Issue 1455

Feeling the burn
The artist in Sarah Hall’s latest novel uses fire to strengthen and enhance wood. Antonia Charlesworth finds the novelist’s love of visual art on display at home – and that her return to the Lake District has helped forge her own resilience after grief and illness.

‘I study music like I’m in school’
American songwriter Ezra Furman has found critical acclaim in the UK. Neil Tague asks if her new album could be a springboard to wider success.

Spook Yourself Silly
You could get chased out of a pub by a ghost at last orders or spooked by a phantom black dog. You might encounter a boggart but no one knows what they look like. Matt Badham and John Reppion go scaremongering for Halloween.

We’ve also got a preview of Manchester Royal Exchange’s latest production, Let The Right One In, former Housemartin Paul Heaton writes to his younger self, and in the news, a Lancashire based GP talks of his fears for the NHS after his own mother spent 24 hours in A&E waiting for a hospital bed.