Christo Hall, editor and founder, Cureditor
This Friday we’ve had a look through the magazine shelf of Christo Hall, London-based founder and editor of online aggregator Cureditor. The site recommends important and worthwhile arts and culture articles, and it invites weekly guest curators to pick their favourite essays and articles from the web. Today, we’ve turned the tables slightly and have asked Christo to curate a list of his most loved magazines for us instead.
We asked Christo to choose a new issue, an old issue, and a detail from a magazine that he particularly admires.
New Issue: Little Atoms
There’s few magazines of ideas that tackle subjects of universal interest in more accessible, accurate and modest ways. This may be Little Atoms’ first print magazine, but as a radio show and later an online publication they have been creating thought-provoking content for over a decade.
With over 400 radio interviews to their name the new issue stays true to that history in some fascinating interviews with many of my favourite writers and thinkers – the likes of Iain Sinclair, Jonathan Meades and John Grindrod. I’m keen to see how the latest in Little Atoms’ experiments fares, as this is a superb beginning.
Old Issue: The Believer
As unfashionable as it might be I’ve never been nostalgic, so “old” might have to be in quite relative terms. That said I’ve got a bunch of “old” Believer mags from 2006 onwards, and my favourite of that bunch is the May 2014 issue.
It’s a perfect example of how varied and mad the magazine can be. Besides the usual combination of quality writing and Tony Millionaire’s distinctive illustrations this issue stands out because of two glorious articles, one on the possible consciousness of fish and another on the dreariness of celebrity culture, both of which make this issue worth tracking down. As does Ben Schott’s (of Schott’s Miscellanies fame) list of alleged facts from hotel catalogues.
And another thing: “Pause” from The Big Issue
Have you picked up The Big Issue recently? You should because not only is it for a worthy cause but you’ll be surprised by the renovations that editor Paul McNamee has completed within its pages. Before his stint the magazine did rely too much on celebrity features to sell issues but in recent times there has been a focus on contemporary topics of significance and it has been executed very well.
Typical of this is the column Pause (above) which sees an expert of some form reveal a little of their knowledge in accessible and relevant terms. It’s meant to make a reader pause, reflect for a moment and see the world from a new perspective. We are all learning as we go and self-improvement is always possible, which is a message that helps bring buyers and sellers of The Big Issue that bit closer.