Issue 1452 - Jay Blades

Jay Blades
BBC’s The Repair Shop has become a mainstream favourite and presenter Jay Blades is this week’s Letter To My Younger Self, speaking candidly about his own story of redemption

What the pandemic’s taught us about climate change
Leading climatologist Michael E Mann sounds a rare optimistic note about how we can apply lessons learned over the last year to the climate emergency

Black Lives Matter
As the George Floyd trial goes ahead this month, Professor Kehinde Andrews writes about how the systemic racism surrounding his death is just as prevalent in the UK

Hopeless devotion
Olivia-Newton John tells us more about the new song she’s recorded with her daughter Chloe, and how their relationship has seen them through troubled times

- We announce a special Big Issue Singalong with celebrated tenor and I’m a Celeb star Russell Watson. Readers can send in who they’d like a song dedicated to and it could appear in an exclusive concert he’s recording just for us!
- Our vendor expert Richard Todd tells us how to get our gardens ready for spring
- After being largely overlooked in the budget, our RORA pages give a self-help guide to going self-employed

And we also pay tribute to Amanda Hill who died this week. She appeared in the previous edition of the magazine, speaking about how she was looking forward to getting back on her pitch. Our thoughts are with her friends, family and colleagues who knew her.