In this week's magazine After Chavez

28 January 2013

Observations
- Why aren’t we more scared of the things most likely to kill us?
  Will Self's "Madness of Crowds" column.
  By Will Self
- The agony and the ecstasy
  The creative power of illness.
  By Julia Copus
Columns
- The truth won’t always out: Tiger would still be burning bright if he hadn’t crashed his car
  Ed Smith's "Left Field" column.
  By Ed Smith
- It’s no use trying to change the banks’ behaviour – we must have the power to break them up
  Felix Martin's "Real Money" column.
  By Felix Martin
- Kenneth Baker’s history lesson
  The former Conservative Education Secretary is sceptical about Michael Gove's free schools.
  By George Eaton
- Daylight robbery, clubbing in Loughton and getting Algeria wrong
  Peter Wilby's "First Thoughts" column.
  By Peter Wilby
Features
- The agony and the ecstasy
  The creative power of illness.
  By Julia Copus
- Hugo Chávez: An elected autocrat
  He kept power by bullying those who dissented – and his departure leaves a dangerous vacuum.
  By Rory Carroll
Critics
- A profound examination of what the Holocaust means
  Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death: Reflections on Memory and Imagination - review.
  By Linda Grant
- American literature's encounters with solitude
  Alone in America: the Stories that Matter - review.
  By Sarah Churchwell
- Englishness, class and manners
  Sorry! The English and Their Manners - review.
  By Simon Heffer
- Jared Diamond, traditional societies and myths of the future
  Civilisation’s gains and losses.
  By John Gray
- Laboured and creaky - a comedy to miss
  Bob Servant Independent - review.
  By Rachel Cooke
- Sheila Heti: "There’s this neurotic relationship between art and life"
  The Books Interview.
  By Jonathan Derbyshire
- The closed circle: Britain's culture of secrecy
  "Cruel Britannia: a Secret History of Torture" and "Classified: Secrecy and the State in Modern Britain" reviewed.
  By Heather Brooke
- Don’t shoot the piano player
  Play It Again: an Amateur Against the Impossible - review.
  By Alexandra Coghlan
- Owl be back
  This week's radio review.
  By Antonia Quirke
- Jonathan Miller’s life of happy accidents
  "I sometimes think of myself as a weak character who simply yielded to invitations."
  By Jonathan Derbyshire
Backpages
- Don’t be afraid of the big, bad wolf
  We are living without the sense of the shamanic and the transformational that our forebears found vital for survival.
  By John Burnside
- Why aren’t we more scared of the things most likely to kill us?
  Will Self's "Madness of Crowds" column.
  By Will Self
- Overslept, frozen and faced with death – all thanks to a little snow
  Nicholas Lezard's "Down and Out" column.
  By Nicholas Lezard