Issue 1269

14 Jan 2019
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About this issue: Overview

Dame to speak
Joan Collins insists that if she doesn’t like a question from the audience on her in-conversation tour, she won’t answer it. But the grand dame of British acting has no such problems with Francine White’s line of inquiry.

Lines of resistance
The Muslim campaign against Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses took off when a copy of the book was burned in Bradford 30 years ago. But one of the men involved insists they never meant it to end with death threats against the author. David Barnett writes.

Renters put down roots
At the mercy of landlords, private renters often have to endure dreadful housing conditions and soaring
rents – with the threat of eviction if they complain. But as Gary Ryan finds inside a branch of NatWest, tenants union Acorn knows how to turn the tables.

Plus News, arts and entertainment, Sheffield-born actor Dominic West’s letter to his younger self, secret social worker Lila Halliday on the word we don’t use enough for children in care, and columnist Saskia Murphy gives up on giving up in January.