EDITOR’S LETTER

Hello again. How is everyone doing? Good summer break? Feeling bright-eyed (tanned) and bushy tailed? Ready to get back to school?

No, me neither. I’m at my desk right now, staring down the barrel of 1,000 unanswered emails and it’s chucking it down outside. Yup, summer, it seems, is over. Time to brush that sand from between your toes and wash the salty knots out of your hair; enough with the bikini selfies, let’s get on with September.

Looking at this issue pinned up on our office board (hi-tech, right?) wondering what to write, I realise there is a thread running through these pages. Unplanned but definitely there, an idea of reinvention seems to be in all this week’s stories.

Thank you, serendipity! Maybe that’s what summer is really about: reinventing ourselves, reimagining who we are, what we can be, from some other vantage point — ideally, a beach.

Isabelle Huppert is a master of reinvention. That’s what actors do and few are better or more fearless in this pursuit than Huppert. In Louie Banks’ brilliant shoot, she embodies a roster of characters: the muse, the power player, the icon and, in one shot, the sci-fi femme fatale in a crop wig and red taloned gloves. Which one will you dare to be? Uncompromising and unapologetic, Huppert is an inspiration for all seasons.

In the same spirit of reinvention, Sarfraz Manzoor pens a heartwarming account of his experience growing up Muslim in the 1980s vs that of his children today. It’s a story of loneliness, hope, breaking free and transformation. Next, Amy Francombe meets a feminist and a Black trans artist who are part of a new generation of developers reinventing gaming. Think about it: introducing marginalised communities into the alt reality of 3 billion gamers might just safeguard all our futures. Lastly, in My London, Jaime Winstone is also in reinvention mode, dusting off the Peggy Mitchell beehive one more time for a very special episode of EastEnders.

All together now: ‘Get outta my pub!’