Jane Graham

Glasgow

Books Editor and Journalist at The Big Issue

Writer/ Broadcaster /Socialist /Dylanologist /Dog Lover. V slow rapper. Evangelist for scepticism. Books Ed @bigissue. Books: Letter to my Younger Self vols 1&2

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Articles

100 years of The Great Gatsby, the greatest novel in the English language

1 week ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Books Big Issue books editor Jane Graham celebrates the centenary of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel, first published in April 1925 The Great Gatsby was not a first-time hit. When it was published by Scribner’s in 1925, it was generally reviewed positively but often with the caveat that it wasn’t as successful a portrait of the jazz age as F Scott Fitzgerald’s previous two novels – This Side of Paradise in 1920 and The Beautiful and Damned in 1922. Sales were underwhelming.
Flesh by David Szalay review - life comes at you fast

2 weeks ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Books The Booker-nominated David Szalay’s fifth novel, Flesh, asks big questions in a straightforward way Things tend to happen to István. The 15-year-old protagonist of Booker-nominated David Szalay’s fifth novel, Flesh, has a habit of becoming embroiled in dramatic events well beyond his control or understanding. Within a few pages of this sure-footed, fast-moving novel, Hungarian schoolboy István is enticed into a sparky sexual relationship with a saucy older neighbour.
Mark Steel: 'Doing my car tax was more stressful than having cancer'

1 month ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Culture The comedian, author and broadcaster was a very angry young man, and punk was the perfect outlet Mark Steel was born in 1960 in Swanley. He was adopted shortly afterwards and grew up in the Kent town with a father who worked in insurance and a housewife mum who had stints as a lollipop lady and a factory worker.
Fashion Icon Twiggy: 'David Bowie singing my name was the thrill of my life'

1 month ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Culture Modelling was off limits when the girl named Lesley Hornby was growing up, until she was thrust into the spotlight by a series of incredible coincidences Lesley Lawson (nee Hornby), known as Twiggy, was born in London in September 1949. After being spotted at 16 she rapidly became a internationally recognised model, with her mod look defining the 60s.
Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett review - lessons of a painful past

1 month ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Books The rising star of US literature's latest novel follows an overworked 40-year-old asylum lawyer working for a small nonprofit in New York Adam Haslett is a rising American superstar, his short stories (shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize) and novels, including awards nominees 2010’s Union Atlantic and 2016’s Imagine Me Gone, garnering excitable praise from the likes of Ann Patchett and Andrew Sean Greer.
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa review – a remarkable study of yearning

1 month ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Books A funny and touching commentary on bodies which won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2023 Saou Ichikawa’s curious Hunchback has already been a smash in her native Japan. Ichikawa is disabled and has written a bold, transgressive novel about a woman with a congenital muscle disorder who relies on a wheelchair and a ventilator. Shaka’s life online however is busy and brazen – she is a furious tweeter and posts scurrilous sexy stories on an erotica website.
Jason Donovan: 'I enjoyed fame initially - until I left Neighbours'

2 months ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Culture A role in Neighbours led to pop stardom, but he does wonder what a film career would have looked like Jason Donovan was born in June 1968 in Malvern, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The son of actors, he made his TV debut in 1980 in the Australian soap Skyways. He joined the cast of Neighbours in 1986, where his on screen romance with Kylie Minogue helped make him a household name at home and in the UK.
First Dates' Fred Sirieix: 'I left France because I loved punk'

2 months ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

TV He was reluctant to sign up for First Dates, but now, as long as he’s not making anyone look bad, he’s just happy to be liked Fred Sirieix was born in Limoges, France, in January 1972. He started his training as a chef before switching to front-of-house service and moving to the UK, where he worked as maître d’hôtel at some of London’s most prestigious restaurants. Sirieix became a well-known face on British TV when he took the role of maître d’hôtel on Channel 4’s First Dates in 2013.
The Sound of Utopia by Michel Krielaars review – making music in Stalin's Russia

2 months ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Books This book looks at the outcome for musicians who toed the Soviet line and those who could have become giants but whose music was shut down Michel Krielaars’ The Sound of Utopia: Musicians in the Time of Stalin is a fascinating look at the perils of making music under the maniacal Soviet dictator. We know much about the broken lives and careers of musicians under Hitler, but a little less about those under Stalin. How did the likes of Prokofiev and Shostakovich fare?
We Do Not Part by Han Kang review - scarred with South Korea's trauma and terror

2 months ago | bigissue.com | Jane Graham

Books Han Kang makes clear that only by rousing old pains can important memories remain intact South Korean writer Han Kang has seen her star soar since The Vegetarian, her first novel to be translated into English, won the International Booker Prize in 2016 (the first Korean book to be nominated). Lauded by her peers – Max Porter called her “a writer of extraordinary humanity”, Eimear McBride “one of the greatest living writers” – last year she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.