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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Simon Usborne

Simon Usborne is a freelance feature writer and reporter based in London. He was previously a feature writer and an editor at The Independent.

June 2024

  • Stephanie and Ryan Corcoran with their children, Juno, Culainn, Elvi, Bernard and Vincent, all wearing red adidas tracksuits, sitting on and standing by two rowing machines in a metal building

    Five kids in a home gym, mother and daughter cricketers and a karate trio – meet the families who work out together

  • head and shoulders portrait of cricketer Azeem Rafiq

    Weekend
    Azeem Rafiq talks racism, cricket, and leaving Britain; Philippa Perry offers advice on a painful crush; why Rory Stewart quit politics; and the big British bamboo crisis – podcast

  • Here's to looking mint … male contestants on Love Island. Photo by ITV/REX/Shutterstock

    Pop Culture with Chanté Joseph
    Love Island and looksmaxxing: how are male beauty standards changing? – podcast

  • Bamboo growing under a kitchen floor

    The big British bamboo crisis: ‘It invaded my beautiful home’

May 2024

  • Sebastian Junger.

    In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger review – back from the brink

    The war reporter and author of The Perfect Storm brings us a real life medical thriller in which he is the protagonist

April 2024

  • The hair-loss treatment industry survives by making people feel bad about themselves.

    Book of the day
    Bald by Stuart Heritage review – hair today, gone tomorrow

    An unexpected twist on the grief memoir sees the Guardian writer chart the five stages of male-pattern baldness

March 2024

  • Simon Usborne plays piano with his son.

    ‘There’s joy I haven’t felt for years!’ How an app finally got me hooked on the piano

  • The station’s foreman, Louis Timpany.

    ‘We’re off in our transit vans after the show’: how Fix Radio built a hit station for builders

February 2024

  • Illustration of a man's face covered in arrows and lines to mark planned cosmetic surgery tweaks

    Modern masculinity
    From bone smashing to chin extensions: how ‘looksmaxxing’ is reshaping young men’s faces

    Chiselled jaws, pouty lips, hunter eyes: everything is up for grabs in the quest to increase ‘sexual market value’. But how did this extreme cosmetic craze become mainstream?

November 2023

  • Hackney Walk, a shopping centre planned under the railway arches in Hackney, east London, April 2023

    ‘It was a case study for what not to do’: the regeneration project that became a £100m luxury ghost town

    The plan was to take old railway arches in a run-down area of east London and turn them into a high-end fashion hub. Instead, Hackney Walk ended up deserted. What went so disastrously wrong?

September 2023

  • People and shadows in a debate scenario

    Don’t steamroll, and go easy on the stats: how to win an argument – without making things worse

    An MP, a standup comic, a barrister, a divorce expert and a debating coach give tips on the art of debate – and why you need to listen, not just argue

June 2023

  • A snarling pitbull. Photograph: Cheryl Paz/Alamy

    Today in Focus
    What’s behind the rise in dog attacks?

    Seven people have been killed by dogs in the UK so far this year. Simon Usborne reports on the worrying increase in attacks

April 2023

  • Ümit Mesut, Umit & Son. Cine Real. London. Photograph by David Levene 6/3/23

    The Guardian picture essay
    ‘Film is in my blood’: the secret cinema in the back of a London shop

    Ümit Mesut started as a ‘rewind boy’ and now runs a tiny movie theatre in the back room of his store, Ümit & Son, in east London. Is this the UK’s most unlikely film haunt?

March 2023

  • James Coupland: ‘I thought: “If my landlord can do this, then I can make money, too.’”

    The improbable rise of landlord influencers: ‘I’m not taking advantage of anybody’

    Buy-to-let property videos are increasingly popular on TikTok and other social media platforms. But is this a route to financial freedom or a get-rich-quick scheme doomed to fail?
  • Illustration of a man's arm holding an umbrella coming through a hole in a wall, with blue sky visible on the other side

    ‘I warned the FBI about this guy Osama bin Laden’: the people who predicted disasters, from the 2008 crash to Covid

    Whether it’s a terrorist attack or Donald Trump becoming US president: how do you live with being the person who foresaw a cataclysmic event?
  • NYCC: Netflix Presents: Big Mouth Panel, New York, USA - 03 Oct 2019<br>Mandatory Credit: Photo by Patrick Lewis/Starpix for Netflix/REX/Shutterstock (10435588p) Jaboukie Young-White NYCC: Netflix Presents: Big Mouth Panel, New York, USA - 03 Oct 2019

    From short king spring to ‘short men are psychopaths’. When will the obsession with men’s height end?

    Simon Usborne
    A new study claims to have proved that the Napoleon complex is real – but it misses the bigger picture, says feature writer Simon Usborne

December 2022

  • CrackerJokesCracker Jokes

    The secret life of cracker jokes: how bad gags became a Christmas classic

    Cracker industry bosses and comics shed light on the art of the cracker joke, from winning formulas to ‘innovation teams’ – and why they’re more important than ever in the digital age

November 2022

  • The Denmark Place building after the deadly fire on 16 August 1980.

    You don’t know about the Denmark Place fire because its 37 victims didn’t count

    Simon Usborne
    The deadly central London arson attack took place in 1980. A plaque is now being unveiled – but why did it take so long, asks writer Simon Usborne
  • Denmark Place fire

    ‘They belonged somewhere’: the forgotten victims of one of London’s deadliest fires

    Plaque to 37 victims of arson attack on Soho club to be unveiled 40 years after tragedy that became a footnote in history
  • illustration: three men standing in a row; the middle one is significantly shorter and standing on a box to achieve the same height

    Would you have your legs broken to make yourself taller? The men who go through hell for a little extra height

    The procedure can cost £80,000 – but increasing numbers of people are putting themselves through leg-lengthening surgery. What drives them to do it? And is it worth the pain and potential complications?
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