Books

Read Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury’s new Christmas story, created especially for Big Issue
Exclusive

Read Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury’s new Christmas story, created especially for Big Issue

Michael Rosen has written a stirring and timely festive story of a family struggling at Christmas
The ultimate guide to the best books of 2025 – as chosen by Big Issue critics
Books

The ultimate guide to the best books of 2025 – as chosen by Big Issue critics

Quartet for the End of Time by Michael Symmons Roberts named Big Issue’s book of the year for 2025
Book of the Year 2025

Quartet for the End of Time by Michael Symmons Roberts named Big Issue’s book of the year for 2025

Top Stories

From rowdy forest animals to wig-loving goths: These are the best children’s books of 2025
Children’s books of the year

From rowdy forest animals to wig-loving goths: These are the best children’s books of 2025

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt author Michael Rosen: ‘Life is harder for kids now than it was in 1989’
Child poverty

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt author Michael Rosen: ‘Life is harder for kids now than it was in 1989’

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Reviews

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The ultimate guide to the best books of 2025 – as chosen by Big Issue critics
Books

The ultimate guide to the best books of 2025 – as chosen by Big Issue critics

Nymph by Stephanie LaCava review – hollowing out the espionage genre
Books

Nymph by Stephanie LaCava review – hollowing out the espionage genre

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn review – a portrait of women on the outskirts
Books

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn review – a portrait of women on the outskirts

The Tower by Thea Lenarduzzi review – a strange, engrossing literary hall of mirrors
Books

The Tower by Thea Lenarduzzi review – a strange, engrossing literary hall of mirrors

Top 5 books

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Top 5 books featuring animals, chosen by author and illustrator Andrea Cáceres 
Top 5

Top 5 books featuring animals, chosen by author and illustrator Andrea Cáceres 

Top 5 Books for under-13s, chosen by children’s author Sophie Kirtley
Books

Top 5 Books for under-13s, chosen by children’s author Sophie Kirtley

Top 5 queer love stories, chosen by poet, playwright and novelist Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Books

Top 5 queer love stories, chosen by poet, playwright and novelist Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Top 5 Balkan books, chosen by Slovenian author and journalist Ana Schnabl 
Books

Top 5 Balkan books, chosen by Slovenian author and journalist Ana Schnabl 

Author essays

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We humans love to anthropomorphise our stuff. There’s a good reason for that
Science

We humans love to anthropomorphise our stuff. There’s a good reason for that

Once you give a name to an object it’s much easier to imagine or pretend that the object has cognitive capacities similar to our own
Science writer Alex Riley: ‘Even if humans cause mass extinction, life will still endure’
Life

Science writer Alex Riley: ‘Even if humans cause mass extinction, life will still endure’

Why I went on an 800 mile walk to Auschwitz
Holocaust

Why I went on an 800 mile walk to Auschwitz