14 March 2005
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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
To save Africa we must listen to it
Africa special: the big picture - Their fault or our fault? The blame game doesn't help. More important is our attitude: we must now acknowledge that Africa will make its own future
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner knows when Brown will be back
I am told that Gordon Brown was not consulted about Labour's misguided posters, or about the six election pledges. Nor has he seen a single draft of the manifesto
Darcus Howe checks black boys' school reports
Our black boys do as well in school as the working-class whites, and perhaps better
Mark Thomas notes it's boom time for arms dealers
By introducing deregulation by stealth, Patricia Hewitt is prising open the gates to an arms bazaar. So much for "the toughest export regulations in the world"
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
We're all in this together
Tomoko Takahashi's installations are pilloried in the press as piles of rubbish, but they engage audiences in exciting new ways. Rachel Withers welcomes a refreshing alternative to Britart
Nous vous aimons
Encounter - Jane Birkin is awe-inspiring compared to today's Botox-riddled sex goddesses, finds Rachel Halliburton
Irish imperialism
Visual art - Confident and glamorous, emigres from Ireland enriched the culture of Victorian England
Theatre
Very good, Sir
Theatre - A selfish actor doesn't deserve his servant in a modern classic, writes Michael Portillo The Dresser Duke of York's, London WC2
Film
Mark Kermode - Lost the plot
Film - Poor Bruce Willis - again forced to fight bad guys with bad hair. By Mark Kermode Hostage (15)
Television
Andrew Billen - Novel affair
Television - A middle-aged divorcee is seduced by her rogue gardenerAndrew Billen Falling (ITV1)
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies needs help with his footie obsession
Surely there must be a therapist who could talk me out of this obsession
Books
Steel in his soul. Once, the English didn't dare mention the phallus; now that they have the right to use the word, they do so with a smirk. It was this national sickness that contorted and constricted D H Lawrence's great talent. By George Walden
D H Lawrence: the life of an outsider John Worthen Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 518pp, £30 ISBN 0713996137
A forced smile
Happiness: lessons from a new science Richard Layard Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 310pp, £17.99 ISBN 0713997699
Nice up north
Lancashire, Where Women Die of Love Charles Nevin Mainstream, 317pp, £12.99 ISBN 1840188715
Wolf among sheep
Publisher Tom Maschler Picador, 294pp, £20 ISBN 0330484206
The modern curse
A Philosophy of Boredom Lars Fredrik Svendsen; translation by John Irons Reaktion Books, 192pp, £14.95 ISBN 1861892179
French lessons
The Politics of Love Alina Reyes; translation by Claus von Bohlen Marion Boyars, 104pp, £8.95 ISBN 0714531065
Fiction - Mid-life crisis
Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance Matthew Kneale Picador, 277pp, £12.99 ISBN 0330435345
Commentary
The South African writer Rian Malan grew up in revolt against his colonial inheritance. His first and only book offers vital insights into the white man's experience of apartheid
