About this issue: Overview
Season’s greetings
Andrew, a vendor from Manchester, is on the cover of our 48-page bumper special edition. Inside, vendors selling Big Issue North across Yorkshire and the Humber wish their customers a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Next week your North West vendors get festive.
The way I work: Chris Bennett
The plumber reveals how customers are so desperate for him to fix their loo or boiler during the festive season that healmost expects to sit down to Christmas dinner with them. Interview: Steve Lee. Photos: Rebecca Lupton.
Wrapper’s delight
You know Christmas is around the corner when the classic purple tins pop their lids in offices and homes across the country. Saskia Murphy charts the history of Quality Street and finds a sweet piece of Yorkshire heritage.
Bear essentials
Canada’s polar bears were once shot on sight but now they have been transformed into a mainstay of ecotourism with the help of huge, rugged buggies, reports Stephen Leahy.
The Magid touch
Since he was inaugurated to the Imperial March from Star Wars Sheffield’s lord mayor Magid Magid has done things differently. He tells Gary Ryan he’ll rail against the establishment from the inside until he’s ousted.
The roots of tradition
One thousand feet up on bleak Yorkshire moorland a huge yard currently resounds to streams of juggernauts unloading a product that’s destined for millions of homes. Roger Ratcliffe visits one of the UK’s main Christmas tree suppliers, and finds out why putting up trees became a yuletide habit.
Plus News, arts and entertainment – including a guide to family-friendly theatre and Northern Book Prize winner Amy Arnold interview – Alfie Boe’s letter to his imagined younger self, columnist Saskia Murphy has her wings clipped by Brexit, crossword, Sudoku and more.