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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.

October 2022

  • ‘The cultural and social memory of the UK’; publicity shots for the programme State of the Planet with David Attenborough.

    ‘The cultural memory of the UK’: unearthing the hidden treasures of the BBC archive

    For years the corporation has been digitising its vast reserve of content, turning up lost footage of everyone from General Eisenhower to Victoria Wood. Meet the team bringing a century of footage back to life

September 2022

  • Houses in Easington Colliery, County Durham; Didcot, Oxfordshire; and Belgravia, London

    From the £25,000 wreck to the £25m home with an indoor pool: what three house sales tell us about modern Britain

    Thousands of homes are sold each day across the country, and each has its own story, from the drug- and crime-ridden streets of a former mining town to the ever more bizarre demands of the super-rich

August 2022

  • Suzy (left) and Alix

    Dining across the divide
    Dining across the divide: ‘I was bewildered when she said Donald Trump was intelligent’

    They differed on Brexit and how much the wealthy should be taxed – and then there was the issue of a certain former US president

July 2022

  • A letter being posted with the new QR code stamp, introduced by Royal Mail in February.

    ‘Eventually it will just be a barcode, won’t it?’ Why Britain’s new stamps are causing outrage and upset

    Royal Mail’s stamps are finally entering the digital world, with printed codes that can be used to track letters or linked to videos. Collectors, traditionalists and royalists are not amused

May 2022

  • Dabi Adesoye, before and after teeth aligner treatment

    ‘I can’t imagine getting married with those teeth’: how Britain fell for adult braces

    Lockdowns and video calls have boosted demand for ‘invisible’ teeth aligners. But what do you get for your £1,500 to £4,000? And are some health experts right to be concerned?

April 2022

  • Fast growing broilers in intensive shed production

    Today in Focus
    The real cost of the chicken in your supermarket trolley

    British shoppers have grown used to paying less than a pint of beer for a whole chicken – a situation mired in ethical and environmental dilemmas, finds Simon Usborne

March 2022

  • Scott McGlynn in Wales, March 2022

    The outspoken
    ‘For five years, I could barely speak’: the skin health campaigner who overcame bullying for severe acne

  • Rachael Clerke prepares for Transactionland.

    Feeling the pinch? Go shoplifting! The Bristol art project tackling the cost of living crisis

February 2022

  • If the cap fits … young fans at the 2019 Peaky Blinders festival.

    Flat cap nation: how Peaky Blinders went from a TV show to a way of life

  • ‘The devil’s handwriting’ … part of the Tavistock letter, written in a shorthand dating from the 1700s that Dickens modified.

    Forget Wordle! Can you crack the Dickens Code? An IT worker from California just did

January 2022

  • Table football stars

    Cold baths, cherry juice and sleep: the secret to staying fit in your 40s

  • Stork delivering the Earth as a 'baby'

    ‘More people is the last thing this planet needs’: the men getting vasectomies to save the world

December 2021

  • Simon Usborne and his girlfriend, Jess, in April 2012, about six weeks after they started dating.

    My winter of love
    My winter of love: I was not expecting a hot first date. Then I found love in a terrible pub

    Ten years after my dad died, I felt rudderless – a manchild still making sense of life. But suddenly, surprisingly, I met someone with whom I had an immediate bond

November 2021

  • One of Simon Barton’s chicks, at his farm in Somerset.

    The £3 chicken: how much should we actually be paying for the nation’s favourite meat?

    Fifty years ago, a medium broiler cost the equivalent of £11 today. Now it is less than a latte or a pint of beer, raising serious ethical and environmental questions

October 2021

  • A step too far? Our every waking, and sleeping, moment can now be monitored.

    Intimate data: can a person who tracks their steps, sleep and food ever truly be free?

    Big tech now encourages us to monitor everything from our heart rate to our glucose levels via smartphones and watches. How much privacy have we lost to the promise of self improvement - and is it time to stop?

September 2021

  • Clinical psychologist Richard Bentall

    The outspoken
    Richard Bentall: the man who lost his brother – then revolutionised psychology

  • A laptop in a darkened room of a couple's home

    ‘Sex isn’t difficult any more’: the men who are quitting watching porn

August 2021

  • Composite of sports stars (clockwise from top left): Bianca Walkden (taekwondo, 2019), Mark Cavendish (cycling), Adam Gemili (athletics, 2019), Jordan Pickford (football), Simone Biles (gymnastics), Marcus Rashford (football), Naomi Osaka (tennis), Bradley Sinden (taekwondo), Bukayo Saka (football), Emma Raducanu (tennis)

    How to win at life: what sports psychologists can teach us all

  • Steve Mallen, whose son Edward killed himself

    The outspoken
    ‘I don’t intend to let my son down twice’: the bereaved father trying to end suicide

July 2021

  • Completed Henry vacuum cleaner bottoms on a pallet inside the parts warehouse, ready to be assembled

    Sucks to be him! How Henry the vacuum cleaner became an accidental design icon

    Henry is a fixture in millions of homes – including 10 Downing Street – despite almost no advertising. Meet the man behind a curiously British success story
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