www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

44 Bacon’s shadow
TERENCE KEALEY

Francis Bacon claimed that technology grew out of science, and that science should be state-funded. Wrong twice. SPECIAL REPORT

arts&books
74 Seeking Shakespeare
ERIK TARLOFF

48 Public sector IT failures
MICHAEL CROSS

Despite Britain’s poor record with big public sector IT schemes, much of Labour’s programme depends on them. Have we learnt from the past? JOURNAL

Lack of facts about Shakespeare seems to encourage biographers. Peter Ackroyd is the latest.

76 Rushdie the warrior-poet
KAMRAN NAZEER

54 Born in Bradford
KENAN MALIK

Salman Rushdie’s disdain for closed cultures extends far beyond Islam. COLUMNS

I witnessed the moment the British left gave up on secular universalism. COLUMNS

67 Widescreen
MARK COUSINS

Charting cinema’s changes since 1995.

10 These islands
STELLA TILLYARD

68 Private view
BEN LEWIS

Succour for Michael Buerk.

Aaaaaargh! It’s video art.

15 Washington watch
TUMBLER

FICTION

60 Acknowledgements
DAVID MITCHELL

78 Cultural tourist
Zadie and the return of beauty. Plus “Under the radar”

Katrina changed everything—or did it?

53 Out of Africa
RICHARD DOWDEN

I, Clive Pike, shall now inform my followers of the people who helped me bring forth the Book. REVIEWS

85 Smallscreen
DAVID HERMAN

China brings geopolitics back to Africa.

Ten years of Prospect, ten years of telly. FORTHCOMING Result of the Prospect/Foreign Policy global intellectuals poll Fiction by Gautam Malkani Robert Jackson on the EU budget battle Michael Coveney considers the state of theatre criticism
THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 20TH OCTOBER

57 Lab report
PHILIP BALL

70 The horrors of Houellebecq
TIM KING

Clint’s dead, but his genome lives on.

58 Brussels diary
ANDREW MORAVCSIK

Michel Houellebecq’s new novel is a further dig at literature, aspiration and himself. And a biography of the writer tries to explain his self-hatred.

Brussels is best when it is boring.

72 Vidal at 80 88 Modern manners
JEREMY CLARKE DUNCAN FALLOWELL

My daffodil-staring odyssey. REGULARS

Once the most stylish bitch in the US, Gore Vidal approaches his 80th birthday with his reputation in decline.

6 Letters 8 News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 17 Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 86 The generalist DIDYMUS 87 The list

73 A Tory community
DAVID WILLETTS

The Conservatives have traditionally combined two principles—personal freedom and public service. It now needs a new idea of community.

POLITICAL PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR
Political Studies Association

PROSPECT October 2005 5