My first First Thing

After a very enjoyable six months as one of the main writers for First Edition at the Guardian, I am heading off to pastures new as Libby Brooks and Hettie O’Brien become the permanent dream team there.

From today I am starting a stint splitting my time between writing First Thing – the Guardian’s summary of the top stories from the US, plus the day’s must-reads – and covering (from London) the 2026 Fifa men’s World Cup. It is my third time covering a World Cup for the Guardian, and fourth overall. The boy who frantically collected the España 82 sticker album would be well chuffed.

I’ve had a great time working on First Edition, writing about some things I really enjoyed and that are close to my heart, like the 2020s space race, the battle to keep grassroots music venues funded and running, the prospects for British theatre, the Easter egg outrage (the real one about prices, not the confected one about words on packaging by culture warriors), and everything that is wrong with modern football.

I’ve also covered things that are important to the state of the nation, including the decline of our high streets, the restrictions the media face in reporting court cases and high-profile crimes, racial discrimination in maternity care and the assisted dying debate.

On the political side of things, I wrote (probably) too many newsletters about the slow-motion car crash of Keir Starmer losing his grip on power, aided and abetted by local and national election and by-election results coming through on the days I was writing.

Two newsletters I am particularly proud of are, firstly, one where we put the spotlight firmly on the harrowing stories of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, and avoided just gawking at the famous men – who deny all wrongdoing – mentioned in the Epstein files. Secondly, one of the privileges of being a journalist is you sometimes get to speak to amazing people doing incredible work, as I did when I interviewed Jenny Stirton, chair of the Dunblane Centre, to find a positive way to mark the 30th anniversary of the terrible tragedy there, that I remember so vividly myself from the time.

I was also able to have fun – not least when going on a pub crawl in St Albans with my colleague Sammy, or buttonholing Toby Hadoke about the hunt for missing episodes of 1950s and 1960s television.

[Martin Belam with a beer, as ever]

So sign up for First Thing here for the continuing adventures of my byline at the Guardian…