Issue 1339

25 May 2020
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About this issue: Overview

Heart on his album sleeve
Damon Gough has channelled what might seem like clichés – the value of therapy, giving up drinking, meeting a new partner – into an inventive, upbeat album, his first in eight years. He just can’t wait to talk to Richard Smirke.
Win a picker
Dig for Victory was one of the great slogans of World War Two, and now the coronavirus crisis has produced Pick for Britain. Roger Ratcliffe talks to farmers desperately searching for workers to bring in the crops.
In self defence 
Lack of funding as well as coronavirus is delaying much needed flood defence work in Cumbria, forcing residents to take matters into their own hands, reports Giles Brown.
Plus
News, arts and entertainment, an anonymous head teacher on the danger of schools re-opening, columnist Saskia Murphy looks to New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern for inspiration, crossword, Sudoku and more.