Dear Readers,
Our summer issue has landed on a perfect afternoon, and all is well in the world. The magazine is available from our webstore today. Only 5,500 copies were printed, and we anticipate it will sell out within the month. Just look at that cover from Nishant Choksi.
As ever, it’s our best issue yet, with four features of the highest quality at the heart of the issue. Bron Maher reports from south London, where an epidemic of methamphetamine usage among the capital’s gay men has led the area between Vauxhall, Oval and Stockwell to be dubbed the ‘Tina Triangle’. Across the river in Highgate, the Russian Trade Delegation sprawls over acres next to the Men’s Ponds in the Heath. For decades, it’s been known as a ‘nest of spies’. But is anyone still at home? John Phipps unpicks the story of one of the capital’s most mysterious buildings.
Gary Fairfull was a Glaswegian entrepreneur who, at the beginning of the century, laid claim to ‘inventing’ Shoreditch. His friend Will Buckley tells the story of his astonishing life. Leaving London for Wales, Patrick Galbraith travels up the Rhigos mountain and discovers the crews who battle police helicopters to lay on free parties in the countryside.
The brilliant Eva Wiseman has a short story which inspires the cover, and there’s more work from Sophie Wilkinson, Mattha Busby, Róisín Lanigan and more. The issue is punked out with illustrations from Davey Jones, Miki Lowe, Martin Groch and Ed Steed. We also mark the return of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ to the print magazine. It’s ready for you here.
We will be back on Tuesday with a conventional ‘Off The Fence’, and hope you have a lovely weekend in the meantime.
All the best,
TF