Get your hands on our brilliant Letter To My Younger Self book this week

This week we publish our long-awaited Letter To My Younger Self book.

The book brings together 100 of the best of our weekly Letter To My Younger Self interviews. The section has been running in The Big Issue for 12 years.

Conceived by books editor Jane Graham, who also compiled the book and conducted the majority of the interviews, it sees some hugely known global figures provide advice to their 16-year-old self based on what they know now.

“The one person we all try not to lie to, the one person who has known us at our worst and best, is ourself,” explained Graham. “In the past dozen years in The Big Issue, I’ve posed that question to more than 500 people and never ceased to be amazed at what I’ve discovered.”

The book, published by Blink, will be on sale from October 31. It will be available in all good high street retailers and online.

“It’s a brilliant, brilliant collection,” said Big Issue editor Paul McNamee. “There is a deep richness in what these people have delivered to us in the pages of The Big Issue, with unvarnished honesty, for so many years.

“Readers have told us how much the words have meant to them. The interviews have drawn out so much. It’s a joy to be able to bring this to the world. And I’m especially delighted we’re working with the team at Blink. This is the ONLY Christmas gift to put at the top of your list.”

Proceeds from sales of the book will go to The Big Issue. Such is the interest that international editions are already set for China, Romania and Germany. As a reminder of what has come before, and what you can find in the book, here is a sample:

Rod Stewart on fulfilment:

“Being with the Faces was like Christmas Eve every night.”

Billie Jean King on ambition:

“Being a leader can be very lonely.”

Roger Moore on ageing:

“Ageing has never bothered me. My wife and my children love me, so that’s alright.”

Paul McCartney on fate:

“The next day I told John about my dream I’d had, and he said, ‘That’s funny, I had exactly the same dream.’”

Harriet Harman on courage:

“If people realised my knees were knocking, that would be no good for the women I was representing.”

Olivia Colman on love:

“I absolutely threw myself in – I didn’t play it cool.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on inspiration:

“God has a funny sense of humour.”