The space doll making gravitational waves

In this week’s Big Issue…

Gravity Girl

How do we get more girls to study sciences, technology, engineering and maths? As female graduate numbers fall, we ask if Stargazer Lottie doll – this week’s cover star – could be the answer. Invented by a six-year-old who loves space, she stowed away on the International Space Station with astronaut Tim Peake. Her gravitational waves might just open up the final frontier for girls…

Classics in Corsets

After War and Peace stormed TV ratings, sales of Tolstoy’s epic book soared back into the bestseller charts. The man who turned it into telly gold – Andrew Davies, Britain’s maestro of adapting literary classics – tells Steven MacKenzie about the secret of making the nation book-smart through the small screen (spoiler: it’s sex).

A Different View

The Big Issue has always given a voice to those society overlooks, and after the response to ex-Edinburgh vendor James Campbell’s Diary and homeless police officer Russell Monk, we launch new strand, ‘A Different View’. Gareth Howells pens a fascinating picture of selling the magazine outside Westminster, and RAF veteran pilot Larry Knowles explains what happens when the MoD turns its back.