Journalism
The Hotel Calcutta
My name is Sanjay, and I was born in Assam. I’m 23 now. I studied in school up to Class 8, but when I was 13 my father lost his job and I was forced to work to help the family. First I joined a …
read moreHugs Not Drugs
‘I was a typical middle-class junkie,’ a 38-year-old called John L says. ‘Nice family, public school, good at presenting a mask to the world.’ He started with cannabis and glue, and got into coke when …
read moreJamie Cullum’s Big Break
For a few weeks in the middle of summer it was easier to see Jamie Cullum in concert than not to see him. There were phone calls, then a sample CD, then a lunch, then a publicity pack, and …
read moreWarts and All
Earlier this month, a selection of the world’s most famous pop stars gathered in Edinburgh for the MTV Europe Music Awards, the usual three-hour love-in with Justin Timberlake, Christina …
read moreBeyonce: Crazy in Love
Because of her position as the pre-eminent singing sensation of the year, there are many hurdles you must leap before you can be ushered into the presence of Beyoncé Knowles. The last …
read moreMemories of the Future
So a man goes to the doctor, and the doctor tells him there is bad news. In fact, there is bad news and really bad news. Which does he want first?
read moreThe Burning Issue
It started with looking at the tanned girls in magazines. Or it started in Skegness. Or it began when she was in Greece for a fortnight when she was 16. For Rachel Solway, who is now 30, it …
read moreWhy I Love London
You have such beautiful skies,’ Woody Allen said last week at the completion of another scene in another film, ‘when they’re overcast.’ Allen and his crew had been looking up at the skies …
read moreThe Crowd Teaser
At the end of September 2004, Jeremy Deller walked for 10 minutes from his small workroom in Highbury, north London, to an editing suite in Islington, there to meet with the woman who …
read moreMissing a Beat
What is it about the heart and pop songs? Owner of a lonely heart. Everybody’s got a hungry heart. Looking for the heart of Saturday night. The seminal Half Man Half Biscuit song ‘I Left My …
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