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Over 100 celebrities pen letters to their younger selves in new Big Issue bookazine

Stars including Ruth Jones, Noel Gallagher, Olivia Colman and Salman Rushdie reflect on their careers in letters to their younger selves for the Big Issue

Photo: Camilla Morandi/Shutterstock

Some of the world’s top actors, singers, writers and other celebrities have looked back on their careers in a new bookazine for the Big Issue, on sale today (Thursday 3 October).

The ‘Letter To My Younger Self’ has been published in the Big Issue since 2009, a unique lens by which the iconic street magazine coaxes secrets and the most imitate reflections out of its guests. The new bookazine – available to buy online and on selected newsstands – compiles the very best of the bunch, including interviews with Sir Paul McCartney, will.i.am and Dame Julie Walters.

In one such letter, writer and actor Ruth Jones recalls the day hit sitcom Gavin & Stacey was commissioned. “I remember when Gavin and Stacey was given the green light,” she reflects. “I texted James [Corden, co-creator and co-star]. He was just getting off a plane and he stepped onto the tarmac and put his phone on, and there was a text saying, ‘O, Smithy. We’ve got the green light’. That was a great shared moment for both of us.”

Former Doctor Who star Billie Piper reflects nostalgically on her youth. “I would go back to my very early teens when I had full anonymity. No paranoia about people knowing who you are.

“Oasis or The Prodigy on the radio. Smoking fags, kissing everyone. These feelings of freedom and abundance.”

Other interviews in the bookazine include country music legend Dolly Parton, who reveals what she wishes she had said to Elvis Presley, and actor Rose McGowan, who reflects that the one piece of advice she’d give her young herself is “don’t go into Hollywood”.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Paul McNamee, Editor of the Big Issue, said: “The Big Issue has been publishing Letters to My Younger Self for over 15 years. It was conceived to reveal the person behind the celebrity image – famous folk are trained to do interviews which promote their product but give very little away. Every now and again you get a Noel Gallagher or a Werner Herzog, people who speak straight from their unafraid heart, but that is rare.

“It struck us that the one person we all try not to lie to, the one person who has known us at our worst and best, is ourselves. If we could pose as the investigator of our interviewees’ true younger selves maybe we could access hitherto hidden truths. This is the first time we have collected them in a magazine, with so many individuals represented. I hope they leave as deep an impression on you as they did on us.”

The Big Issue’s Letter To My Younger Self Bookazine is out now, available to buy in selected newsstands including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose, WHS, plus limited book shops.

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