04 August 2003
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
War on truth
The White House sets the tone and the media echo a line that celebrates the victimhood of the invader and the evil of the Iraqis. And then London takes its cue. By John Pilger in America
Features
A Helsinki cent for your thoughts
Keep an eye on the small change in euroland. It may be worth a lot more than you think. By Michael Holland
Essay
NS Essay - 'Bush and Blair deceived us about the reasons for going to war, but they deceived themselves about its impact on Iraq'
Policing a collapsed state is a potentially interminable business and to turn to the UN for salvation is just another exercise in wishful thinking. By John Gray
Regulars
Darcus Howe recalls his own Tony Martin moment
I might have become a cause celebre like Tony Martin, but luckily no one died
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
A little treatise on theatre
In recent decades, our culture has become increasingly parochial and disengaged, writes Tariq Ali. But never has there been a greater need for provocative political drama
The killing fields
Art - Richard Cork on a painter who used his love of English landscape to show the horror of war
Star-spangled
Opera - Peter Conrad laments the way Peter Sellars turns great works into replicas of US life
Retro chic
Fashion - Hadley Freeman on a man who embodied the spirit of the Swinging Sixties
Film
Loads of loot
Film - Philip Kerr confesses to enjoying Jerry Bruckheimer's latest swashbuckling romp
Television
Larkin about
Television - Andrew Billen enjoys a drama revealing the depressed poet's mischievous side
Books
The genuine article. In our ironic, consumer-driven society, is there any such thing as authenticity? No, writes Charlotte Raven. Exploited by advertisers selling everything from organic chocolate to Agas, the desire for a return to "reality" has become simply another lifestyle fad
Authenticity: brands, fakes, spin and the lust for real life David Boyle Flamingo, 315pp, £12.99
Our man in Africa
The Zanzibar Chest: a memoir of love and war Aidan Hartley HarperCollins, 448pp, £20 ISBN 0002570599
Grave concerns
Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers Mary Roach Penguin, 303pp, £14.99 ISBN 0670912174
High fidelity
Words and Music: a history of pop in the shape of a city Paul Morley Bloomsbury, 360pp, £12.99 ISBN 0747557780
A gruelling read
The Workhouse Norman Longmate Pimlico, 320pp, £12.50 ISBN 0712606378
Novel of the week
Love in Idleness Amanda Craig Little, Brown, 344pp, £12.99 ISBN 033048298X
