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.

Purple patch

THE DISPATCH

YOUR LETTERS

EDITOR’S LETTER

The Big Issue

Beans means strife

Ann Dowd • Grief shaped her early years and auditions terrified her. But now, the award-winning actor’s career has reached new levels, playing nobody’s favourite aunt

A growing divide • Big Issue deputy editor Liam Geraghty has recently put down roots to buy a new home with a garden. It’s underlined how the housing crisis has turned access to green space into a privilege

The power of houseplants

Viral vegetables and trending tips

Dig for freedom

The story of Britain is in the wildflowers all around us • Our busy lives mean we often don’t notice the beauty that is right in front of us, or in the case of wildflowers, beneath our feet. The variety of superstition and history attached to the humblest of flowers is astounding and reveals so much about how our ancestors used plants in their everyday lives, whether for food, medicine or magic

Streets like a jungle • Urban naturalist and author Amanda Tuke shares her passion for street vegetation

Then and now. Mining made Cornwall. Could it be coming back? • The county of Cornwall sits on one of Europe’s largest lithium deposits. Big Issue met the people trying to extract it

On the picket line of the ‘last miners’ strike’

Together | Apart

‘Cracking the code of what it feels like to be human’

Only connect

Nature books

The secret life of a probation officer

No mere mortal can resist

‘We don’t always have to make these gritty, sad, male films’

ROBIN INCE IS ON THE ROAD

Alien invasion

BIG Kids • ISSUES / IDEAS / IMAGINATION

Puzzles

MY PITCH MARK STEVENSON, 59 • M&S FOODHALL, CANTERBURY, KENT TUESDAY-SATURDAY 10AM-5PM