Grazia

welcome to the issue

I WASN’T SURPRISED to read that, as a nation, we’ve watched more TV than ever due to the pandemic. There’s been a certain solace in knowing you’re collectively sitting on the sofa discovering fresh new talent. The latest breakthrough actor is cover star Emily Beecham, whose role in The Pursuit Of Love has been making my Sunday nights an event. On page 60, Emily discusses her slow-burn success and starring alongside Lily James. Meanwhile, if your idea of luxury right now is anything but another night on a sofa, don’t miss Polly Vernon (p14) on the delight of social satiety that’s come from meeting up in person again. And finally, our biannual Luxe Issue felt like the perfect time to launch the first Grazia Interiors Awards (p117). Helped by Laura…

grazia uk

EDITOR HATTIE BRETT BSME EDITOR OF THE YEAR Deputy editor KENYA HUNT Assistant editor EMMA ROWLEY Assistant editor JESSICA BARRETT Senior editor RHIANNON EVANS Beauty & health director JOELY WALKER Celebrity director GUY PEWSEY Copy Production editor MARIA O’CONNOR Features Features editor ANNA SILVERMAN Senior features writer GEORGIA ASPINALL News & Entertainment Senior entertainment writer BONNIE McLAREN Health & beauty Beauty editor ANNIE VISCHER Senior beauty writer EMMA STODDART Lifestyle grazialifestyle@graziamagazine.co.uk Lifestyle editor RACHEL LOOS Website graziadaily.co.uk Head of social media PHOEBE PARKE Social media and video producer LILLIAN SESIGUZEL Editor-at-large POLLY VERNON Contributing editors CANDICE BRATHWAITE, ASHLEY ‘DOTTY’ CHARLES, HATTIE CRISELL, ROSAMUND DEAN, POLLY DUNBAR, LYNN ENRIGHT Advertising Group MD, advertising ABBY CARVOSSO Group commercial director SIMON KILBY Head of magazine media CLARE CHAMBERLAIN International fashion director SINDY WALKER Acting international fashion director LEE BROWN Partnerships director REBECCA DUGGAN Partnerships director, beauty CHARLOTTE FOORD Acting partnerships director, beauty TARA SCANNELL Digital brand director LAURA DYE Media planner ELEANOR LAVENDER Group head FRAN WALSH Partnerships IZZY GIFFORD, GABRIELLE EMERTON Creative solutions art…

over to you...

Have your say… Email us at feedback@graziamagazine.co.uk Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GraziaUK I thought your defence of John Lewis was spot on. I’ve grown up with the brand and bought everything from bedding to a diamond ring (their secondhand rings are amazing!) there. We had our wedding list with them and used their baby equipment advice service. My go-to place for all sorts of things. Covid has been tough – let’s not kick a brand while it’s down. Elizabeth I couldn’t help but agree with Grazia View. How could the PM’s fiancée call John Lewis a ‘nightmare’? Most of us love John Lewis. Boris is facing questions over how renovations to their Downing Street flat were paid for, and rightly so. It was reported that Carrie spent £800 a…

star letter

JOHN LEWIS WE ♥ YOU! I so agree that John Lewis is a national treasure for homewares (17 May). I feel sad and slightly sick that my local John Lewis in Sheffield has been closed permanently. There has been a huge outpouring of emotion about this. It’s not only lost jobs, or the fact that the store has been such a big part of people’s lives, but that here, in the sixth largest city in England, we now do not have a large department store in the city centre. It’s about aspiration, somewhere to browse and dream, to appreciate nice things, and to actually buy them! Shopping (not online) is not superficial, it supports our wellbeing and sense of self. It’s not called retail therapy for nothing. It’s just sinking in…

“it’s time for real action to end male violence”

Only two months ago, following Sarah Everard’s death, we dedicated this page to the 118 women killed in the previous 12 months where a man had been convicted or charged. That this list needs updating is a tragedy, but the fact that since 3 March another 28* women have died through male violence (or where a man is the main suspect) is horrifying. On 9 May, a man was charged with the murder of Julia James. A week earlier, the body of Maria Rawlings was found – again, a man is facing a murder charge. And yet, women are constantly reassured that killings by men are ‘rare’. We need action to stop this all-too-familiar misogynistic violence.…

a love letter to other people, aka my ultimate luxury

FIRST DAY BACK with my boxing class! The joy, the joy, the unadulterated, unalloyed, unlimited joy! Not just because of the exercise: the ritual of hand wrapping, the warm-up nerves, the punching, the sweating, the sudden delicious onset of endorphin whoosh… But because of them! The group! The bliss of being part of a real life, real live group again! A collective! A wide-ranging, fluctuating dynamic, multiple shades of character, bouncing off each other, twisting and turning and jostling; pulling together, batting away. The dance of it, the in-jokes and ganging-ups against shared nemeses, the crowdsourcing of problems, the splintering and coming-back-together of conversation, the mishaps, misunderstandings, the shouting at each other over the class soundtrack of driving, slaggy club tunes. None of this works on WhatsApp or Zoom. It’s too…