The August issue of FIRST, due out with The Malta Independent on Sunday, will offer the usual mix of fashion, beauty tips and shopping ideas, including a beautiful series of modelling photos featuring country chic.

The magazine’s trade mark social and competition pages will also be packed as always, complementing the very intriguing articles that will make it a fulfilling armchair (or deckchair) read.

Among them is a piece about immigration, a subject that has been on everyone’s mind following the ‘pushback’ episode a few weeks ago.

The enormous amount of discussion has uncovered all kinds of opinions, some expressing support for the migrants in need, others expressing a genuine fear of change and of overcrowding related to the influx of an ‘alien’ culture. Others still, worryingly, displayed frankly hostile forms of racism.

What has became obvious is that the debate about migration and integration, which countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and France have gone through in the past, is in urgent need of being put on the national agenda here.

To this end FIRST interviews Maria Pisani, one of the people who was at the forefront of the human rights groups that opposed any ‘pushback’ last month. Maria is an expert in this field, and is the perfect person to answer questions about the current situation in Malta.

Also in FIRST, distributed free with this newspaper next Sunday, is an interview with Mark Camilleri, probably one of Malta’s only crime novelists whose second book featuring the adventures of Inspector Victor Gallo has recently been released. Camilleri’s first book, Prima Facie, was adapted into a television series, while his second, Volens, is doing brisk business. We look into the mind of an author who enjoys coming up with macabre murder mysteries that need solving.

There’s a look back at 40 years of Maltese watersports provided by one of the pioneers of the trade, Tony ‘Banis’ Muscat, and an interview with rising star classical musician Ian Peter, who is the first Maltese aiming to get a doctorate in music from a London college.

Miss World Malta Donna Borg Leyland explains where she got her exotic looks from as well as her preparations for the international pageant set to take place in Indonesia next month, while lovers will be intrigued by an article about a museum dedicated to broken relationships in Croatia.

Make sure to get your copy with The Malta Independent on Sunday.