Celebrate – we’ve sold 200 million copies! There are three different covers with this collector’s edition

This week we celebrate selling 200 million copies of The Big Issue in the UK. 200 million!

To mark this fantastic figure Ben Eine, one of the brightest stars of contemporary British art (and loved by Cameron and Obama) has created a bespoke cover. In fact, he’s created three. Buy the set from your vendor. If you can’t get hold of them all, The Big Issue shop will stock them. Thanks to Ben, and Jealous Gallery, for bringing this together.

Founder and chief John Bird introduces proceedings with a humble nod of recognition and a call to move on and up. The Big Issue is still needed. We must push harder, he says.

Through the edition, we celebrate our vendors, looking at a host of those who have moved on to wonderful things – from Harley Street therapists to in-demand photographers. And we salute those who have reached back to extend a hand up to people still on the margins and on the street.

200 million magazines laid end to end would go one and a half times around the world. The Big Issue LITERALLY circles the globe. Learn this and other useful Big Issue facts and figures inside.

Amongst other delights (as if you need MORE) is our featured vendor of the week Peter Norman, who sells at Blackfriars Station in London; The Big Issue helped him beat his disability, he says. We also have Robson Green talking about fireworks and our Letter To My Younger Self this week is with Cyndi Lauper. A curious outsider with a mischievous streak – fitting for this week.