Innholdsfortegnelse for 5/14/2018 i The Big Issue

This week’s magazine is a royal wedding special. We’re marking the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by taking a look back at the royal family’s relationship with The Big Issue over the years – our Timeline starts on page 21. We take an in-depth look at the row which erupted about homelessness in Windsor, where the wedding will take place. You can read about that on page 25. We’ll also see Street Art contributors give their own unique take on the nuptials on page 26. And last but not least I tell my own story on page 46.…

Last week Scottish musician Scott Hutchison died. He was 36. He had gone missing in the early hours of Wednesday from a hotel outside Edinburgh. His body was found on Thursday. Scott had left several concerning tweets on Tuesday, his final one saying simply “I’m away now. Thanks.” Scott suffered mental health problems in the past but this disappearance was so worrying that his family made increasingly desperate pleas to him to return. Devastatingly for them, it was too late. Some of the songs Scott wrote for his band Frightened Rabbit dealt with isolation, fear and depression. His fans are clear how the music had helped them. The news of his death hit a lot of people hard. I didn’t know Scott, but I know a number of people who…

Big Issue Founder John Bird’s push to make credit more affordable for some of the poorest in society is a step closer to becoming law. The Creditworthiness Assessment Bill, introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Bird, progressed through the committee stage with widespread support and no amendments on Friday last week. The proposed legislation had its first reading on June 28 last year before progressing to a second reading on November 24. The Bill, which will require credit providers to take rental and council tax payments into account, passed the committee stage with no amendments. Two – one calling for a FCA review after two years, another reducing from “must” to “may” the obligation on credit providers to take rental payment data into account – were withdrawn after…

The first time palliative care nurse Gilly Barringer asked Sean Mitchell if his homeless hostel would accommodate a terminally ill man’s desire to die there he refused to consider the idea. “I had already had to deal with an unexpected and traumatic death, so I told her ‘No’,” says Mitchell, who manages the George House hostel in Plymouth. “Most of the time, we have two workers for 46 residents, many of whom have complex needs and, the way I saw it, we were a hostel not a hospice. My original stance was: ‘This is not what we are here for’.” Soon after that however several things happened in quick succession. An increase in homelessness in Plymouth, mirroring the rest of the country, brought with it a spike in overdose deaths,…

David Tovey spent six years as a chef in the army and cooked for the Queen at Windsor Castle. After leaving the military, he ran a restaurant until suffering a stroke in 2011. A series of health problems including cancer and a heart attack followed, leading to homelessness and a suicide attempt. “Art is one of the best treatments for trauma,” Tovey says. Today he is a rising star in the art world and has founded the One Festival of Homeless Arts. “I’m hoping this picture will help change perceptions of the homeless. To have Meghan and Harry selling the magazine is to highlight that anyone, and I truly mean anyone, can become homeless. It’s also to highlight that a huge number of people become homeless after a marriage break-up,…

THE SILENT SPEAKER Rex Stout Nero Wolfe is the famed armchair detective who solves tricky crimes while virtually never leaving his apartment in Midtown. Here he investigates post-WW2 government corruption. With brainpower his only crime-solving tool, aided by his sidekick and leg person (Archie Goodwin), Wolfe was an inspiration for my Lincoln Rhyme. KILLER’S PAYOFF Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes, detectives in the 87th Precinct, solve a complicated murder case. Carella – my favourite of the crew – isn’t known for his Holmes-like deductions, but he almost always gets his perp thanks to hard work and a bit of humour. A RAGE IN HARLEM Chester Himes NYPD partners Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, tough, dogged and with savvy to spare, take readers deep into the…

From the street to back on their feet? I was struck by the article by Tony Wood, triumphing the fresh opportunity provided by Airbnb for homeless people to find quality accommodation. His article gave a positive insight into something heavily criticised for reducing housing availability. What if those without a home could rent an Airbnb for half price? Although I think there is still a risk of abuse (with stories of housing being ‘rented’ full time on Airbnb), with the right regulation from the site, and perhaps a bit of good will: could this really help get people back off the street and on to their feet? Just a thought. Katie Treadwell, email Benanza! Firstly I’d like to thank you for putting Benedict Cumberbatch on the front page [May 7-13].…

IN 1991 THE YEAR RONNIE O’SULLIVAN TURNS 16… The first edition of The Big Issue magazine goes on sale / Bryan Adams spends a record 16 weeks at the top of the UK singles chart / The Birmingham Six are released from prison When I was 16, I had just turned professional. My main passion was snooker and my life revolved around billiard halls. All my friends were there. It was my social place, my workplace, we would have dinner up there. I was eager to get going. As you get further into your career, the fear can kick in, but as a youngster you have nothing to lose. It was pure excitement. All I wanted to do was play snooker, so the opportunity to play professionally was fantastic. And…

When Windsor was announced as Harry and Meghan’s wedding venue, a right royal media storm kicked up. And the town’s homeless population was caught in the middle. Rough sleepers should be swept off the streets ahead of the big day, council leader Simon Dudley urged police earlier this year. As an activist for homelessness charities, Harry confronted the row, albeit sideways. He and Meghan visited Social Bite, the increasingly famous Edinburgh cafe that trains homeless people. It didn’t take Sherlock to read this as an indication of the couple’s position. Their wedding has kept homelessness on the agenda, and maintained focus on other issues the couple feel strongly about. Prince Harry is involved with armed forces and mental health charities and Meghan has long supported organisations including the UN Women’s…

One of them wears leather trousers and drives a classic green Porsche, the other prefers jogging bottoms and tends to take the bus. Brilliant, mysterious and blunter-than-a-bag-of-hammers Malmö police detective Saga Norén is in most ways the polar opposite of Sofia Helin, the loungewear and public transport-favouring actor who plays her. Now that they’re parting ways as the final season of Scandi crime drama supreme The Bridge airs on BBC Two, it’s as much with a sense of release as it is grief for the Swede. “I’m actually relieved,” admits Helin over the phone from her home in central Stockholm, in a voice that elicits a much more natural warmth than that of the icily spoken Saga, whose Asperger’s-like condition renders social etiquette difficult. “I’m so happy and proud over…

“ Money Heist unashamedly embraces all the familar tropes of the genre. And why not?” Money Heist is a terrible name for a TV show. Especially one that is actually about a money heist. I mean, it would be fine if the show was a romantic comedy set in an aquarium. Then the name would sound clever and cryptic. As it is, calling Money Heist ‘Money Heist’ would be like calling The Sopranos ‘Gangster Men,’ or Coronation Street ‘Northerners In A Pub.’ It leaves little to the imagination. But Money Heist is a Spanish drama that, in its home country, is actually called La Casa De Papel which, obviously, sounds much cooler. What does that literally translate as? There is no way of knowing. But knowing those…

I was interested to read Tony Wood’s story [Sometimes, all I need is the Airbnb, April 23-29]. I am looking at this from the opposite point of view – that of a homeowner. We are lucky enough to own a flat in England and a condo in Florida. Because we spend the winters in Florida, and do some travelling as well, our flat is empty for much of the year. This seems a waste: we would like it to be used but have not found a way of doing so. (Airbnb does not work for us.) There must be others in a similar situation. Tony Woods said that he had discussed his experiences with experts in the homeless charities sector. Could they not set up a scheme whereby vacant property…

James Brokenshire has given the go-ahead to three Housing First pilot projects in his first act as Secretary of State for Housing. The Old Bexley and Sidcup MP, who replaced former Housing Secretary Sajid Javid after his promotion to Home Secretary following Amber Rudd’s resignation, awarded £28m to bring the approach to Liverpool, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Previously announced in last year’s budget, the trials will give rough sleepers permanent housing alongside support to help with complex needs. In European projects Housing First helped at least eight out of 10 people exit homelessness. “We know that the causes of rough sleeping are varied and Housing First will give people housing alongside the support they need to get off the streets and rebuild their lives,” Brokenshire told The Big…

I went to a small exhibition at the British Museum last week and realised that it has turned even more into a tourist destination. The world’s artefacts arranged in splendid rooms for the world’s visitors. They come to the BM to look at what perhaps their own ancestors hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago made and invented. All human endeavour is there. Opened in the late 18th century, it soon became the leading museum of the world and spawned imitations elsewhere, especially in the US where they had even more money to buy and ship. But I was there for a jewel-like exhibition that had that wonderful thing that rarely happens if you’ve looked at all the art I have looked at: surprise, wonder and enchantment. My life was…

If it’s deformed, engorged or oozing pus, Dr Christian Jessen has seen it, prodded it and made it feel better. Boldly going where no ‘TV doctor’ dared go before, Embarrassing Bodies started exposing the nation’s sorest spots in 2007 and since then, Dr Christian has become one of the most recognisable faces in medicine, while still working at his Harley Street practice and treating hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers with a straight-talking style that delights in busting through the pseudoscience online. Here he tackles his biggest case yet – our ailing NHS – which he believes is not fit for purpose in the modern world. With the internet and social media changing everything around us and about us, including our own health and wellbeing, the system urgently needs to…

San Franciscan novelist Andrew Sean Greer’s fifth novel Less arrives on this shore with a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction already under its belt. But anyone expecting a sensational tour de force will be disappointed – the charms of this light-footed, melancholy novel are soft and subtle. Greer’s comic tale centres on his titular hero Arthur Less, a mid-ranking middle-aged novelist “too old to be fresh, too young to be rediscovered.” Requiring an excuse not to attend his ex-boyfriend’s wedding, he decides to attend every literary event he’s recently been invited to. The invitations themselves bear witness to his “subterranean stature” – a number aremotivated by his previous relationship with a much better-known poet. But an itinerary which spins him from New York to Japan, taking in Mexico, India, Italy and…

On Chesil Beach opens with a young couple on a romantic stroll along the gravel bank of the Dorset coastline of the film’s title. It is 1962, and the man and woman, both in their early twenties, are talking about rock ‘n’roll music. Their conversation concerning the chord progression of a rock standard is pretty square – these kids have no idea about the social and sexual revolution that rock music is about to usher in. “Sexual intercourse began,” the poet Philip Larkin wrote, “in 1963/ (which was rather late for me)/ Between the end of the Chatterley ban/And the Beatles’ first LP”. That’s a whole year away for Florence and Edward, the couple earnestly discussing musicology on a windy seafront, but it could be a lifetime. An intelligent, handsomely…

“Britten wanted local audiences to experience the artistry that was on show in larger cities” “I hear those voices that will not be drowned”. The phrase is cut out of Maggi Hambling’s giant scallop shell sculpture that sits on Aldeburgh’s pebbled beach. The words are taken from Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten’s opera that is set in The Borough, a fictional fishing village on the east coast of England. In addition to Grimes, Britten wrote handfuls of choral works and, famously, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. But perhaps his most significant legacy lives on in a corner of East Anglia: the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts. Aldeburgh Festival (June 8-24) was first held in 1948, during a period of post-war austerity. Its early instalments were modest, but…