One year on from The Big Issue's biggest crisis, founder John Bird talks to Ruth Tierney about its revival, his hopes for the future and his gratitude to Brighton and Hove.

AS John Bird speaks of his earliest memories of visiting Brighton as a teenager, it is almost with fondness.

Yet, it is not the bright lights of the pier or the nightlife he recalls.

Cold nights on the beach and hours idled away shoplifting or begging in the station are conjured up with the charm of Graham Greene describing petty criminals in Brighton Rock.

Of course, times were harder than the jovial Mr Bird will admit but his years spent on the country's streets and in Her Majesty's prisons allow him to be sympathetic without being patronising to the vendors of the magazine he founded in 1991.

The first issue hit the streets of London that September and within a couple of years he had been invited by Brighton's local authority to bring the homeless magazine to the coast.

The plan was to turn beggars into sellers but the concentration of vendors in Brighton's city centre has made some residents question the difference.

Mr Bird, 56, said: "People say there are too many Big Issue vendors but we were invited by the council, who said it would rather have the homeless selling than begging because begging is illegal.

"Brighton is a magnet for homeless people because it's seen as London-on-sea and there are a great variety of people coming and going. People are attracted to it in the same way as they are the West End.

"When I was homeless 30 years ago I always ended up in London because you could be anonymous there.

"You don't feel as threatened somewhere so big and busy, as you do in a little place where people look at newcomers suspiciously.

"When I spoke at the Liberal Democrats' Party conference in Brighton a few weeks ago, the Government's Rough Sleepers Unit was complaining there were too many vendors in Brighton but that is better than before.

"I'm told by our supporters in Brighton they don't have as many problems with vendors as with beggars because our vendors have licences which are regularly checked.

"People at the conference all had a nice story to tell about their local Big Issue seller in the station or outside the supermarket."

Despite his critics, Mr Bird still has the dedication and belief, which persuaded his old friends the Roddicks to back him 11 years ago.

He was given £500,000 over two years to set up the Big Issue by Gordon and Anita Roddick using money they had generated from their Brighton-based business, The Body Shop.

They also gave him continuing support.

He said: "Without Brighton, there wouldn't be a Big Issue. In 1967, I met Gordon Roddick in Edinburgh. He moved to Littlehampton and married Anita the next year.

"If she hadn't set up the Body Shop in Brighton then they wouldn't have had any money to give me to start the Big Issue.

"They put their money where their mouths were. We're still good friends and they love the Big Issue because they see it as something they helped to create. Without their encouragement and support it would never have happened.

"They gave me money and time and said, 'Get on with it'."

At first, it was an outstanding success, spreading to cities throughout the UK and also to South Africa, Australia and Namibia. After last year's difficulties, the magazine is back on track again.

He said the near collapse made everyone "get off their arses" and make a concerted effort to turn round the Big Issue's fortunes.

Mr Bird, who lives in London, said: "Street sales have gone up again since last year and we're selling more advertising.

"We decided to be more assertive. It's worked and we work much more closely with our vendors.

"We are trying to put them on a programme where they can get training and move off the streets more quickly.

"It's important to lose your way in order to find your way. We are turning a corner.

"Big Issue only works on an individual basis. It never set out to solve all homelessness but it did set out to support somebody in a crisis. It sustains and maintains people rather than them being on a downward slope to death or imprisonment.

"The Big Issue helps people but doesn't give them handouts. We are reversing the process of relying on the generosity of strangers."

Her Majesty's prisons may have given Mr Bird an insight into the plight of those caught up in a cycle of crime and homelessness but, fittingly, his magazine was given the royal seal of approval in March last year when the Queen bought a Big Issue magazine from former drug addict Ivan Betson during a visit to Brighton.

A lady-in-waiting handed the £1 coin to the Queen, who paid vendor Mr Betson as she met staff at the St John Ambulance Sussex Homeless Project's mobile health unit outside Brighthelm United Reformed Church in Church Street.

The success of the project does not stop there.

Plans are afoot to offer the homeless jobs other than as vendors, as Mr Bird has discovered many turn down the chance to sell the Big Issue because it involves too much public interaction.

Mr Bird will be signing copies of his autobiography, Some Luck, published by Penguin, at City Books, Western Road, Hove, on Monday at 6.30pm.