About this issue: Overview
See them roar
The lionesses are heading to France for the Women’s World Cup, and while they recognise they’re still not on a level playing field with the men’s game, Saskia Murphy finds the England team determined to impress fans watching at home.
Giant role for young talent
Ruby Barnhill was hand-picked by Steven Spielberg for her breakthrough part and yet the young actor from Cheshire still gets stage fright during her GCSE drama class, finds Saskia Murphy.
Character study
Fiction about homelessness is rare. To research a character who sleeps rough in her new book, novelist Mahsuda Snaith worked with a homelessness charity. The people she met and stories she heard left an impression that lasted way beyond writing her novel.
Plus News, arts and entertainment, columnist Roger Ratcliffe on flood defences, crime writer James Ellroy’s characteristically unsparing letter to his younger self, crossword, Sudoku and more.