Innholdsfortegnelse for 24-07-2017 i The Big Issue

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

No doubt Edward Lawrenson is far younger than I and cannot contextualise Victim [Film, July 17-23] . But simply calling it creaky without placing it in a period when people like me – just out of school – were liable to prosecution and were surrounded by other films and television and a homophobic press, which aligned homosexuality with extreme campness and paedophilia, does the movie a disservice. Victim’s production team Michael Relph (producer), Basil Dearden (director) and Janet Green (writer) were way ahead of their time. Their films tackled taboo subjects within the context of entertainment, and the earlier film Pool of London (also directed by Dearden) was a breakthrough in terms of race, with a black hero (played by Earl Cameron, who turns 100 on August 8). Dirk Bogarde…

Mark is not the only Big Issue vendor whose life has been transformed by a furry friend. For countless men and women dealing with homelessness, their dog is a lifeline. We recently published a special edition exploring the life-saving, life-changing relationship between many of our vendors and their four-legged friends. Wimbledon vendor Jane Burns told how her beloved American bulldog Caz (right) brought happiness to her life when she felt like she had nothing else to live for. “I don’t think I’d be here if it wasn’t for Caz,” Jane said. “I would just have given up. She’s my soulmate.” Meanwhile, Nick Cuthbert, who sells the magazine in Truro, said his labradorcollie cross Bryony (below left) helped him overcome alcoholism. “She is the love of my life,” he said. “As…

“THRILLING AND SEXY AND FORBIDDEN. THE CULTURAL MOMENTS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE” Mark Gatiss is one of our best, and best-loved actors, writers, directors. He is also perhaps the most high-profile and powerful gay man in the British television industry, with Doctor Who, Sherlock and The League of Gentlemen among his credits. As part of the BBC’s Gay Britannia season, marking half a century since the Sexual Offences Act, Gatiss was asked to curate a season of monologues – charting life for gay men in the 50 years before and after the legislation. He jumped at the chance. “I love monologues as a form. Alan Bennett is a huge influence on me and he is a master of them. I thought this was so exciting – the opportunity to do…

1. RADIO SILENCE Alice Oseman The writing is awe-inspiring. It’s a current, relevant, modern read about the unusual relationship between a high-flying student and the creator of a cult podcast. I’m certain it’s the most important book of 2016. 2. STOLEN Lucy Christopher This is the book that inspired my writing. I love the way Lucy Christopher makes you feel things you shouldn’t. Gemma’s kidnapped by Ty and what ensues is totally unexpected. 3. THE L-SHAPED ROOM Lynne Reid Banks I remember reading this as a teenager. It’s a haunting, bleak, hopeless tale. To me it was the first YA book of its time, even though the protagonist, Jane, is in her 20s. It was first published in 1960. It’s the story of a young, unmarried, pregnant woman who gets…

The runaway sleeper hit of the summer in America, though it seems unlikely, is The Big Sick – a romantic culture-clash comedy about Kumail, whose on-off girlfriend slips into a coma. He has to deal with her anxious parents, while keeping it all secret from his traditional Pakistani parents, obsessed with arranging his marriage. Sounds hysterical, right? Did its producer Judd Apatow know it would be a success from the first pitch? “Oddly, I did,” says the 49-year-old. “I love awkward situations and there seems nothing more awkward than being at a hospital with your ex-girlfriend’s parents waiting and hoping their daughter would wake up from a coma.” Starring Kumail Nanjiani, who wrote the script with his wife Emily V Gordon, based on the true story of what happened in…

In the history of pop music, find me a track that has got as much of a wigged-out opening as It’s Raining Today. Find me a track that has a more abstract relationship between the initial strings and vibes and crazy-sounding cluster chord, and the resulting guitar chord. It’s absolutely revolutionary. Everybody from The Last Shadow Puppets to Radiohead to Anohni would attest to something like that. There is genius on Scott Walker’s early solo records made between 1967 and 1970, and what better place to present that to the public than the BBC Proms . It’s a festival that has always supported diverse music and new music in the large ensemble setting. What occurred on these albums was a meeting between a very, very talented and forward-looking singer-songwriter, and…

This week The Big Issue is looking at the amazing connection between people and animals. The cover feature is about a Big Issue vendor who went to work on a monkey sanctuary and the experience helped save his life. You can read his incredible story on page 18. I have an amazing connection with Levi. He’s a lovely Jack Russell, I got him when he was a pup 12 years ago. Levi has got me through a lot and he and I have been inseparable. Read more about my story on page 46. Can’t find a regular vendor? Subscribe to The Big Issue for £130. See bigissue.com for all offers. contact@selectps.com / 01202 586 848…

I’ve been watching The Handmaid’s Tale , gripped. In case you’ve missed it, or like me, hadn’t read Margaret Atwood’s book upon which it’s based, this is the story: we’re in a very near future in which environmental issues have led to infertilityon a huge scale. Fertile women become a prized commodity. A sect of men, framing their beliefs upon literal interpretations of biblical tracts that suit them, launch a coup in the US, overthrowing the government and establishing Gilead, a place where the previous well-to-do men are in charge, and fertile women become their chattels, there to help them reproduce. Their wives, on the face of it, are complicit. It’s incredible TV, hookedand led by Elisabeth Moss, all internalised anguish and fury and subtle looks. It’s the best performance…

ARTWORK BY GERALDINE CRIMMINS Geraldine has struggled with drug addiction and been homeless twice in the past 16 years living on the streets around Victoria in London but she’s now been clean and in a housing association flat. This oil painting is of her kitchen studio. It’s been chosen for an exhibition at the ONE Festival of Homeless Arts at the Old Diorama Arts Centre in London, opening on World Homeless Day, October 10. NOMAD BY MICHAEL CROSSWAITE After years spent travelling and squatting, Michael ended up homeless in London with a drug habit. “I got into a hostel and eventually got myself clean,” he says. “Now I’ve got a Peabody Flat and things are cool.” He likes there to be humour in his work. “The more ridiculous the better,”…

This week we have a couple of authors who manage to combine brave and uncompromising writing with page-turning, compulsive plots. First up is Safe by Ryan Gattis. The American writer made a name for himself with his previous novel, All Involved, a kaleidoscopic narrative set amongst the LA riots of 1992. Safe shares some DNA with that book but it sharpens its focus in comparison to the broader palette of its predecessor. The story takes place in Los Angeles in 2008, just as the housing crisis hit, and it focuses on Ricky Mendoza Jr, nicknamed Ghost. Ghost is a legitimate safe-cracker by trade, busting into the safes of gangs on behalf of the DEA, the FBI or any other government organisation. The narrative is split between Ghost and Glasses, a…

Based on author David Grann’s non-fiction bestseller, The Lost City of Z is the incredible true story of pioneering British explorer Percy Fawcett, who journeys into the Amazon at the dawn of the 20th century. Despite being ridiculed by the scientific establishment, a determined Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam, below, Sons of Anarchy, King Arthur) returns repeatedly to his beloved jungle, discovering evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization. Supported by his devoted wife (Sienna Miller, High-Rise, The Girl), son (Tom Holland) and aide de camp (Twilight’s Robert Pattinson), Fawcett audaciously journeys to places deemed off-limits by society, culminating in his mysterious disappearance in 1925. This epic tale of courage and obsession is out on digital release, Blu-ray and DVD now, through STUDIOCANAL. We have five copies to be won on DVD.…

In response to our Homeless Tracker feature, July 17-23  Not much of an “artist” if you need to use the homeless as your art gimmick… try listening to sensible solutions and stop using other people’s misfortune to commoditise mediocre ability in the arts! Cecilia W Yu, email I thought this was tasteless but, having read the article, he has a point. Susan Kingsford, email Homelessness doesn’t need attention. It needs a capable project team with the aspiration to deliver the first UK Christmas with no homeless people on the street. Better still: no homelessness throughout winter. We have enough empty accommodation. Enough talk. Appoint a project team with sufficient subject-matter expertise, resources and leadership capability, and let’s crack on. Iain Meyrick, email A perilous state It is time state housing…

The Big Issue is sad to report that our vendor Bob MacLeod, who sold the magazine across from the Jubilee Clock Tower in Brighton, has died. Originally from the north of Scotland, Bob, 42, affectionately known as ‘Ben Nevis Bob’ because of his love of the Highland mountains, was a hugely popular figure in the town. Customers left tributes at his pitch near Waterstones and many contacted us to share their stories of his kindness, resilience and positivity. “It’s so sad, a real shock to be honest,” said Anton Collins, bookstore manager at Waterstones. “All the staff got to know him. We’d chat every day, about how he was getting on, or films, football, TV… Scotland! He read a lot of history books, military history particularly. He was a big…

“What’s government’s big mistake? Not tapping into the talents that often like just below the surface” The train toilet was occupied. Unfortunately, they had not locked the door. I was about to walk in on a confused user, unable to fathom the complexity of lights and locks, when a young man told me the true situation in the cabinet. I thanked and waited, warning another who came up and who intended to take the available light as erroneously as I did; until forewarned. How did the young man who had forewarned me of the chance of a social faux pas if I walked in on a busy woman get on to the question of organic Rice Krispies with me? By the time the cabinet was empty we had progressed on…