Issue 1264

03 Dec 2018
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About this issue: Overview

Game of two halves
She writes music for Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa, while she regularly finds the back of the net for a leading women’s football team. Chelcee Grimes, from Liverpool, on the cover of our 48-page bumper £3 edition, seems to be having double the fun, finds Richard Smirke.

The way I work
In the latest in our popular series Linda Charnock, a young persons domestic violence advice worker from Bolton, reveals how she helps people escape abusive relationships and ensures they’re safe afterwards. Interview: Mark Metcalf. Photo: Rebecca Lupton.

A hard earned perspective
With a body of work spanning Brookside to Cracker and Hillsborough, Jimmy McGovern is one of TV’s leading writers. He admits to Gerry Corner that he might be slowing down a little but can’t see a day when he won’t head to the hut in his garden to write.

Doing the Wigan Walk
Under Donna Hall Wigan Council has proven itself one of the best in the country at not only adapting to austerity but actually improving some its services. The departing chief executive tells Ciara Leeming that the challenge for her successor is to keep on listening to what public service users actually want, not just processing them.

Seven by two
Rick, one of our Sheffield vendors, interviews one his musical heroes, Rick Witter of 1990s Britpoppers Shed Seven.

Theirs truly
Missing waistcoats, geopolitics, unworthy graves and a defence of immigrants are just some of the themes of letters by historical figures in a new collection from the National Archives. Kevin Gopal deciphers the handwriting.

Plus News, arts and entertainment, columnist Roger Ratcliffe brings you up to speed with HS2, author and former spy chief Stella Rimington’s letter to her younger self – not written in invisible ink – and much more.