Issue 1395

Slowthai’s fast turnaround
The Slowthai who Richard Smirke talks to is softer and more reflective than the laddish rapper who outraged the NME Awards last year. He says fatherhood has changed him, and hopes the songs on his new album may help working-class men open up about the problems they face.

Granny Blood
A new short story by the renowned Manchester-born, Lancaster-based author Carol Birch. Illustration: Steph Coathupe.

Shot by both sides
Beset from the right for its metropolitan bias and the left for cringing before government, the BBC is at the centre of the country’s culture wars. Michael Taylor asks whether opposition from both directions proves it’s doing its job impartially or getting it wrong on all scores.

Plus
News, arts and entertainment, columnist Roger Ratcliffe, Emmylou Harris’s letter to her younger self, crossword, Sudoku and more.