The Reader 58 has arrived

Issue 58 of The Reader features Bill Bailey, Anna Woodford, Sarah Helm, Matthew Hollis, Salley Vickers and many more

If the heat is making you yearn to sit in the shade with some new reading material, then you're in luck as Issue 58 of The Reader has arrived and it's packed full of literary goodness to help you while away the long hot hours.

The contemporary very firmly combines with the classic this issue - new poetry comes from Matthew Hollis, Robert Etty, Claire Allen and Julian Flanagan with new fiction - the thought-provoking One, Two, Three, Four - from Greg Forshaw. To accompany the ever-popular Old Poem feature by Brian Nellist, we're now introducing The Old Story to bring back a forgotten gem from the past, the first coming from Katherine Mansfield.

Bill Bailey talks to Fiona Magee about his own unique brand of comedy and why he's not a fan of jokes, his relationship with language, ambitions to write a book and his belief in the importance of reading out loud.

“That’s the great power of literature: not all the information is there - you have to bring something as well to it to make it” – Bill Bailey

A trio of formidable female writers share their work: in this issue's The Poet on Her Work, Anna Woodford discusses her poem ‘The Gender and Law at Durham Research Group’, looking at how two specialised languages - that of poetry and of law - respond to personal loss and the threatened loss of self. Salley Vickers' essay on The Winter's Tale also examines loss - in particular the slow story of possible restoration after it - and extracts feature from Sarah Helm's If This Is A Woman, a scholarly and at the same time unswerving history of Ravensbruck, Hitler’s concentration camp for women.

All this, as well as a preview of the Storybarn, Liverpool's new interactive story centre for children and families, by Jane Davis; tales from the Versewagon by Ian McMillan; five featured books about sisters from Angela MacMillan, and much more.

“Literature still serves all the purposes that oral storytelling once achieved, and remains essential to our wellbeing” – Joseph Gold, The Story Species

Make sure you order your copy now in time for your summer getaway - Issue 58 is available to order online now, via single copy or annual subscription, saving you 15% on the cover price over the year.

Visit our website for full details on purchasing: http://www.thereader.org.uk/magazine