What inspired you to create ‘The Big Issue’?
The Big Issue magazine was originally based on something that was happening in
the States in 1990. Gordon Roddick, a social multi-millionaire (who started the Body
Shop with his wife) was in New York and noticed someone selling a street paper
called Street News. He was so impressed by what he saw that he decided that he
would try it in the UK.

Gordon approached numerous charities but they didn’t think a street paper would work;
he then came to me, largely because I’d known him for about 25 years, including the
time when I was a runaway, sleeping rough on the streets and dependant on drink and
drugs. In a way, I guess I was a couple of steps up from the people we were going to
be working with.

Coupled with my actual experience, I also knew a lot about printing, as I had previously worked with magazines and had sold papers on the street. Looking back on it, I can see now that I had a lot of skills that I wasn’t aware of. Even the weirdest skill can be really useful in later life - for example, I know how to beg and I’m very good at it, so asking for money is not a problem for me.
The Big Issue publication has become a global venture, but how did the established publications initially react to your concept? We didn’t experience any problems with the
established publications - I’d even go so far as to say that many of them were very
encouraging as they appreciated that we were working with the most unreliable
workforce on earth. One of our innovations was to work with
people that were considered unworkable;

they were people with drink problems, drug problems, psychological problems, personal problems with bodily cleanliness, and though some of them were capable of better things, they never had the initiative to do anything for themselves. Once we were successful we did attract attention from other companies and publishers, who would often approach us to sell their products on the street. To this, my reply would obviously be no, as, after all, if I’m selling someone else’s product I’m not selling my own, so why should I ruin my business to start yours?

The magazine is fiercely independent and it does not belong to a media group. Why
is this?

We are independent, but independence is avery strange concept nowadays - often when you have it you are unaware of it, and at very least you don’t know how to use it. One of the problems that we have

experienced with the Big Issue has been establishing the independence of our publication, ultimately by understanding what independence is. Over the years there have always been people inside and outside the organisation that have wanted to control it. Ego also plays a part in entrepreneurial business, as people often believe that certain individuals
have served an instrumental role within a project.
Personally I don’t really believe in independence - just because you’re free of Rupert Murdoch, it does not mean that you are independent, as you still carry the mindforged
manacles that originate from who you are. The Big Issue may be financially independent because we make our own money and we have independence from a big publishing house but we lose our independence in other ways - I’m always being controlled by other people, which is understandably very difficult as an entrepreneur, as you want to always be in control.

The magazine has featured a variety of celebrity exclusives - who was the most
memorable?
There are quite a lot of people. Pete Doherty used the paper to talk about social issues and his belief in what we are trying to do, that was really interesting for me. He gives interviews to all sorts of people but I don’t think he says the kind of things that he does through us. I think he sees us as a singular voice, different from all the others.
It’s really exciting when somebody realises that we’re not like every other publication,
as we think, talk and even relate in a different way. Other things would include Will Self and his role as a guest Editor, Damien Hirst doing an issue, and Katharine Hamnett, who recently guest edited the Big Issue with an anti nuclear theme - all those things have been really inspiring. I must also mention George Michael admitting that he was gay through us, as that was a particularly big story which he would not have done anywhere else.

Has your magazine uncovered any talented homeless writers?
There have been quite a few people who have used the magazine to learn to write,
though those individuals have not as of yet won the Booker Prize or the Guardian’s First
Novel. It may take ten or twenty years to develop a good artist or writer, and we’re
still in the early stages of working with homeless people to help them achieve their
own creativity. Being a homeless writer is much more difficult, as they have so much to contend with in the first instance, as most of their energy is spent on just surviving. I’m always impressed when I meet someone who is homeless and still finds the time, energy and resources to write, as admittedly it’s a lot harder to achieve without the normal
materials.