Innholdsfortegnelse for 8/13/2018 i The Big Issue

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Big Issue. The King is our cover star – I like a few of his songs. Read all about Elvis and the political backdrop to his 1968 Comeback Special on page 22. Matt Groening’s back with his new cartoon show Disenchantment. He’s famous for creating The Simpsons and I watch that every day, as well as Family Guy. It’s become a big part of my routine, it’s like clockwork. Find out if Matt can repeat his success on page 20. Terry Waite writes this week’s Letter To My Younger Self. He’s got quite the unique story to tell – that’s on page 18. And you can discover how I’m getting on in Cardiff on page 46.…

Adead man lay undiscovered in a tent by the side of the road for a year. He was found on August 15, 2017 on the A370 near Weston-super-Mare. Beside him was a newspaper, a birth certificate and a driving licence. He is believed to be called Peter Thomas Harrison, born in Birmingham and 59 or 60 when he died. But there has been no formal identification and nobody has claimed him as next of kin. Peter fell through the cracks so far that even when in plain sight in a tent he was invisible. This is terribly sad. Here is a man who came to mean nothing. Sometimes people wish to remove themselves from normal society for any number of reasons, but that doesn’t mean there should not be a…

Rural rough sleepers can be tough to locate for outreach teams looking to support them – but the P3 charity in Lincolnshire are taking flight with a new idea to find them. P3 chief executive Mark Simms bought a £600 Phantom 3 drone, which uses a 20mm camera to live-stream footage of rural Lincolnshire back to outreach teams, letting them comb remote and coastal areas across the region more and reach those in need. “This technology will revolutionise our ability to direct our support to vulnerable people sleeping rough,” said P3 service coordinator Andy Lee, who was trialling it last week. “Because the drone will help us to search vast areas within a relatively short period of time, we will be able to locate people much faster, assess the easiest…

The Licensing Act 2003 states that “The responsible person shall ensure that free tap water is provided on request to customers where it is reasonably available” in England and Wales. The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 only differs slightly with “Tap water fit for drinking must be provided free of charge on request”. This means that you can go into any licensed property and ask for free tap water. As for those without an alcohol licence, there is nothing legally obliging them to provide water for free. Schools and workplaces must provide drinking water to students and employees at all times under the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 and Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 respectively.…

When I started work on my novel Country, just over two years ago, the subject matter felt very remote. Some days, I wondered if I was wasting my time. Would anyone want to read a story about the end of the Northern Ireland conflict, set around the border? It was yesterday’s news. Even worse, I had decided to borrow the structure and characters of Homer’s Iliad, the epic poem about the dying days of the Trojan War. I had a hunch that the nature of armed conflict hadn’t changed in a few thousand years, and the glory and doom of those mythic Greek heroes would ring just as true when transposed to the world I’d grown up in. The trouble was, I really didn’t know the Iliad very well. And…

I was 15 and living in Scotland when I knew my family didn’t want me. They asked social work to take me away, but the request was refused. I was happy to remain at home, even though I knew I was unwanted. I loved school, I worked hard, my dream was to study marine biology so I could go out into the world and save animals. But when I turned 16, I was thrown on to the streets. I insisted I’d sleep on the pavement outside my school gates. Social work thought it was better for everyone if they found me a foster placement instead. I cried every night, silently screaming into my pillow, soaking wet from tears. I promised God or the universe or whoever that I’d be a…

There are a few weighty and profound tomes out this month, tackling crucial issues like racism, identity, landscape and myth. There are also a couple of significant novels with illuminating insights into love and loss. (Everyone knows you can’t go wrong with love and loss.) However, with temperatures still hovering exhaustingly above the annual norm, I find I barely have the energy to lift a 600-page book, even if its philosophical heaviosity justifies its literal one. And so I find myself seeking out new work which succeeds in making me do the one physical thing I still have an inkling for; laughing out loud. Those with a particular interest in prodigious comic writers of the most outlandish kind will already be aware of Simon Rich. The thirtysomething New Yorker was…

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is the biggest movie star in the world; paid more and seemingly making more films than any other actor. In the last 18 months he has headlined Fast & Furious 8, Baywatch, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Rampage and Skyscraper. All made truckloads of cash in the US and UK but even more in the crucial emerging Asian markets. “I can kick ass better than anyone on the planet… and I have a decent smile,” Johnson once said, and that’s basically the secret of his success. But with a workload that could buckle even his bulging biceps (10 films are filming or in production) credit should go to the unsung and unseen stars of his films. Myles Humphus is Johnson’s stunt double, performing the daredevil deeds…

Going green I am writing to express my views at a time when looking after our planet should be one of our top priorities [Stop Making Humans, August 6-12]. From what I have observed, most people are avoiding saying what I believe to be the most obvious answer to climate change, that we need to cut down on our use of energy – fly less, drive less, use computer and iPads etc less. The environment is everyone’s concern and responsibility. Our society is behaving as if the world is for entertainment only. Also, of course, car, plane, computer manufacturers and travel companies are afraid to lose their money. I’m not doubting that, in the social system that we live in, we all need money and jobs, but we need a…

Big Issue vendor Ian Duff was turning heads last week – after a life-size pencil portrait of him and faithful hound Boycie went on display in the window of an art gallery. Artist Adrian Thompson-Boyce spent a mammoth 100 hours sketching Bath seller Ian and Boycie over three months. The life-like six-foot-five tall, three-foot wide sketch was posted at the city’s Art Salon on August 6 with a £3,000 price tag and will remain in the window until August 26. “I have been down to see Ian and Boycie to tell him that it was in the window,” said Adrian. He said, ‘Don’t tell me, because everyone who has been going past has been asking me if I’ve seen it’. It’s got some really good reactions around and has been…

Harry Styles is campaigning for a change of direction on how gigs and touring impact on the planet. On his recent US tour the former 1D singer hooked up with Reverb, who work with touring acts to encourage gig-goers to save the environment, help homeless organisations and donate to foodbanks. And fans responded – 189 of them donated over 750 hours of their time, while 4,200 took up the rallying cry to promote 16 local charities and raise awareness of their work. Free water stations were installed at every show, while refillable water bottles were sold at the merch stall, saving an estimated 10,000 single-use bottles. Behind the scenes all crew also shunned single-use bottles while full recycling facilities were installed, eco-friendly cleaning supplies used and reusable and compostable plates…

“I explored art while going to a psychiatric recovery unit,” says regular Street Art contributor Chris. “I draw street life and try to celebrate diversity and hope. I believe art can inspire people to overcome their personal hurdles and reach a bright future.” Street Art is created by people who are marginalised by issues like homelessness, disability and mental health conditions. Contact streetlights@bigissue.com  to see your art here. BUY STREET ART! You can buy prints of some artworks featured in Street Art through bigissueshop.com At least half of the profit from each sale goes to the artist.…

A forest fire consumed southern California with such ferocity last week that more than 20,000 residents were forcibly evacuated when it spread over 6,200 acres, with firefighters able to contain only five per cent of the blaze. Such was its biblical scale, it was dubbed the ‘Holy Fire’. It was just one of the conflagrations that have decimated America this summer – and Europe has also been in flames, with Greece, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Latvia and the UK burning up in what scientists describe as the most deadly wildfire season since 1900. As Earth is scorched you might think getting closer to the sun is the last thing we need. But, like Pink Floyd, Nasa has set the controls for the heart of the sun with the Parker Solar Probe,…

FOOL ME ONCE by Harlan Coben  After a woman witnesses her husband’s murder, she’s shocked when she finds footage of him alive and well on the nanny-cam. I can’t remember the last time I got through a summer holiday without reading a Harlan Coben. THE POWER by Naomi Alderman  A potentially deadly electric force is awakened in women, shifting the balance of gender power. A genius take on an alternate world. Sharp, clever and impossible to put down. CRAZY RICH ASIANS by Kevin Kwan  When Rachel’s boyfriend brings her home to Singapore to meet his family, she discovers they’re more than a little crazy and very, very rich. She faces his disapproving mother and bitchy ex, and has to work out if this is a world she wants to be…

Ken Campbell was a great autodidact and theatrical force who through charm, hectoring, and chaotic force of personality, changed the lives of almost everyone he worked with, whether they wanted that or not. Terry Johnson, writer of Dead Funny, Insignificance and Hitchcock Blonde, beautifully evoked the brutality of Campbell’s creativity in his recent work, Ken. He described Campbell as causing the creation of half of him, the best half, the half that has written and directed award-winning theatre over the last four decades. Diane Morgan is rightly revered as one of the funniest actors around. Her portrayal of Philomena Cunk is both utterly absurd and beguilingly believable. What happens when Diane and Ken meet? I don’t know because When Diane Met Ken hadn’t been broadcast on Radio 4 Extra at…

The faintly deranged tribalism of loving one particular pop star at the expense of all others has been dampened somewhat by the eclectic, fractured and fickle nature of music consumption in the digital streaming and playlist shuffling age, and fandom plainly isn’t quite what it once was any more. Will a child on Brighton beach never again know the old-fashioned terror of having their sandcastle building interrupted by a rocker battering a mod over the head with a deckchair? Will such tonnage of hairspray ever again be expended in anger as during the folically extravagant pomp of Durannies vs Spandaus? Shall the future witness such thinly veiled class war as Blur vs Oasis? Is there true animosity between Taylor Swift’s Swifties and Katy Perry’s KatyCats, or is it all just…

Today, after a hectic morning, I stepped out of my lovely air-conditioned office in the City at lunchtime to do some shopping. I felt hot and bothered after 30 seconds and switched to auto pilot as I made my way as quickly as I could down St Mary Axe. As I walked past Pret opposite the Gherkin, I only half-noticed a Big Issue vendor by the front door, making an effort to sell today’s new issue. I walked on but something about him struck me. He was the only person standing still while the rest of us were rushing past on our lunch break: a guy trying to make an honest living, standing in 30° heat and being ignored by hundreds of people walking past him. I approached him and…

Sarson’s has been making vinegar since five years after the French Revolution. The little dark red plastic Sarson’s bottle sits on the table by the HP sauce as I reflect on how difficult it is to comment on controversial issues these days. Beware how you tread – else you’ll be marked. It happened to me at the beginning of this year when I suggested that we volunteer for the NHS by staying healthy. That pissed off so many people – yet I was simply passing on the message I had received on countless occasions from doctors and nurses that fewer ill people would mean that they could concentrate on those already ill. The Sarson’s bottle, unlike the HP sauce bottle is a great shape. It’s like a little potbellied thing…

I was the son of a policeman in a very small village in Cheshire so I could never get away with anything. I was always pointed out. It was a very small community but a very good community. We didn’t have much money – policemen weren’t paid very much in those days. So I always knew that if I wanted anything I had to work for it. I delivered newspapers, worked in market gardens, did everything I could to buy my first bike. I felt strongly as a teenager that I really wanted to escape the confines of my small village. In those days you could hitchhike anywhere. My first trip was up to John O’Groats. Then when I was about 16 I went as far as Vienna. I think…

In his documentary about Orson Welles, the filmmaker Mark Cousins recalls chancing on the actor-director’s Touch of Evil, his magnificent film noir from 1958, as a teenager. Cousins describes the moment in terms of a swoon, his first exposure to Welles’ blazing genius is the sort of love at first sight you never grow out of. I had a similar experience. When I was about 13 I stumbled on a BBC Two interview with the man in which he ranged back over his long career; then watched his 1941 debut Citizen Kane (made, head-spinningly, when Welles was just 24). As with Cousins, it was a revelation: it turned me on to serious cinema, and is probably the reason I’m writing this column. I’ve since seen pretty much all of Welles’…