Issue 1230

09 Apr 2018
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About this issue: Overview

Paddy Considine, who directed and stars in Journeyman, tells Simon Bland how a rare disorder has inspired his interest in underdog characters and talks about finding hope in tragedy and humour in the most distressing situations.

Tony Evans remembers the Heysel disaster of 1985 that nearly destroyed English football and the Merseyside FA Cup final that saved it and cemented football as an expression of working class culture.

Martin Guttridge-Hewitt explores a Manchester nightclub offering a safe environment for people with learning disabilities and asks why disability and accessibility have yet to hit the heated clubbing debate agenda.

The Leeds Indie Food festival returns for its fourth year, showcasing the brightest the area has to offer, emphasising reducing food waste with pay-as-you-feel supermarkets, plant-focused dining and kitchens creating top dishes from discarded foods.

With avoidable accidents and emergency call-outs on the rise should insurance be required for a stroll in the great outdoors? Roger Ratcliffe weighs in.

On the news pages we report on ongoing racial tensions in Rotherham following a controversial newspaper column by local MP Sarah Champion. We also look at a nursing home in Tokyo where robots are caring for the elderly.

In our arts and entertainment section there are reviews of TV, home entertainment, albums and independent cinema, as well as news of this month’s book releases and a preview of a stage version of the famous dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange.

Novelist Colm Toibin writes a letter to his younger self about coping with the death of his father, early struggles with writing and sexuality.

Plus, of course, our ever popular crossword and Sudoku.