Innholdsfortegnelse for 7/25/2022 i The Big Issue

Walter Sickert painted a world we should be grimly thankful for In 1976 an author called Stephen Knight released a book about Jack the Ripper, and he had concluded that an accomplice of the un-caught perpetrator of the murders was Walter Sickert, a painter who at the moment enjoys a major exhibition at the Tate Britain (which I have suggested we rename the Tate Britney in the hope it will attract more visitors). I was fascinated by the idea that Knight’s book was true, with the author putting up a number of supposedly well-reasoned arguments why Sickert was involved in the murders of all of the East End women that fell to the Ripper’s knife. And for a while the charges kind of stuck, with TV films made and other…

It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that it’s been very, very hot this summer. Of course, how hot it is for you depends on where you are in the country. If you’re in London, you’ll be suffering the most thanks to the “urban heat island” effect. This refers to cities being much warmer than other parts of a country during heatwaves thanks to concrete and asphalt absorbing and radiating heat, while tall buildings trap heat at street level. The effect is so marked that cities can be as much as 10°C hotter than surrounding areas during a heatwave. Cities around the world are finding ways to deal with heat, from planting more trees to ‘cool spot’ maps for the public. However, countries in the global south who are at the…

REVIEWS The mixed-up matter of maternal instinct Still Born is a novel that reckons with the many complications of motherhood with extraordinary grace. In limpid prose, Guadalupe Nettel, as translated by Rosalind Harvey, offers various epiphanies about becoming a parent. “We have the children that we have, not the ones we imagined we’d have, or the ones we’d have liked,” is one crucial statement voiced by the narrator, Laura, a PhD student in her mid-thirties, who speaks with an almost omniscient clarity. Her main observations involve the trials experienced by her friend, Alina, a curator, who is desperate to have a baby. Originally, Laura feels betrayed when Alina announces this desire. They have, after all, spent years bonding over their mutual desire to be childless. Laura has recently been sterilised…

LEVELLING UP Has Boris Johnson’s grand levelling up plan come tumbling down? It was meant to be the ousted PM’s flagship policy to help lift Britain from the doldrums and to give local areas more control. But, like his reign, Boris Johnson’s levelling up agenda seems to be falling apart. A pot of almost £5 billion in funding didn’t open for bids until six weeks after the planned date, leaving authorities frustrated at delays to much-needed improvements for services such as local libraries, theatres, arts centres and parks. Labour says the Conservative Party leadership contest means the “government has ground to a halt”. Lisa Nandy, shadow levelling up secretary, said: “If only they put the same effort into levelling up as they put into trying to advance their own careers.”…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Taste test I read Paola Totaro’s piece on Anosmia [Issue 1520, July 14]with interest as I lost my sense of smell over seven years ago following a heavy cold and it has never returned. I found it surprising that Paola didn’t mention her sense of taste, as smell and taste are closely linked. I haven’t been able to taste my food for the last seven years. Initially I was hopeful that these two senses would return. I tried doing smell training using four small pots containing strong smells purchased from Abscent. Sadly, after six months nothing had changed. As Paola said, there is a chance smell loss could be linked to…

At 16 I was living in Bradford and spending a lot of time in HMV. I was planning my escape really, looking forward to getting to university and getting the heck out of Bradford. Music was my world. I had left the world of pop music behind, and I was finding my own voice. I was confused, I was angry. I was listening to a lot of The Smiths alone in my bedroom. I was painting my nails black, I was wearing Doc Martens boots and Converse trainers, which interestingly, if you fast-forward many years, I’m still wearing. I don’t know whether I should be worried about that. I was very friendly though, perhaps unusually so for an Asian woman. I think I might have blown your stereotype. I definitely…

REVIEW All-out Gwar, a shlock-rock institution Cast your mind back to 2018: did you think Bohemian Rhapsody was a barn-storming bonanza or boilerplate musical biopic bobbins? In any case, the staggering success of that Queen gambit – with $900m global box office and multiple Oscars to boot – means we are now rolling in rock movies. Already this year we have had Baz Luhrmann’s caffeinated Elvis, the trippy new Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream is due in September, and an authorised Amy Winehouse feature film is on the way. Even This is Spinal Tap is returning for an encore, with a sequel mooted for 2024 to mark the 40th anniversary of the original hard-rocking mock-doc. These are all cultural touchstones, indelible icons and musical superstars, rightly celebrated even before the legacy-polishing…

Cold calculations await new PM It’s that time of the year when things are exposed. Not just torsos that don’t need to be, turning touch-sore red as the season demands. From down beneath the waterlines, as reservoirs run dry, ancient signs and stones talk to us of the past. There is a Sunday night ITV drama to be created centred on a formerly submerged old village as it emerges out of the shallowing waters, exposing what came before, drawing lines to contemporary protagonists. Last week, it was cup-marked rocks that rose out of an emptying Cornish reservoir. From 4,000 years ago these notes from prehistory tell us, well, nobody is quite sure what. Except that climate change is taking us somewhere we don’t want to go. It’s not exactly a…

BIG ISSUE INVEST Meet the South London cafe helping people with learning difficulties into work The staff shortage in hospitality is hitting businesses hard, but one South London cafe has an innovative solution. Cafe Van Gogh in Brixton trains adults with learning difficulties to work as front of house staff. It’s now raising money for a new kitchen in a bid to help a marginalised group into work. “You can’t, for love nor money get kitchen porters these days,” says founder Steve Clarke. “For people with a learning difficulty in my experience, job retention is incredible. Staff sickness is rare. They’re reliable people, easy to train.” Clarke is aiming to raise £22,000 for the new kitchen, which would allow the cafe to double its cohort of trainees. He hopes that…

The days of 20 million people tuning in for key Neighbours moments like Scott and Charlene’s wedding are long gone. But the show’s core UK audience has remained committed since its £300 million move from BBC One to Channel 5 in 2008. After the initial 10-year deal ran out, a shorter four-year extension was agreed, followed by a final one-year extension. So the writing has been on the Ramsay Street wall for some time. When Channel 5 pulled its funding, Fremantle – who produce Neighbours for Channel 10 in Australia – needed to find new financing fast. But this storyline had no happy ending. So why did Channel 5 pull out? After all, acquiring Neighbours improved the channel’s audience share by 13 per cent within weeks, halting a worrying decline.…

A long-time regular contributor to Street Art, John first discovered his natural ability and enjoyment of painting in 1999, aged 50, as encouraged by The Big Issue. His work has gone on to be exhibited at prestigious galleries in the UK and abroad including Somerset House, The British Museum and The Royal Academy. He recently completed a month’s residency at the Changing Room Gallery in Soho. A range of merchandise featuring John’s artworks is available to buy from: homelessmade.co.uk/collections/by-john…

Growing up near the Irish border has informed everything Ardal O’Hanlon has ever done. His childhood years in the County Monaghan town of Carrickmacross, on the southern side of that dividing line, saw him steeped in the area’s unique way with words (“they’ll often use 20 words where one word will do”), the deadpan humour, and the underlying threat of violence. It’s been there from his early stand-up, through his time onFather Ted and Death in Paradise, and – perhaps most tellingly – in his new novel, Brouhaha. “I grew up in a lovely small town, a beautiful town. Very happy childhood,” he says. “And you could easily ignore the underbelly but, as a writer, you’re drawn to the dark side. You can’t afford to be squeamish as a writer,…

JON GREGG, 59 I first started selling The Big Issue in 1992. Before then I had studied for a diploma in Printing & Packaging, but the printing industry went through a lot of changes with computers coming in and the companies I worked for couldn’t compete with the prices of newer instant print stores. The company I was with at the time had to perform cutbacks and, as I was the last in, I was the first out. I was supposed to get my wages in lieu of notice but I never received them, which meant I fell behind on my rent. The landlord changed the locks on my flat and before I knew it, I found myself homeless. I came to the West End in London as I was…