquiries about the course or to apply, contact Ms Nancy Zulu on email: Orford, experts in Dickens and 19th-century studies. Teaching takes place at the Charles [email protected] or telephone: 01280 820156 Dickens Museum (48 Doughty St, WC1) and at the University of Buckingham’s oices in Bloomsbury. he course includes ield trips, access to the Museum’s rare collections, and he course is oered in partnership with the Charles Dickens Museum, London. memberships of the International Dickens Fellowship and of the Dickens Society.

Recent speakers have included: • Professor Michael Slater THE UNIVERSITY OF • Professor Joanne Shattock • Lucinda Hawksley BUCKINGHAM • Judith Flanders • Dr Tony Williams LONDON PROGRAMMES

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Youpromisedyourcatalifetimeofloveand companionship. But, if you should die ﬁrst, who wouldlookafterthemthen?Batterseawillhelp youkeepyourpromise,andwillcareforyour catuntilweﬁndthemtheperfectnewhome. Postcode AE88 TheForeverLovedservicegivesyoupeace of mind and the knowledge that your promise Thedatayou’veprovidedwillbeusedbyBattersea won’t die with you. Dogs&CatsHometosendyouaForeverLoved information pack. For more information about how we Keepyourpromisetoyourbelovedpetswith useyourdata,visitbattersea.org.uk/privacy aForeverLovedcardfromBattersea. Return form to: battersea.org.uk/foreverloved FreepostRTLJ-ETCZ-SCCZ,BatterseaDogs&Cats Home, 4 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4AA BatterseaDogs&CatsHomeisacharityregisteredinEnglandandWales(206394). TV READ MORE FROM... SAM DELANEY VISIT BIGISSUE.COM

No mean megacity Twenty-five days isn’t long to save a metropolis, but this Mumbai cop gives it his best shot in Netflix’s first Indian series

ndia – the most mystical land on justcan’tseemtocatchabreak.Untilone Theseriesfollowstwinnarratives:one God’searth.Althoughsomesay day he receives a phone call from the that follows Singh’s present-day that’sChina.OthersWales,because notorious crime lord Ganesh Gaitonde, race to save the city and another that Iofthedragonsandsoon.Butthose whohasbeenmissingfor16years.Hetells flashesbacktoGaitonde’sbloodyand people are wrong, India is easily the best. Singhthathehas25daysinwhichtosave audaciousriseandfallthrough ThisissomethingNetflixhavecottoned Mumbai.Thenheblowshisownbrains theunderworld.Thescaleisimmense, ontobycommissioningtheirfirstoriginal out before explaining any further. withasprawlingarrayofbrilliant Indian series: Sacred Games.Why and unique characters: from the wouldn’ttheyhavedone?There’sabouta corruptcops,tothedeviouspoliticians, billionpeoplelivingoverthere(I’mnot violent restauranteurs, coke-snorting sure if that’s true but there’s certainly a “Mumbai is the movie stars and a particularly good turn lotofthem)and–asfarasIknow–the byawheelchair-boundgang-boss. only entertainment they’re given is those star, captured Yes,itmighthavebeenaimed Bollywoodmovieswhereeveryonecan’t primarilyatahugeIndianaudience stop singing and dancing or killing each in all its butthisissomethingthatwillappeal other.They’reactuallyverycompelling toWesternviewersjustaswell.Not but–likeeatingAngelDelighteveryday ugly-beautiful only is the writing sharp, the acting forbreakfast,lunchandtea–whatstarts exceptional and the action relentless, the asatreatcanquicklybecometedious. glory. You can look and feel is totally captivating. Sacred Games is diferent: a vast and MumbaiisthestarofSacred Games:from lavish adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s almost smell it” the poverty-stricken gutters to the 2006crimenovelinwhichthereareno opulent corridors of power, it is captured song-and-dance routines whatsoever. Personally, ifI’dreceivedacallthat in all its ugly-beautiful glory. You This is an epic tale of cops, gangsters, melodramaticfromamanwhoinstantly can almost smell the place. It’s almost sex, violence and politics. All the best toppedhimselfI’dwritethewholething enough to make me actually go there. ingredientsofanygreatdrama. of as the ramblings of a suicidal madman But I won’t because then it would lose all Sartaj Singh is a troubled police ocer andgetonwithmyfiling.ButSinghtakes its mystery. in Mumbai who is bullied and ridiculed thewarningseriouslyandbeginsanin- Sacred Games is on Netflix now byhiscorruptsuperiors.Thepoorbastard vestigationthattakeshimdeepinto lives of sleeping pills and pain killers and Mumbai’s deepest and darkest secrets. Sam Delaney @DelaneyMan

THE BIG ISSUE / p35 / August 27-September 2 2018

MUSIC READ MORE FROM... MALCOLM JACK VISIT BIGISSUE.COM Cry a little harder OUT AND ABOUT Malcolm Jack luxuriates in the teary embrace of a sad song

THE REAL EIGHTIES ustasImightrespondtoanyone haveeyesforanyoneintheroom,Ijust want Just as the 1970s boiled down to being who objects to my appreciation of to be near you,” she submits, laying down about flares, Blue Nun and the three-day anicehandcreamoranattractive like the barroom doormat. “You okay hun?” week, so the 1980s have been distilled as a J totebagasanunashamedmodern you may feel inclined to ask, upon spotting decade of enormous perms, snoods and wine manofthe21stcentury,heorshewho me in the corner blubbing into a bourbon, bars. Toredress this historic imbalance, The fanciestellingmethatIalsocan’tenjoyan andit’dbeafairquestion.Itcan’tgetsadder Music That Saved A Decade: Divining occasional cathartic cry to a sad song than that, can it? The Eighties Underground (until October writtenbyagirlcanfuckrightof.Especially TowhichPhoebeBridgersresponds: hold 3, Barbican, London; barbican.org.uk) is a aspickingsaresorichatthemoment,with mybeer.TheRyanAdamsandConorOberst- free exhibition that looks at the impact of a whole wave of fantastic young female championed Californian’s debut album countercultural and underground youth songwriterscomingespeciallyoutofthe Stranger in the Alps isatourdeforce of tribes circulating around genres like hip-hop, US,whosewayswithanexquisitelydismal beautifully,brutallyfrankindie-Americana grindcore and crusty as well as the lyricaresuchthatyou’vegottowonderif song-writing, and one of the hands-down after-eects of punk. theyhaven’tsecretlygotsharesinKleenex. best records of last year. Be it in the chorus Take Virginian indie-rock force of of Scott Street when she asks “Do you feel Staying with history, Spellbound (August 31 nature Lucy Dacus, for ashamed when you hear my to January 6, Oxford; ashmolean.org) tells the instance, and her recent name?”,orthebitinMotion story of magic and witchcraft and how it has second album for Matador Sicknesswhensheadmits to evolved over centuries. It’s less Paul Daniels- Records Historian, aformerloverthatshe faked style tricks and more the specifically the blistering iteverytimebutit’s fine pyscho-cultural power it exudes. track Night Shift. Our because she can hardly feel harrowedheroinebreaksup anythingthesedaysanyway Yetmore cultural history at the same venue, bad with someone who because she’s just so bloody this time from the east. A Century of seemstobeacolleaguein sad.Bridgersdoessadso well Women in Chinese Art someshitjoborother,and she really ought to be (until October 7, Oxford; sochangesherhoursin pretty happy. ashmolean.org) looks at ordertonolongercross Those are practically how females have been paths with said ex. “Pay for light-hearted moments represented in Chinese art mycofeeandleavebefore Lucy Dacus: Probably shouldn’t relativetothesongFuneral, over the past 100 years and thesungoesdown,”shesets have dipped her pen in company ink in which our pained how artists have drawn on out solemnly, accepting her protagonistisaskedback to everyday life, traditional fatewiththesamereluctantstoicismasone herhometowntosingatthefuneralof a kid literature and folk religion in their work. mightdentalsurgery,“walkforhoursinthe whowasayearolderthanher,causing a darkfeelingallhell”.IswearIjustsobbed wholeloadofpent-upemotionalissues and A dierent form of gender expression is so hard all over my laptop there sparks anxietiestounravel,leadingtoBridgers at DRAG: Self-Portraits & Body Politics startedcomingoutofit. wakingupinherchildhoodbedwishing she (until October 14, South Bank, London; Countrymusicis,asweallknow,like wassomeoneelse.“WhenIremembered southbankcentre.co.uk). It’s a free exhibition theOlympicsofsad,withDollyPartonthe someone’skidisdead,”shesuddenlycatches and looks at how drag has intersected with UsainBoltofthemisery100metres,Johnny herself.“JesusChristI’msoblueallthe time issues relating to identity, class and race. Cash the Michael Phelps of the swimming andthat’sjusthowIfeel,”Bridgerscontinues pooloftearsandPatsyClineabletochuck in the chorus, just hosing on the sadness by The London Design Biennale 2018 ajavelinthroughyourheartfroma thispoint,“alwayshaveandIalways will”. (September 4 to 23, Somerset House, ridiculousdistance.Whichputsoneofthe Seethatman-sizedpuddleofclear salty Aldwych, London; somersethouse.org.uk) is most exciting emerging voices in country liquid on the floor, next to the hand cream back for a second year, taking emotional states CourtneyMarieAndrewsfirstoftheblocks andthesoggytotebag?Thatusedto as its theme. It explores how design aects as she races to stand tallest on the podium be me. all parts of our lives and draws in work from a of woe, with 2014’s Near You, and this range of countries and cities to give it a agonising evocation of toxic love. “You can Malcolm Jack @MBJack global context.

Finally, Moseley Folk Festival (August 31 to OUT NOW September 2, Birmingham; moseleyfolk.co.uk) is a last-gasp outdoor event before autumn Historian May Your Stranger by Lucy Dacus Kindness in the Alps kicks in. Acts playing include the magical King (Matador) Remain by by Phoebe Creosote and the mighty Teenage Fanclub. Courtney Marie Bridgers Andrews (Loose) (Dead Oceans) Eamonn Forde @Eamonn_Forde

THE BIG ISSUE / p37 / August 27-September 2 2018 ADVERTISING CLASSIFIEDS

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THE BIG ISSUE / p39 / August 27-September 2 2018 ADVERTISING CLASSIFIEDS

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THE BIG ISSUE / p40 / August 27-September 2 2018 ADVERTISING CLASSIFIEDS

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THE BIG ISSUE / p41 / August 27-September 2 2018 ADVERTISING CLASSIFIEDS

Toadvertise: Jenny Bryan 020 3890 3744 / [email protected] Please help us find

Sandeep Sharma - Hounslow, London

Sandeep has been missing from Hounslow since 10 March 2018. He was 67 years old at the time of his disappearance.

Sandeep, please call Missing People on 116 000 or email [email protected] for advice and support whenever you feel ready.

Colin Turner - Dublin, Ireland

Colin has been missing from Dublin since 14 February 2007. He will be 44 years old on the 28th August this year. Colin is urged to call Missing People on 116 000 or email [email protected] for advice and support, including the opportunity to send a message home in confidence.

David Luongo - Belsize Park, London

David went missing from Belsize Park on 22 June, this year. He was 30 at the time of his disappearance.

David, we are here for you when you are ready; we can listen, talk you through what help you need, pass a message on for you and help you to be safe. Please call or text 116 000.

Balbir Bhachu - Slough, Berkshire

Balbir has been missing from Slough in Berkshire since 30 June 2018. He was 51 years old at the time of his disappearance.

Balbir, please call Missing People on 116 000 or email [email protected] for advice and support whenever you feel ready.

Patricia Lashley - Dudley, West Midlands

Patricia went missing from Dudley on 24 September 1998. She was 33 when she went missing.

Patricia, we are here for you when you are ready; we can listen, talk you through what help you need, pass a message on for you and help you to be safe. Please call or text 116 000.

Elizabeth Mercer - Greenwich, London

Elizabeth has been missing from Greenwich since 23 April 2018. She was 43 at the time of her disappearance. Elizabeth, we can listen, talk you through what help you need, pass a message for you and help you to be safe. Please call Missing People on 116 000 or email [email protected].

Call or text 116 000 Email [email protected] It’s free, 24hr and confidential

Missing People would like to thank The Big Issue for publicising vulnerable missing people on this page. Our free 116 000 number is Registered charity in England and Wales (1020419) supported by players of People’s and in Scotland (SC047419) Postcode Lottery. www.missingpeople.org.uk/help-us-find

THE BIG ISSUE / p42 / August 27-September 2 2018 ADVERTISING CLASSIFIEDS

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THE BIG ISSUE / p43 / August 27-September 2 2018 COMPETITION

FOUNDERS John Bird and Gordon Roddick Group chair Nigel Kershaw

Managing director Russell Blackman

EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION Editor Paul McNamee Managing editor Vicky Carroll Features editor Steven MacKenzie Digital editor Ben Sullivan Books editor Jane Graham News & entertainment Adrian Lobb Film Edward Lawrenson Radio Robin Ince Music Malcolm Jack and Claire Jackson Art director Ross Lesley-Bayne Production editor Sarah Reid Production journalist Alan Woodhouse Designer Gillian Smith Junior designer Matthew Costello Junior sub editor/writers Dionne Kennedy & Liam Geraghty

ADVERTISING 020 3890 3899 Dennis Publishing, 31-32 Alfred Pl, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7DP Group advertising director Andrea Mason Group advertising manager Helen Ruane WIN! Account manager Brad Beaver Classiﬁed and recruitment: 020 3890 3744 Account director Jenny Bryan Senior sales executive Imogen Williams

Vendor Comments [email protected] THE SENATOR The Big Issue Group 020 7526 3200 113-115 Fonthill Road, Finsbury Park, London, N4 3HH ON DVD Group managing director John Montague Group finance director Clive Ellis Group marketing & communications director Lara McCullagh The Senator is an engrossing political thriller inspired by true events which changed both the Group HR director Elizabeth Divver influential Kennedy dynasty and US history forever. Distribution director Peter Bird Stepping into the senator’s shoes is Jason Clarke (Mudbound, Zero Dark Thirty), whose Big Issue Invest head of lending multifacetedperformanceasTedKennedyisoneofacomplexmanriddledwith guilt yet Daniel Wilson-Dodd driven by ambition. Big Issue Foundation CEO Stephen Robertson Clarke’s Ted struggles with his family’s huge legacy, and his displays of slimy self-preservation leave audiences debating whether to oer sympathy or condemnation. [email protected] Behind Clarke is an equally talented supporting cast, including Academy Award nominee 0141 352 7260 BruceDernastheailingyetvenomouspatriarchJoeKennedySr. @bigissue WhilehisbrotherslikePresidentJohnFKennedyarenostrangerstofilm, John Curran’s 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW dramatic retelling ensures this compelling tale won’t just be left to the history books.

Distribution/London 020 7526 3200 The Senator is out now on DVD. Printed at William Gibbons To be in with the chance of winning one of ﬁve copies simply answer the question below: BSME Cover of the Year2017, PPA Cover of the Year 2015, PPA Scotland Cover of the Year2015 & 2017 Which actor plays Ted Kennedy in The Senator? PPA Scotland Consumer Magazine of The Year, 2017 Paul McNamee British editor of the year 2016, BSME Send entries with SENATOR 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 11. Include OPT IN on your entry if you 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

THE BIG ISSUE / p44 / August 27-September 2 2018 GAMES & PUZZLES

SUDOKU SPOT THE BALL

A B C

D E

There is just one simple rule ISSUE 1321 SOLUTION F in sudoku: each row, column and3x3boxmust contain 12345678910 the numbers one to nine. Images Photos: Action This is a logic puzzle and you Towin Norton’s Philosophical Memoirs by Last week’s should not need to guess. Håkan Nesser, mark where you think the Spot the Ball The solution will be revealed revealed: ball is, cut out and send to: next week. Spot the Ball (1322), 43 Bath St, Glasgow, PSV Eindhoven v Benﬁca G2 1HW, by September 4. Include name, (1988) address, phone no. Enter by email: send grid position (eg A1) to [email protected].

PRIZE CROSSWORD

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 CRYPTIC CLUES QUICK CLUES Across Down Across 7 8 1. Passengers who go 2. Work rebuilding site 1. Floweriness (9) free on board (9) afterraterevision(8) 8. Carbonated drink (4) 9 10 8. Avian dupe (4) 3. Shrivel up with little 9. Peevish (9) 9. It’s like a snake hesitation (6) 11. Large-billed bird (6) to ﬁnd Pearl in it 4.Commendation that’s 12. Hot pepper (6) 11 surprisingly! (9) farfromrare(4,4) 13. Reduce the price (4,4) 11. Real trouble going 5.Yes,righttime(4) 16. Brothers (8) 12 round the bend 6.Beeonan 20. Avaricious (6) twiceinarowdy electrical device (6) 21. Interfere with (6) 13 13 14 15 frolic (6) 7. Armed, it gives some 23. Subordinate (9) 12.Attenmanyputin personalcover(6) 24. Exhale deeply (4) an appearance (6) 10. Architect placed pole 25. One-humped camel (9) 14 16 13.Noheroesmoved on the tree (4) from such a small 14. Former rioter Down 16 17 18 19 town (3-5) disturbedoutside(8) 2. Hilarity (8) 16. The weakest feel 15. Have a beastly 3. Hardly ever (6) best, strangely timeintheworst 4. Stringed instrument (8) 20 enough (8) accommodation?(8) 5. Solicit custom (4) 20. One by one the team 16. Pressurised to make this 6. South American 21 22 21 emerged (6) landinginanemergency (6) cloak (6) 21. Remember to 17. Made an impression 7. Heavy gun (6) telephone again (6) inartwork(6) 10. Drench (4) 23 23.Leavin’hatofa 18. Three learners, 14. Fungal skin disease (8) sea monster! (9) accepting nothing, lounge 15. Nomad (8) 24 24. Still tied (4) about(4) 16. Bewilder (6) 25. Send Erica round 19. Girl who found a 17. Funeral oration (6) when it has Moor first (6) 18. Noise of a snake (4) 24 25 expanded (9) 22. List some single 19. Repaired (6) answers(4) 22. Rent (4) Towin a Chambers Dictionary, send completed crosswords (either cryptic or quick) to: The Big Issue Crossword (1322), second ﬂoor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW by September 4. Include your name, address and phone number. Issue 1320 winner is Margaret McGinn from Winchester IN ASSOCIATION WITH Issue 1321 solution CRYPTIC: Across –1Commiserate;9Wharf;10Emitter;11Vein;12Rhodesia;14Linear;15Moscow;18Hustling;20Join;22Idolise;23Aisle; 24 Hard and fast. Down –2Oration;3Muf;4Seethe;5Raindrop;6Titus;7Swivel-chair;8Breadwinner;13Tailwind;16Crosses;17Unseen;19Stoma;21Calf. QUICK: Across – 1 Implication; 9 Hindu; 10 Routine; 11 Pâté; 12 Doughnut; 14 Turban; 15 Drachm; 18 Withdraw; 20 Mean; 22 Rambled; 23 Aorta; 24 Preparation. Down – 2 Minster; 3 Loud; 4 Carton; 5 Thuggery; 6 Orion; 7 Shop steward; 8 Sentimental; 13 Landslip; 16 Cheerio; 17 Gander; 19 Timer; 21 Part.

THE BIG ISSUE / p45 / August 27-September 2 2018 MY PITCH

Noel Cullinane, 51 OUTSIDE WATERSTONES, BIRMINGHAM “I’vealwaysbeenclosetomymumand she’s proud of me being a Big Issue seller”

ABOUT ME... hen I was from it. I’ve also been coming so I get to visit her once or younger the into the oce for water when twice a week but she hasn’t house that I I’m getting more magazines. been so well recently. She was MY HOBBIES W lived in with I’m happy selling The of her food but she’s getting I used to enjoy ﬁve-a-sides but my parents was demolished Big Issue and I don’t have better now. I’ve always been these days I prefer a game of and I moved around lots any ambitions to move on close to my mum and she’s pool. I play in the Unity pub of hostels after that. Then for the time being. I’ve done proud of me being a Big Issue in Birmingham. in 2009 I went into The gardening projects in the seller. When I visit her we Big Issue oce here in past though and I enjoyed love to just sit and talk. IF I WON THE LOTTERY Birmingham and spoke to them. Come September, I’m Birmingham born and I’d buy myself a house, but just the staf. That’s how I came when it cools down a bit, I’ll bred. As well as my mum, I’ve a cheapish one. And I’d have to be a vendor and I’ve be starting that again. It’s on also got a cousin here. Near to a couple of holidays a year, to been selling the magazine the allotments and I help out my pitch is the bull statue, by France or Spain. ever since. in the greenhouses, planting the entrance to the Bullring I’ve had other pitches seeds and tending plants. I – lots of visitors come to have but now I’m settled at this haven’t done any landscaping their picture taken there. It one outside Waterstones. yet but I’d be really interested attracts them to the area not It’s quite busy in terms of in giving that a go in future. far from my pitch, which is people walking past and I sell These days I live in a nice. I remember when I was ON MY what I can. It gets busier at supported hostel here in the younger, when you’d been PITCH… weekends when the shoppers city. I’ve been there for quite away and you came back on are out, and I’ve got quite a long time now. It’s alright, a the coach you’d see the BT I’m here from a few regulars by now who roof over my head and it feels Tower coming into view. Monday to Friday bring me cofees. like home. That’s how you knew you from 1.15pm It’s been so hot recently I used to enjoy a game of were home. until 3.30pm that I’ve been having to take a bingo with my mum but she few minutes and walk around had to move into a home. Interview: Sarah Reid in the shade to get a break She’s still here in Birmingham Photo: Matt Sheehan

THE BIG ISSUE / p46 / August 27-September 2 2018 If you’ve ever walked past a homeless person but wished you knew how to help PLEASE READ THIS

Today, there is something simple you can do to help homeless people oﬀ the streets. We’ve probably all walked away from most compassionate of people may feel homeless people because we didn’t know it’s simpler just to walk on by. what we could do to help. Is it wise to But by making a donation to Emmaus give them money? Would it be better to today, you can help to get homeless buy them food or a hot drink? Will they be people off the streets, for good. offended if we do? In the end, even the Your gift means we can welcome more homeless people into an Emmaus community. There they’ll have a safe place to live and meaningful work to do “Emmaus helps you get back on the right path… we need an in our social enterprises, recycling and Emmaus community in every selling donated furniture and other goods. town and city in the country.” Emmaus also provides the personal Bruce support and training that people need to overcome homelessness and move on with their lives. Emmaus helps people learn new skills

Please help Emmaus to give YES, I will help Emmaus to change lives Make your donation more homeless people work, worth a quarter purpose and a fresh start. Hereismygitof£20 OR more for free by ticking the box at the end of the statement. (mychoiceof)£ tobuildmore IwanttoGiftAidmydonationand 3OHDVHÀOO LQ \RXUIXOO QDPH DQG anydonationsImakeinthefuture address so that we can reclaim the Emmaus communities throughout the UK. or have made in the past 4 years to taxonyourgift. By Cheque/Postal Order/CAF Voucher (to Emmaus UK) Emmaus UK. I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less Visa/MasterCard/Amex/Maestro (delete as appropriate) Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Initials IncomeTaxand/orCapitalGains Account no. Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimedonallmydonationsinthat Surname taxyearitismyresponsibilityto pay any difference. Address Issue no. (Maestro only) (3 digits on Expiry date Issue date Security code the back of If your name, address or tax your card, circumstances change please let // 4 on front us know. of Amex) Signature Please return to: Freepost RTTL-LJGS-SHEY, Emmaus UK, Unit 302 Scott House, The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham B9 4AA Postcode To return, please detach the donation form, Date // Registered Charity No. 1064470 fold it in half enclosing your gift if applicable Wewillneverpassyourdetailsontoanyotherorganisationandwewilltreatthem and post. Or phone 0300 303 7555 with respect. Wewouldliketokeepintouchfromtimetotimewithfurtherinformation about our work and other fundraising appeals. If you do not wish to receive any further 3 communication by post, please tick here

28 June - 7 July 2019 [MPPPMZI[MXL]SYJSVIZIV

28 June - 7 July 2019 [MPPPMZI[MXL]SYJSVIZIV