31 October 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
Democracy and demons
It provokes extreme passions. From a country the size of Wales, conflicts and arguments touch lives and shake economies across the globe. What is really going on, and are things changing? In the pages that follow, distinguished writers analyse the phenomenon that is Israel, its people, its past and its future, while here Mario Vargas Llosa introduces a nation he both admires and fears
Regulars
Diary
Diary - Sue MacGregor
She had been to a wonderful production by Birmingham Royal Ballet, but what was it? She knew it was well known and began with a P. "Prawn Lake?" said her neighbour
Politics
The politics column - Martin Bright revisits the great education divide
Downing Street is convinced the education reforms can be sold as progressive. The Prime Minister's attitude to his colleagues' reservations is said to be "robust"
Commons Confidential
Village life - Kevin Maguire asks if Byers has gone Awol
How Tony helped Dave, to Old Etonian cheers, while everyone ignored Cherie
Darcus Howe bids farewell to Rosa Parks
I interviewed Pakistanis who waved images of Bin Laden in my face, making claim to territory in Walsall
John Pilger applauds a military refusenik
A British officer is facing court martial because, after two tours of Iraq, he has concluded it would be illegal to return
Michela Wrong rejects the primrose path
I find it strange that we in the west don't want to allow Africa similarly flexible notions of justice to those that served us well
This England
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Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Arts & Culture
Beethoven who?
The Battle of Ideas is a series of debates presented by the Institute of Ideas. One of the fiercest fights will be on the issue of cultural education. Opposing speakers Piers Hellawell and Andrew Missingham give the NS an exclusive preview
Michael Clark . . . the rough guide
Contemporary dance - Nadine Meisner waited so long for Michael Clark to give her an interview that in the end she just went ahead on her own
Radio
Radio - Rachel Cooke
Fear is all about us right now - even sand dunes can turn into objects of terror
Theatre
Michael Portillo - Deadly descent
Theatre - In the semi-darkness, a novel comes to life in fragments, writes Michael Portillo
Underground
Old Abattoir, London EC1
Film
Victoria Segal - Something missing
Film - The master of deadpan goes on a tortuous journey to nowhere, writes Victoria Segal
Broken Flowers (15)
Television
Andrew Billen - Sound judgement
Television - Full of vulgar touches, this adaptation is truly Dickensian, writes Andrew Billen
Bleak House (BBC1)
Drink
Wine club - Roger Scruton is surprised by New Europe
New Europe's wines come with a screw top and a few postmodern twists
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies would not be a football reporter today
I longed to be a football reporter, but today's spoilt stars must make it hell
Books
The wisdom of the ancients. The publisher Canongate has asked an international panel of starry writers to update myths for modern audiences. But how successful can such retellings ever be? Simon Goldhill assesses the first three works in the series
Weight
Jeanette Winterson Canongate, 151pp, £12
ISBN 1841956716
The Penelopiad
Margaret Atwood Canongate, 199pp, £12
A Short History of Myth
Karen Armstrong Canongate, 159pp, £12
How I became a myth-maker
Canongate boss Jamie Byng remembers how their new myth series began
Live and let live
The Moneypenny Diaries
Edited by Kate Westbrook John Murray, 272pp, £12.99
ISBN 0719567408
James Bond: the man and his world
Henry Chancellor John Murray, 250pp, £20
Ian Fleming and James Bond: the cultural politics of 007
Edited by Edward P Comentale, Stephen Watt and Skip Willman Indiana University Press, 283pp, £12.95
Ken Adam and the Art of Production Design
Christopher Frayling Faber & Faber, 316pp, £20
The state we're in
Talk to the Hand: the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life
Lynne Truss Profile Books, 214pp, £9.99
ISBN 1861979339
Fiction - Creative pains
Truth and Consequences
Alison Lurie Chatto & Windus, 224pp, £15.99
ISBN 0701178914
Right and wrong
The Republican War on Science
Chris Mooney Perseus, 352pp, £14.99
ISBN 0465046754
A class act
Oranges and Lemons: life in an inner city primary school
Wendy Wallace Routledge, 160pp, £12.99
ISBN 0415359090
Fiction - Lost cause
Demo
Alison Miller Hamish Hamilton, 323pp, £12.99
ISBN 024114342X
