The voyage out, p14

Geffrye and me, p46

Friends of Florence, p49

THE WEEK

5 Leading article 9 Portrait of the Week 11 Diary Conrad Black 12 Politics James Forsyth 13 The Spectator’s Notes 17 Rod Liddle 18 Barometer 26 Ancient and modern 29 Matthew Parris 30 James Delingpole 31 Letters

Martin Vander Weyer returns next week.

BOOKS & ARTS

14 Back to the drachma Greece is in the mood for a confrontation Faisal Islam 15 Christopher Reid

‘The Climax’: a poem 18 Bias, Boris and the Beeb Auntie has no need of a

Conservative commissar John Simpson 20 Terms of surrender Nato’s shameful consensus on Afghanistan Con Coughlin 22 Paper crown

The royal family has become a little too good at public relations Freddy Gray 24 Experts in suffering Victimhood and knowledge abandoned the likes of my family Stephen Robinson Books 34 Richard Davenport-Hines Higher Gossip, by John Updike 36 Ian Thomson Harry H. Corbett, by Susannah Corbett 37 Penelope Lively The Fifties Mystique, by Jessica Mann 38 Sean McGlynn The Plantagenets, by Dan Jones 39 Michael Paraskos The Wolf Pit, by Will Cohu 40 Peter Parker Liberation, by Christopher Isherwood 41 William Leith Red-Blooded Risk, by Aaron Brown; Debt, by David Graeber 42 Bookends Patrick Skene Catling are not the same Carol Sarler 26 Private grief Independent schools have

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Stephen Collins, Holland, RGJ, Adam Singleton, Evans, Mazurke, Grizelda, RR, Colin Wheeler, Nick Newman, Bernie, Geoff Thompson, Paul Wood, Sally Artz, Percival, Roger Latham and Nick Downes. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 63 Editorial and advertising The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7681 3773, 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 7681 3773 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 Newsagent queries Spectator Circulation Dept, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7681 3773, Email: dstam@spectator.co.uk Distributor COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX Vol 319; no 9586 © 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 | 19 may 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk The football season’s grand finale, p69

What they took from El Greco, p48

But can his grandchildren afford the fees?, p26

LIFE

FINE Arts SPECIAL 44 Andrew Lambirth A survey of small-scale gems 46 Design Tanya Harrod 48 Exhibitions El Greco and Modernism

Laura Gascoigne 49 Americans in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists Harry Mount 50 A Humument David Jennings 52 Pop Marcus Berkmann 53 Theatre A Slow Air; Wasted

Lloyd Evans 54 Cinema The Dictator

Michael Tanner 56 Radio Kate Chisholm 57 Television Simon Hoggart Culture notes Nicola McCartney Life 61 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 63 Real life Melissa Kite 64 Long life Alexander Chancellor 65 Bridge Janet de Botton And finaly . . . 66 Chess Raymond Keene 67 Competition; Crossword 68Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 69 Sport Roger Alton Your problems solved Mary Killen

Deborah Ross 55 Opera Carousel; Wagner Dream

70 Food Tanya Gold Mind your language Dot Wordsworth

One teacher was said to have slept with a sixth-former. Wonderful stuff, and very character-forming Stephen Robinson, p26

It is a glorious moment in the life of any music-loving parent when your progeny develop musical tastes, and start looking askance at yours Marcus Berkmann, p52

Television Centre is a weird, cherishable place, a televisual British Library, so no wonder it has to go Simon Hoggart, p57

Contributors

Conrad Black is a former proprietor of The Spectator and a former inmate of the Federal Correctional Institution, Miami. He writes about his release on p. 11. Stephen Robinson is the author of The Remarkable Lives of Bill Deedes. On p. 26, he laments the changing nature of Britain’s independent schools.

Penelope Lively’s books include Family Album and How It All Began. On p. 37, she endorses a polemic on 1950s womanhood.

Peter Parker’s Isherwood was published in 2004. On p. 40, he reviews the latest volume of Isherwood’s diaries. Sean McGlynn who reviews Dan Jones’s The Plantagenets on p. 38, is the author of By Sword and Fire: Cruelty and

Atrocity in Medieval Warfare and Blood Cries Afar: 1216.

the spectator | 19 may 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk

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