Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/29/2021 i The Big Issue

495,000 renters are in arrears (Citizens Advice) £360,000,000 has been racked up in rent arrears (Citizen Advice) 225,000 renters are “probably” or “likely” to lose their home (StepChange) £9,266 per person is saved in public spending for preventing someone from homelessness every year (Crisis) £2,263 is the cost of preventing homelessness for one person for one year (Crisis) £2,234,025,000 would be saved if £360m in rent arrears is paid off now rather than waiting for people to fall into homelessness…

“It’s been a difficult couple of years in these strange times we live in,” reflects frequent Street Art contributor Robyn, who is in her late fifties, lives in Brighton and copes with physical and mental health challenges including rheumatoid arthritis and bipolar disorder. “Which has highlighted the importance of self-care,” she says. “I use art making as a healing, soothing tool. “We are meant to be creative whatever that is for each of us. Find time and energy. Art takes courage. Art heals the soul. I’m navigating life to improve my artistic skills. “Creating is my happy place. Unleashing my creative energy getting into the creative zone and finding my flow. Allowing all my hidden creativity to emerge.” The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised.…

Almost three years ago, on the Horn of Africa, I made a promise to a young boy called Ibrahim. I promised him that we would build a school for him and his friends, many of whom had been displaced by conflict in the countries neighbouring their new home, Djibouti. Although I didn’t initially realise the magnitude of the challenge ahead, I quickly discovered that, with purpose and passion and the generosity of complete strangers, truly anything is possible in this world if you are prepared to keep going – even when the odds are dramatically stacked against you. And so it was that I found myself rowing solo across the pirate-infested Bab el-Mandeb Strait in a world first; running extreme marathons in ice-cold climates; and embarking on a world-record attempt…

DAY 19 Norwich is the location for my first signing sessions in a multi-storey car park. It is a brutal and brutalist surrounding to autograph a book on cosmic beauty, and it is all done from the boot of a car. I am caught between images of the gangster classic Get Carter and a shoot-out scene from ’80s cop caper Dempsey and Makepeace. Twelve copies signed and the dodgy deal is done (it was actually the most convenient place to sign a bunch of books sold online, but I hope I have created a sense of subterfuge you don’t get from Professor Brian Cox). DAY 21 On the train to Exeter, stood in the vestibule as usual as the carriages are packed and mask-less. In a scene I conjure in…

“It’s terrifyingly entertaining. It’s pretty special. I was grinning like a fool, I was like a kid at the circus. It is magical. “I could have watched even more. I would watch as much as there is. It changed how I felt about the band a little bit. Because Peter Jackson’s whole thing was, what we think we know of that period is one thing, but in the vast majority of footage – visual and audio – they still look and sound like a working band who get on. They’re still mates. “It is like finding treasure. I could watch it all day. And there is so much – working through songs and song sketches and we watched the whole rooftop gig unedited. So you see all the different takes…

I’ve said it before here, but snobbishness about genre fiction is entirely misplaced. There are good and bad books in any genre (including literary fiction, just another genre), and the breadth within any single category is astonishing when you dig into it. So it is in my home turf of crime fiction, and this week’s books demonstrate this range in spades. First up we have The Killing Hills by American Chris Offutt. The author has previously published a mix of fiction and memoir, and this exhilarating slice of country noir clearly draws on real-life experience. Set in the remote Appalachian hills of Kentucky where Offutt grew up, the story focuses on Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an army CID agent, currently on leave back home. Hardin’s sister…

House of Gucci is as absurdly entertaining as you might expect from a prestige drama about an iconic Italian fashion house and the romance that led to betrayal, revenge, murder and, ultimately, the downfall of the family who built it. It’s the story of the ambitious Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) who marries her way into the Gucci family by way of the studious Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). He is less interested in the fashion empire but as she pushes him to wrest power from his uncle Aldo (Al Pacino), a marital rift forms and her anger leads to deadly consequences. Based on true events, what adds to the decadent fun and ridiculousness of Ridley Scott’s latest cinematic endeavour is that none of his all-star cast is actually Italian. Well, Gaga…

We’ve already had music, plays, novels and movies inspired by the pandemic but as the dust settles and perspective widens, artists are beginning to create work that reflects the context and the cultural impact too. Soweto Kinch’s White Juju, commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and premiered at this year’s London Jazz Festival, aimed to illustrate the 18 months of turmoil we have all – in some capacity – shared, from lockdown to the police brutality that instigated the Black Lives Matter protests around the world. As well as being a musician and composer of some renown, Kinch is an Oxford Modern History graduate and has form creating music to reflect uncomfortable moments in history. His 2019 album, The Black Peril, cast light on the 1919 race riots which thundered…

It’s not just tenants who have been hit by Covid’s impact on the private rental market – landlord Karen Blake has also been left in a precarious financial position. The 64-year-old is owed £15,000 on three properties she owns in Monmouthshire, south Wales. Blake earmarked the three properties as her pension after she gave up work to raise her family. She told The Big Issue she backs the Stop Mass Homelessness campaign because she believes ministers paying off £360 million in rent arrears is the only way tenants crippled by the impact of Covid will be able to avoid being saddled with unpayable debt and left without a home. “I’m very disillusioned with the government because when Rishi Sunak says, ‘Oh well, we can’t help everybody’, they weren’t actually helping…

I’m hopeless with dates. The Beatles experts have got them down much better than I have, but I think I’d met John [Lennon] and George [Harrison] by the time I was 16. George used to get on my bus. I was already writing songs – I wrote my first song when I was 14. When I met John I said, “Yeah, I’ve got a couple of songs and some little bits and pieces”, and he said, “Yeah, so have I.” It was a good thing for us to bond over; we could both learn from each other. We thought, well, if we’ve written one each, maybe we could write one together. So we did. The first songs were very simple but we gradually developed over the next few years, and…

I know exactly who I was at 16. This was before punk and I was just getting into David Bowie. I remember Space Oddity being on the radio, but didn’t buy a Bowie record until Aladdin Sane. I found the song Drive-In Saturday absolutely compulsive. This modern, clean, young fresh world he painted, this utopia. Bowie inspired this feeling of optimism in me and it made me tingle. It’s very different from the feeling at the moment. There’s not a lot of optimism around, is there? I miss it. I had stopped being so shy but two years earlier I didn’t have any friends. I remember walking into town in my CND greatcoat from the army surplus, walking around, buying a bar of chocolate, walking home again and not talking…

1 Trans, A Memoir By Juliet Jacques Already a classic, Jacques’ 2015 memoir is a brave, hard-hitting and emotional tour-de-force, charting her own gender journey through a personal, political and cultural lens. 2 Detransition, Baby By Torrey Peters Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021, this super-smart, witty, compassionate and compelling novel follows the highs and lows of Reese, Ames and Katrina in their quest to form – and their right to have – a very modern family. 3 The Transgender Issue: An Argument For Justice By Shon Faye A timely and powerful critique of trans lives now in which Faye examines the realities of what it means to be trans in a transphobic society. 4 What’s the T? By Juno Dawson This straight-talking, humorous,…

1 Robin Hood: Legend of the Forgotten Forest Bristol Old Vic until Jan 8 A fresh spin on the swashbuckling legend Robin Hood (and the power of responsible taxation). bristololdvic.org.uk 2 OZ Bristol Tobacco Factory Theatres Dec 10–Jan 16 Immerse yourself in the world of OZ, where all that glitters may not be as it seems. tobaccofactorytheatres.com 3 Jack and the Beanstalk Cheltenham Everyman Theatre until Jan 9 GIGANTIC fun for all the family. everymantheatre.org.uk 4 Cinderella Bath Theatre Royal Dec 16–Jan 9 A traditional production of this panto classic. With Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer as the Fairy Godmother you’ll have a ball! theatreroyal.org.uk 5 Aladdin Winchester Theatre Royal Dec 4–Jan 2 Make your wishes come true with this Genie-us take on Aladdin. theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk…

I’m turning 60 this week and I’ve been selling the magazine for 10 years now. I found myself living on the streets and a Big Issue vendor came up to me and told me: “You can do something a lot better. Sell The Big Issue, earn a living, get some self-respect.” That’s how it started. It’s not a good thing, begging, because you do either get abuse or sorry looks. It’s hard just sitting there in the cold sometimes. Thanks to The Big Issue, I have come a long way. If it wasn’t for The Big Issue I wouldn’t have started on my art or come as far as I have with it. I create pieces of art using bright colours and geometric shapes. Recently my work was part of…