25 October 2004

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

Jason Cowley, Editor, New Statesman

Features

A tale of two cities

By Adam James

NS & Fellows' Associates round table - The Home Secretary hopes that his citizenship schemes will make modern Manchester more like ancient Athens. But is it all Greek to the region's people? Adam James reports

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

Why a Kerry victory matters so much

Darcus Howe asks if there is British "black history"

By Darcus Howe

If we are celebrating black history, why does Lambeth Council ignore Brixton, 1981?

Amanda Platell knows who can save the Tories

By Amanda Platell

Watch out, Labour: the man from Oz who turned Howard into a success story is coming

Mark Thomas likes the idea of a Thatcher in jail

By Mark Thomas

Next time you are depressed, summon up the image of Margaret Thatcher perhaps having to visit her son in a developing world jail, and facing the indignity of a strip-search

Mark Kermode - A poor substitute

By Mark Kermode

Jude Law's cuddly customer is no match for the sexy original. By Mark Kermode Alfie (15)

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

I am a camera

By Tim Bishop

In an age of rolling TV news, what is the press photograph worth? And how can snappers these days escape the perils of controlling PR managers and insensitive editors? The photographer Tim Bishop introduces a book that has some answers

Mexican wave

By Elizabeth Mistry

Photography 2 - Using her first and only camera, Araceli Herrera has developed an eye for the shot that others dismiss

Desperately seeking Doddy

By Michael Coveney

Encounters - On the trail of the unmatchable Ken Dodd, Michael Coveney finally catches up with the great comic as he prepares for a five-hour show

Theatre

Michael Portillo - Cool, daddy-o

By Michael Portillo

Theatre - Dizzy Gillespie's bid for the US presidency gets jazzed up. By Michael Portillo Vote Dizzy! An evening with His Royal Hipness Lord Buckley Soho Theatre, London W1

Television

Andrew Billen - Hard to believe

By Andrew Billen

Television - Is the threat of al-Qaeda just a convenient myth? By Andrew Billen The Power of Nightmares (BBC2)

The Fan

The fan - Hunter Davies seeks fantasy

By Hunter Davies

In Cockermouth, you don't get the same quality of fantasy as in London

Books

A burnt-out case. The story of a vain sexual adventurer told by an assassin of language - George Walden on why Graham Greene got the biographer he deserved

By George Walden

The Life of Graham Greene: volume three (1955-1991) Norman Sherry Jonathan Cape, 906pp, £25 ISBN 0224059742

Bad news

By Christopher Bland

Inside Story Greg Dyke HarperCollins, 340pp, £20 ISBN 0007192339

Voice of reason

By Mary Dejevsky

Putin's Russia Anna Politkovskaya Harvill, 291pp, £8.99 ISBN 1843430509

Lucky break

By Sarfraz Manzoor

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Aron Ralston Simon & Schuster, 354pp, £14.99 ISBN 0743263537

Back to feudalism

By Dan Rosenheck

Neoconomy: George Bush's revolutionary gamble with America's future Daniel Altman PublicAffairs, 290pp, £18.99 ISBN 1586482297

Fiction - Diary of a nobody

By William Cook

Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Sue Townsend Michael Joseph, 460pp, £16.99 IDBN 0718146891

John Kampfner recommends

By John Kampfner

Against All Enemies: inside America's war on terror Richard A Clarke Free Press, 306pp, £18.99 ISBN 0743260457

John Pilger recommends

By John Pilger

From Oslo to Iraq and the Roadmap Edward Said Bloomsbury, 323 pp, £18.99 ISBN 0747573433 Wars of the 21st Century: new threats, new fears Ignacio Ramonet Ocean Books, 192pp, £11.99 Killing Hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II William Blum Zed Books, 480pp, £12.99