Show me the funny

In this issue… Let’s start with the cat. The cover with Bob The Street Cat of last week flew out the door. Cat people can still buy a copy from us or get a digital edition. After the cover, readers started sending in pics of their cats reading the magazine. So we’re printing them. Wouldn’t you?!

Also this week, we bring the summer funny…

Stewart Lee is Britain’s best observational comic (though I suppose Iannucci may have something to say about that). He’s written a piece about the difficulty of writing something funny at a time when there is so much that is bleak happening.

Richard Ayoade played one of British TV’s best comic creations of the last 10 years – the socially catastrophic Moss in The IT Crowd. So here, he talks about Dostoyevsky and social alienation. Of course.

Ian Lavender is still best known as Private Pike in Dad’s Army. In a fine Letter To My Younger Self he explains how the work that began over 40 years ago set him up for life.

John Bird looks at his family’s ties to World War One and a grandfather whose past wasn’t quite what it had been claimed. It says a lot about family and the creation of histories we want. This is also a good intro to a mag coming at start of August. John will guest-edit a World War 1 special. Details next week.

Cuts to funding suggest Hadrian’s Wall faces a very uncertain future. Vicky Carroll got angry on hearing this and decided to investigate.

We also have a fascinating piece from BBC business reporter Dominic Laurie looking at where the price for everything we buy is really set.

Our featured vendor telling their story in My Pitch is Peter Corstorphine, working in Glasgow. A Big Issue stalwart, Peter has also devoted a huge amount of time to walking and cycling across Scotland to raise thousands for a great many charities. Hats off to him.