The New Issue: Issue 5

From the Big Issue North stable, The New Issue contains real stories - beautifully told. It offers stunning photography combined with quality writing, covering everything from changing landscapes and social issues to lifestyle and fiction.

The 80-page magazine, printed on high quality stock, is a publication for good, dedicating all its profits to creating opportunities for people who have the least.

All profits from The New Issue go to supporting vendors of Big Issue North, helping them overcome barriers to employment and find secure accommodation.

If you enjoy this issue, be sure to subscribe for just £40 a year by clicking here.

Living with conflict has emerged as one of the themes in the edition.

Operating in and around Srinagar, capital of Kashmir, amid a crackdown by Indian security forces, the photojournalist Syed Shahriyar has bravely and movingly documented one father’s quest to get back the body of his 16-year-old son, killed last month.

On another continent, Nigerian villagers are learning how to recognise the threat of landmines and improvised explosive devices left behind by the shadowy jihadi terrorist group Boko Haram. They are doing it largely by themselves, even managing to get kids singing, laughing and dancing while they learn life-saving messages, but have been aided by the Manchester-based charity Mines Advisory Group. Photographer Sean Sutton vividly captures how.

But there are more reflective moments as well. Wayne Koberstein looks back on his relationship with novelist Ken Kesey and his proto-hippies in Oregon, his home state, and we take a trip to Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, one of the most northerly winemakers in the world, where dormant vines give pause for thought about how to improve process and product.

There’s much more as well, including the memories of Holocaust survivor Joanna Millan, rescued to a children’s home in the Lake District, and a revealing conversation between legendary punk poet John Cooper Clarke and one of the many people he’s inspired, Sydney Minsky-Sargeant, the 19-year-old frontman of Working Men’s Club.