John Bird looks back at his life and feels that he must have lived someone else’s: “One of the things about being a personal disaster is that the damage isn’t just confined to yourself — you spread it around, and I regret that. However, I honestly don’t think that I damaged anyone as much as my parents damaged me or as I damaged myself.”
John, 60, founded The Big Issue 15 years ago. He was approached by Gordon Roddick, of Body Shop fame, who wanted to fund a magazine that would be sold by homeless people in London after coming across a similar idea in New York. “I first met Gordon when I was 21 and on the run from the police,” says John. “I was an obvious choice: I’d been homeless, in prison, and had done drink and drugs. But I also knew about magazines.”
John was one of six sons born to parents whose failure to pay rent made them homeless when he was 5. After a year when the family lived in a loft and slept in the same bed, he was sent to a Catholic orphanage until he was 10, when the family moved to a council flat in Fulham. At 15, he ran away to escape the aggression of home life, and began committing crimes.
His life turned around only gradually: “I got myself educated. I learnt to read and write in Feltham boys’ prison. Every time I got nicked, I learnt more.” In his late twenties, he discovered politics and became a printer.
It’s not enough to throw money at homelessness, he says. “Getting people off the streets and housed addresses only 10 per cent of the problem: they also need a sense of belonging, which is why we continue to work with them. We’re on the front line with the most abject people: street sleepers who are incontinent, with mental health problems and personality disorders.”
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The Big Issue has picked up countless awards and is now a British and worldwide brand — not that John would use that word: “Every now and again, someone suggests some market research. I’ve never agreed. You should just do what is right.”
One thing that he got right was his choice of PA: Anne Garbarini, who applied for the job after seeing it advertised in The Big Issue. John says: “She was obviously socially committed and the right candidate. I take her to all my meetings and she is a real constructor. She has a lot of responsibility and will have more. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up running The Big Issue.”
Anne, 33, who is French, came to the UK for a year, but stayed after meeting her partner. She previously worked for a public-sector body as a translator and was leaving out of sheer boredom: “I used to buy The Big Issue from a specific vendor, Clare, a very nice girl. One day, she said she’d like to learn French. After that, I had coffee with her every week.”
She still sees Clare, but no longer in her lunch hour: “I don’t have time for one,” she says of her hectic role in which she also supports The Big Issue chairman, Nigel Kershaw.
Anne thinks that she and John get on well because they are so different: “I am quite a serious, measured person, whereas John is eccentric and full of energy.”
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John rarely goes into the office; he is either working from home, fulfilling speaking engagements or going to meetings. Anne says: “I must be the only PA who will jump on a train with a big bag full of correspondence and his diary. He encourages me to participate and he asks me for ideas — I’m never at meetings just to take minutes. I’m constantly running around after him, but at least I’m never bored.”