From the editor

Much like a Kardashian, Martin Amis has worked out a way to make money just by being alive. After wasting countless hours playing arcade games in the 80s, the novelist managed to turn all that otherwise-wasted knowledge into a rather weird book.

Invasion of the Space Invaders (1982) now seems such an oddity, with its wonderfully lurid cover illustration, that it’s been deemed worthy of reissue.

The book is a fairly straightforward guide, offering strategies for finessing ancient games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, with a tongue-in-cheek commentary on how cleverly these games ensnare you, to keep you parting with your coins. ‘‘The longer the game goes on, the more spectacular the gimmicks become: new lights, new noises, new configurations from the heavens,’’ he writes.

Yet today, Amis is less wry about this slow disintegration of willpower and focus. He tells Will Pavia (page 8) that, as you play video games ‘‘you feel your mind rotting’’, and draws a link between this and no less than the disintegration of Western democracy. Food for thought!

Speaking of which, today we introduce a new section of Your Weekend highlighting the most creative dishes being cooked around the country.

Our aim is to celebrate chefs who are managing to innovate, despite all the factors making that increasingly tough to do. We also want you to hear about some of the personalities, suppliers and growers that are behind great cooking, and, perhaps to inspire you to cook (or just eat) more adventurously yourself. David Burton kicks things off (page 18) with a wild venison dish that uses deer’s milk, an intriguing new product I’m mad keen to try. We’ve also made our Weekend Fix section (page 4) more useful to you by making it specific to your region.

If you have any tips for these new sections, or would just like to share your thoughts, I’m all ears.