www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

WITNESS

54 The next middle class
FRAN ABRAMS

I spent a year observing pupils at an Ilford comprehensive and met the new generation of upwardly mobile Britons. Family values, hard work and religion are all back in fashion—but not politics.

arts&books
70 Tales of old cities
PHILIP OLTERMANN

What does “psychogeography” mean? In the hands of Paul Auster and Iain Sinclair, it is a return to old routines.

COLUMNS

8 Out of mind
ROBERT DRUMMOND & ALEXANDER LINKATER

COLUMNS

When estate agents go mad.

63 Between the lines
JASON COWLEY

Long live John le Carré.

18 Washington watch
TUMBLER

64 Widescreen
MARK COUSINS

Gordon Brown courts the US right— and are the Dems floundering?

Penélope Cruz’s new curves.

20 Inefficient markets
PHILIPPE LEGRAIN

72 Private view
BEN LEWIS

Apple’s bully-boy tactics. FICTION

I can’t wait for the art market crash.

41 France profonde
TIM KING

58 The conversation
DAMON GALGUT

77 Musical notes
STEPHEN EVERSON

Ségolène Royal glows.

A child soldier leads a priest to speak with the devil in the African bush.

Morons at the Proms.

42 Lab report
PHILIP BALL

WEB EXCLUSIVES REVIEWS

Would the transatlantic bomb plot have worked?

66 Dangerous ideals
JULIAN EVANS

57 Brussels diary
MANNEKEN PIS

Nicolas Sarkozy saves Europe.

Andrew O’Hagan’s fictional account of a wayward and dysfunctional priest is most striking for its discussion of the importance, and trap, of idealism.

More on the end of the Blair era from Sunder Katwala, Hugh Roberts & James Purnell. Plus replies to Danny Kruger
www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

80 Notes from underground
DAN KUPER

67 The art of Simenon
LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN

FORTHCOMING Erik Tarloff on the US midterm elections Jeremy Isaacs on Channel 4 Allan Massie on fiction set in classical times
THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 19TH OCTOBER

I love a bit of crowd control.

REGULARS

4 Letters 6 News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 11 Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 73 Classifieds 78 The generalist DIDYMUS 79 The list

Georges Simenon’s 76 Maigret novels are studies in the art of watching the world go by—and a homage to carefully nurtured intuition.

69 Dawkins the dogmatist
ANDREW BROWN

Richard Dawkins’s diatribe against religion doesn’t explain how faith has survived the assault of Darwinism.

PROSPECT October 2006 3