Sport, p95

Tea and modernity, p68

Joan and Elizabeth, p15

THE WEEK

5 Leading article 9 Portrait of the Week 11 Diary Barry Humphries 12 Politics James Forsyth 13 The Spectator’s Notes 19 Rod Liddle 30 Matthew Parris 32 Hugo Rifkind 37 By the book

Emily Rhodes 42 James Delingpole 44 Barometer 45 Letters 46 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

The next edition of The Spectator will be dated 16 June 2012.

14 The main event The IOC could learn a lot from Buckingham Palace Robert Hardman 15 The Queen and I

A reminiscence Joan Collins 16 Silver age

What bliss it was to be a ten-year-old boy in 1977 Sinclair McKay 20 Libya notebook

Aday out at the gun battle Peter Oborne 22 Paving paradise

The super-rich are doing their best to turn the countryside into Kensington Melissa Kite 26 Queen of the world

A Jubilee for the Commonwealth Clarissa Tan

28 Divided we stand

The EU is contrary to human nature. My plan, on the other hand… Rory Sutherland 34 Right thinking

David Frum on the moral decline of the US Republican party Patrick Allitt 36 Old Man of Corfu

Happy 200th birthday, Edward Lear! Thomas Hodgkinson 38 Being Blunt

The actress Emily Blunt on Hollywood life Gabrielle Donnelly 41 #JustStopIt

MPs’ inane tweets are a disgrace to parliament Andrew Roberts 44 Thirty days to live

My routine medical check-up became a brush with mortality Paulo Coelho

Cover by Peter Brookes. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Holland, Kyle T. Webster, Tony Husband, RGJ, Nick Newman, Cookson, Blot, Grizelda, Alexander, Hunter, Geoff Thompson, Adam Singleton, Edward Lear, Len Hawkins, K.J. Lamb, Mazurke, Paul Wood, Len, Hunter, Dish, WS, the Surreal McCoy and Bernie. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 90 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 318; nos 9588 & 9589 © 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 | 2/9 june 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk Only here for the Lear, p36

Sixty years as an artists’ model, p66

Miró calls, p69

BOOKS & ARTS

Boks 48 Ian Thomson The Second World

War, by Antony Beevor 50 Andro Linklater The Highland

Furies, by Victoria Schofield 51 Richard Davenport-Hines Tolstoy, by A.N. Wilson 53 Peter Parker In One Person, by John Irving 54 Julian Stannard ‘La Douceur de la Nuit’: a poem Thomas Hodgkinson The Twelve

Caesars, by Matthew Dennison 55 Judith Flanders Joanna, George and Henry, by Sue Bradbury 56 Charles Saumarez Smith The London Square, by

Todd Longstaffe-Gowan 57 A.N. Wilson on recent royal biographies 58 John Preston Midnight in Peking, by Paul French 59 P.J. Kavanagh How England

Made the English, by Harry Mount 60 Nicky Haslam The Astaires,

by Kathleen Riley 61 Paul Bew The Dream of the Celt,

by Mario Vargas Llosa 62 Anne Applebaum Just Send Me

Word, by Orlando Figes 63 Anne Somerset The King’s Mistress, by Claudia Gold

64 Patrick Jephson Prince William:

Born to be King, by Penny Junor Alex Moorehead Shakespeare in Kabul, by Stephen

Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar 65 Richard Ryder Park Lane, by Frances Osborne

Bookends Marcus Berkmann Arts 66 Andrew Lambirth The art of monarchy 68 Design Bauhaus: Art as Life

Amanda Baillieu 69 Exhibitions Anthony Caro; Jean Miró

Ariane Bankes 70 Klimt, Hoffmann and the Secession

Roderick Conway Morris 72 Dance Pina Bausch

Giannandrea Poesio 73 Theatre What the Butler Saw;

Chariots of Fire Lloyd Evans 76 Opera Barber of Seville;

Eugene Onegin; Caligula Michael Tanner Cinema The Angels’ Share

Deborah Ross 77 Music Peter Phillips 79 Television Simon Hoggart 80 Radio Kate Chisholm

Culture notes Melissa Kite the spectator | 2/9 june 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk

LIFE

Life 85 High life

Taki Low life

Jeremy Clarke 87 Real life

Melissa Kite 89 Long life

Alexander Chancellor 90 The turf

Robin Oakley 91 Bridge

Janet de Botton

And finaly . . . 92 Chess Competition; Crossword 94 Status anxiety

TobyYoung Dave

Michael Heath 95 Sport Roger Alton 96 The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen 97 Drink BruceAnderson Ancient and modern Peter Jones 98 Food Tanya Gold

Mind your language Dot Wordsworth

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