Simon Hattenstone

Every January I start out with a wish list. It tends not to change hugely from year to year because many of my dream interviews are not easy to get hold of. Robert and Grace Mugabe, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, if you are reading this and fancy spending quality time with me this year, give me a bell (or answer my emails).

News is by definition difficult to anticipate, which means you don’t know who or what you want to cover till something has happened. Often, unfortunately, that something is tragic. One of the most satisfying pieces of work I did last year was spending time with residents at Whitstable House, the tower next to Grenfell. Would that ever be on a wish list? Of course not. But when terrible events happen, as a features journalist you hope to cover it in way that is different but meaningful.



After the bad news bonanza of the past couple of years, I’d love to get the opportunity to meet people who are genuinely changing the world for the better.

I love being surprised by interviewees too. Some of the people who have stayed with me most were little known at the time. Way back in 2003 I was asked to interview an artist I knew little about. He was unusual in that he created work on the streets of London and Bristol, and nobody knew what he looked like because if he revealed himself, the police would nab him. What made the interview extra interesting was trying to work out if Banksy really was Banksy. After an afternoon quizzing him over Guinness, I reckoned he knew too much about Banksy not to be Banksy. As far as I know I’m still the only person to have interviewed him face to face (if it was him).

So yes: a Banksy, a couple of dictators and a utopian genius would do nicely this year.

Hadley Freeman

The two stories I most hope to cover are ones I’m not really expecting to cover: Trump’s impeachment, and the incarceration of most of his administration and family, and the reverse of Brexit, as the vast majority of the public finally realise what a spectacularly self-destructive and unhelpful act this truly is, and how they’ve been lied to by politicians and rightwing media barons. Those are my dream stories, but, as I say, I am fully aware they may remain just dreams.

Back in the realm of reality, I’m looking forward to covering the US midterms, when hopefully the Democrats will truly bite back. The first post-Weinstein Oscars will be interesting, at least, and it will be fascinating to see if this period truly is a moment of reckoning for powerful exploitative men or just another blip before getting back to business as usual.

Polly Toynbee

Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, relentlessly – with no escape. I will be seeking out how it affects every aspect of life – farmers, supermarkets, the NHS, road haulage, the weak border force, universities, catering, Ireland and the still unexploded bomb of Gibraltar. And our identity.

In 2018, again, everything will be Brexit-inflected, overshadowing all the other pressing problems the government will ignore, for lack of Whitehall capacity. A social care review, climate change and air pollution risk landing in the too-difficult tray again. The underfunded NHS teeters, schools suffer deep losses, the benefit cuts harm many more. Trains will get worse: why don’t commuters rise up?

As water and energy companies continue ripping off the public, Labour’s nationalisation plans look increasingly essential. If a less than rock-hard Brexit deal takes shape, it will be the Tory fanatics who will seem the political extremists.

I wish I could see good cheer ahead – but fear I am destined to write another year of Cassandra columns!

Whither Trump? Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Images

Gary Younge

In the coming year I’m going back to writing a column after a couple of years doing longer features and helping with membership. After 12 years in America I’m excited to be doing this from Britain because so much of what I see feels new to me. A great deal has changed while I’ve been away and the country seems to be in a dramatic state of flux.

I’m particularly keen to look at the underlying issues of alienation, identity and anomie that made the Brexit vote possible here and how that relates to events elsewhere. Finally I’m looking forward to examining what a newly buoyed Labour party under Corbyn might do and say now it has proved its electoral viability and stands a real chance of forming the next government. Which brings us to the thing I most look forward to covering and which I sincerely hope happens – an election which will result in a much-needed change of government.



John Crace

Brexit provided many of the most unintentional comedic moments of the last year and is set to provide much more in 2018, as Theresa May tries to persuade her divided Cabinet they can really all have their cake and eat it and that the EU will be falling over itself to offer Great Britain the best possible deal. With the first and easiest phase of the Brexit negotiations taking the best part of a year and the UK government now having until October to convince itself that the difficult bits won’t be nearly as difficult as it had first thought, I am looking forward to a ringside seat at the political fallout.

Another highlight will be President Trump’s expected visit to the UK early in the new year for the opening of the new US embassy in London. Unmissable. For all the wrong reasons.

Sandra Laville

In the coming year I want to continue to try to shed light on the issue of plastic waste. The growing crisis caused by plastic pollution in the ocean is creating international concern, with the looming suggestion that by 2050, if plastic continues to leak into the oceans at the current rate, it will outweigh the fish.

I want to explore why society continues to use most plastic packaging just once, and examine how we can create a culture in which plastic is used and reused and then recycled into items which we use again.

I will also pursue the subject of our toxic air. Air pollution impacts everyone, but affects the poorest worst. Being able to breathe clean air should be everyone’s right, but across the world air pollution takes tens of thousands of lives. This is a subject I will continue to examine and write about.

Adriene from Yoga With Adriene. Photograph: Lauren Logan Photography

Annalisa Barbieri

My wish list is slightly different in that there are subjects I cover that I wish I didn’t have to: domestic violence and coercive control in relationships is pretty high up there. The number of people in abusive relationships who think they’re not (“but he doesn’t hit me”) is staggering and depressing, and since the change to the law in Legal Aid, things have got worse. If I could wave a magic wand, I’d like to see less of that because there’s less of it.



But! I’d like to meet Adriene from Yoga With Adriene on YouTube, because I love her. And maybe Giovanni from Strictly so we could talk in Italian. My buzzword for 2018, though, is communication, because that’s the answer to everything.