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Ian Field
04/05/1963 - 10/03/2023
In 1993 there used to be a section in The Big Issue called Capital Lights (precursor to Street Lights), where all articles were written by vendors.
Lucie Russell ran the group from the Farringdon office and some of the Lights best work came from this period, especially from a vendor called Ian Field, whose pitch was outside Selfridges. I’d never seen any piece of his work turned away.
My first entry into The Big Issue was printed in the Christmas 1993 edition and being a 17-year-old not only was I excited my poem was going to be printed, what was more impressive was my work was going to be on the same page as Ian’s.
Ian made all of our efforts towards capital lights look weak, not because it was, but Ian’s stuff was just so f@cking good.
Ian went on to have a book of poems published.
Last week I found out the sad news from Ian’s brother Roderick that Ian had just passed away after battling for years with mental illness.
Ian was the greatest poet you’d probably never heard of, but more importantly he was my friend.
Ian, it was an honour.
Paul Clifford
Confusion reigns
Today newspapers bombard readers with conflicts within and between parties. These so-called intrigues become intensely boring yet are overwritten about. People want optimism and positive leadership. Politicians are not entertainers (though they should permit themselves a few jokes a day) but men and women who have the intellect to reach high political office. Selfishness and party differences are not what government is really about or should be about.
There is no shame in placing the nation first. Winston Churchill said that the war couldn’t have been won without the opposing parties working together. Many newspapers and the media in general are so full of political turmoil each day that one can wonder if it is being invented to create confusion rather than transparency and harmony.
TG Springthorpe, Southend on Sea
Get a clue
‘Bet it could be a region of China (5)’ was the cryptic crossword clue 18 across in Big Issue of March 13.
I read it and felt so sad that I couldn’t bear to go on. To write in ‘Tibet’ would have felt like colluding with what China has done. I expect such high standards of The Big Issue ethically that this was disappointing. In 10 years’ time, will we be happy to accept: ‘Ikea run in a region of Russia (7)’?
