Issue 1439

Fighting for her life⁠
With boxing having given Safiyyah Syeed a reason to live, she tells Sarah Freeman why she is now determined to fight the stereotypes keeping women like her out of sport.
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The quest for Belle⁠
In the early 20th century Belle Greene collected the world’s rarest and most beautiful books and manuscripts, all while hiding an incredible secret. But the talented librarian had erased her own archives and it took Alexandra Lapierre a trip from Florence to New York, London and Paris to find out more⁠.
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The whole North’s a stage⁠
To be or not to be? That was the question for the Shakespeare North Playhouse, which has been talked about since the early 2000s. As the curtain finally rises on its first performance, Roger Ratcliffe hears why Prescot in Knowsley is the natural home for the North’s new cultural hub⁠.
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Plus Glenda Jackson writes to her younger self, a new lease of life for Grimsby homes in news, and much more⁠.