Prepare to be wuthered, p59

Silvio vs the world, p18

THE WEEK

5 Leading article 9 Portrait of the Week 11 Diary tony Hall 12 Politics James forsyth 13 The Spectator’s Notes 17 rod Liddle 20 Barometer 22 Ancient and modern 29 Matthew Parris 30 James Delingpole 32 Letters 35 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

14 Europe’s hit squad Meet the Frankfurt Group

Fraser Nelson 15 fleur Adcock ‘Hoppy’: a poem 18 Il Magnifico Berlusconi was Italy’s only hope

Nicholas Farrell 20 Keeping up with Liz Jones The journalist it’s trendy to hate

Tanya Gold 22 young pretender Keep an eye on Florence’s mayor

Carla Powell 25 remembering well Don’t sentimentalise the Great War

Harry Mount 26 the sunshine solution Save Europe; cut inheritance tax

James Hughes-Onslow

BOOKS & ARTS

BOOKs 35 Anthony Daniels The Brain is Wider than the Sky,

by Bryan Appleyard 39 fay Maschler A History of English Food,

by Clarissa Dickson Wright 40 susan Hill Blue Night, by Joan Didion Philip Ziegler on the Queen 41 Andrew Gimson The Conservatives, by Robin Harris 42 Charlotte Moore The Sealed Letter,

by Emma Donoghue 43 Andrew taylor Death Comes to Pemberley,

by P. D. James 44 Andrew Barrow Bird Brain, by Guy Kennaway richard Bradford on Jennifer Johnston 45 Bookends Lewis Jones 46 Books of the year

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Nicholas Garland, Ian Tovey, Nick Newman, Bernie, Adam Singleton, Holland, Grizelda, Geoff Thompson, Dorrance, Colin Wheeler, K.J. Lamb, Paul Wood, Tony Husband and Robert Thompson. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 72 Editorial and advertising The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7961 0250, Email: editor@spectator.co.uk (editorial); letters@spectator.co.uk (for publication); advertising@spectator.co.uk (advertising); Advertising enquiries: 020 7961 0219 Advertising fax: 020 7961 0020 subscription and delivery queries Spectator Subscriptions Dept., 800 Guillat Avenue, Kent Science Park, Sittingbourne ME9 8GU; Tel: 01795 592886 Fax: 0870 220 0290; Email: spectator@servicehelpline.co.uk Guide to style If you are an overseas subscriber and would like a copy of The Spectator Guide to Style please email spectator@servicehelpline.co.uk with your name and address and subscriber reference if appropriate newsagent queries Spectator Circulation Dept, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7961 0057, Email: dstam@spectator.co.uk Distributor COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX Vol 317; no 9559 © The Spectator (1828) Ltd. ISSN 0038-6952 The Spectator is published weekly by The Spectator (1828) Ltd at 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP Editor: fraser nelson

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the spectator | 12 November 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk Crossing the line, p5

Stalin: the funny side, p60

Art goes down the Tube, p54

Arts 51 Interview Singer-songwriter John Grant

James Delingpole 52 Pop Marcus Berkmann 54 Exhibitions

The Poster King: Edward McKnight Kauffer Andrew Lambirth 56 Opera Siegfried; La Sonnambula

Michael Tanner 59 Cinema Wuthering Heights

Deborah Ross 60 Theatre The Collaborators;

Three Days in May Lloyd Evans Dance Scottish Ballet Double Bill

Giannandrea Poesio 62 Radio Kate Chisholm 63Television Simon Hoggart Culture notes Andrew Lambirth

LIFE

Life 69 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 71 Real life Melissa Kite 72The turf Robin Oakley 73 Bridge Janet de Botton

And finaly . . . 74 Chess Raymond Keene 75 Competition; Crossword 76Status anxiety TobyYoung Dave Michael Heath 77 Sport RogerAlton Your problems solved Mary Killen 78 Food Tanya Gold Mind your language DotWordsworth

There’s something wonderfully music-hall about Sarkozy and his big French gob; he’s like an incontinent Max Wall Rod Liddle, p17

Italians are braced for austerity. They are looking for someone capable of implementing it fairly Carla Powell, p22

Now look here, the chap said to me. I’m a gatecrasher. And let me tell you I’ve led a much lower life than you have, so I’m not taken in Jeremy Clarke, p71

Contributors

Carla Powell lives in Rome and London. She is married to Lord Powell of Bayswater. Nicholas Farrell is the author of Mussolini: a New Life. He interviewed Silvio

Berlusconi for this magazine in 2003.

the spectator | 12 November 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk

Harry Mount is editor of the Notting Hill Editions journal; his books include A Lust for Window Sills.

Anthony Daniels’s books include Zanzibar to Timbuktu and Monrovia Mon Amour: Visit to Liberia.

Philip Ziegler has written biographies of, among others, Diana Cooper, Lord Melbourne, Osbert Sitwell, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.

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