The Big Issue

The Big Issue is one of Britain’s leading news and cultural magazines. Every week’s edition is packed full of original takes on the biggest issues of the day as well as interviews with the most significant figures in politics and entertainment. The Big Issue was founded 1991 to give people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to earn their own income. We continue to support hundreds of vendors across the UK and all proceeds from sales go to help anyone wanting to lift themselves out of poverty.

The Fin red line

THE DISPATCH • News, views & miscellany

The wait for pension credit has left low-income pensioners facing the cold

The Big Issue

EDITOR’S LETTER • It’s not dark yet. There is time for joy

LETTERS

Alastair Campbell & Rory Stewart • When Rory Stewart predicted that Kamala Harris would “win comfortably” he proved even best-selling political commentators can get things drastically wrong. But the O2 Arena-filling popularity of The Rest Of Politics, his podcast with Alastair Stewart, remains undimmed.

LAST CHRISTMAS WILL LAST FOREVER • Andrew Ridgeley celebrates 40 years of Wham!’s classic Christmas single

Lemn Sissay • Poet and author who grew up in care and now is one of the most prominent activists for improving the system

THESE AMAZING PEOPLE ARE HELPING SANTA TO REACH EVERY CHILD AT CHRISTMAS

Eluned Morgan • Eluned Morgan became the First Minister of Wales in August, the first woman to hold the position

Matt Staniek • The man behind the Save Windermere campaign works tirelessly to put a stop to waste being dumped into England’s largest lake

ISABEL ALLENDE • The acclaimed author was an angry teen, then a fervent feminist. After her exile from Chile, she sat down to write a letter and never stopped

FREEWHEELIN’, BOB DYLAN

Books

Flying among the UFOs of the deep

‘You don’t have to be a mother to relate to a person going through a crisis of self’

‘THESE CHARACTERS ARE ALL A BIT MAD, BUT THEY REALLY HAVE EACH OTHER’S BACKS’

LUCY SWEET IS ON THE VERGE

Music to bring joy and meaning in uncertain times

‘ADDICTION WITHERS EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES, WHATEVER AGE YOU ARE’ • Julia Hamilton, 68, and Arabella Byrne, 40, are mother and daughter. Julia is a novelist, Arabella a journalist. Writing is something they have in common, but it’s not all they share. Both suffer from alcoholism and sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous at around the same time. Together they have written a book, In the Blood, about motherhood, addiction and the inevitability of the illness

Lonely this Christmas? You’re not alone

Philomena Cunk • Investigative reporter and presenter Philomena Cunk continues her series of landmark documentaries, with Cunk on Life airing on the BBC soon. She has also just published an ambitious new book explaining the entire history of human civilisation, or as much of it as 245 pages allows.

Puzzles

MY PITCH • Broadway Market, Hackney / Liverpool Street Station, London Daily 5pm-8pm, health permitting