www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

SPECIAL REPORT 54Can ageing be stopped?

PHILIP HUNTER Can the human lifespan be expanded beyond 120 years?

COLUMNS 10Out ofmind

ROBERT DRUMMOND &

ALEXANDER LINKLATER Should I release my patient?

20Washington watch

TUMBLER Condi keeps losing her men.

25These islands

FINTAN O’TOOLE The cure for Anglophobia.

31Matters oftaste

ALEX RENTON Why you should tip in secret.

37Inefficient markets

MICHAEL PREST The decline of the stock exchange.

46France profonde

TIM KING The Porto Alegre approach to lycées.

52Lab report

PHILIP BALL Why use polonium?

57Brussels diary

MANNEKEN PIS Farewell Javier Solana.

80Notes from underground

DAN KUPER They finally sacked me.

REGULARS 6Letters 8News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 13Mini interview JONATHAN POWER 15Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 78The generalist DIDYMUS 79The list

arts&books

FICTION 5821st century Juliet

ROSE TREMAIN If I marry Perry Paris, the family estate will be saved—but I love a builder boy.

REVIEWS 66Publishing confessions

TREVOR DOLBY After some spectacular flops in 2006, the celebrity memoir has been declared dead. The man who helped to create the genre reckons we shouldn’t write it off yet.

68The executioner’s voice

JONATHAN DERBYSHIRE Jonathan Littell’s Goncourt-winning novel raises questions about history, morality and luck.

69The fat ofthe land

JACK THURSTON Individuals may not own countries any more, but land and how it is taxed still matters.

70A kind ofgenius

ERIK TARLOFF Pynchon’s new novel is full of great jokes and gorgeous writing—but it is also incoherent and emotionally distancing. Is the journey worth it?

COLUMNS 63Widescreen

MARK COUSINS Mainstream cinema goes dark.

64Private view

BEN LEWIS The Chinese contemporary art boom.

72Between the lines

JASON COWLEY Word-of-mouth successes.

77Musical notes

STEPHEN EVERSON Saving Brahms.

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Harvey Cole responds to Adair Turner on climate economics

Ben Rogers on the school burden

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

FORTHCOMING

Nick Crowe on background music

Charlotte Eagar on women in Afghanistan

David Soskiceon PR and the left

John Kay on tampering with national statistics

THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 25TH JANUARY

PROSPECT January 2007 5