First of all, this is not Private Eye. It is, however, a nice book cover- so I used it.
The real Private Eye, which is a piece of iconic genius, runs a lovely little thing in the back pages called 'Eye Need'. Here, people write in (for £2.60 a word) asking for -mostly monetary - help. This week's, for example, has a teacher asking for help who is £30k in debt, a violinst mum asking for help in raising £60k before burnout and an Aspirant Zola/Orwell seeking a Carnegie to fund first work... Horribly, Time Out covered off the Eye Need section in there 'ways to make money' issue, which bothered me a little, but to me it's still one of the little known, under-ground smashing facts about being British, Beligerent and a magazine called Private Eye. Each issue, interestingly, is set up as a company so that when they're sued (which is often and mostly Murdoch) they just close that issue down and declare themselves bankrupt or without the necessary earnings - genius...
Anyway, to my point. There was a chap in there, whose wife was Bi-Polar, who had three sons and who just wanted a little help. I sent him £10 across the internet and well wishes from my desk. If you ever happen to pick up Private Eye and are taken by any of the sad stories, perhaps you could something about it? There's something trustworthy about it, whilst an amazing element of faceless compassion; you have no idea who's helping you or who, indeed, you're helping. And that sort of selfish giving is often beautifully the best.
