Turner and Claude, p46

Jenny Lee vs Andrew Lansley, p9

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 7 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary Jessica Raine 10 Politics James Forsyth 11 The Spectator’s Notes 17 Rod Liddle 18 Barometer 27 Matthew Parris 28 James Delingpole 30 Letters 33 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

12 Cracks in China The People’s Republic waits doubtfully for a new ruler Jonathan Fenby 13 Peter Bland ‘A Poem is nventing Me Again…’: a poem 14 The end of Rebus Scotland’s grim police reforms

Andrew Gilligan 18 Hands off Special Brew! It’s Churchill’s beer – and mine

Leo McKinstry 20 Pocket-money capitalism A finance lesson for ten-year-olds

Clarissa Tan 22 Apostle of doubt An interview with Richard Holloway

Douglas Murray 25 Spanish notebook All the best bars show bullfighting

Christopher Howse

BOOKS & ARTS

Books 36 Paul Johnson Savage Continent, by Keith Lowe 38 Richard Davenport-Hines The Chemistry of Tears,

by Peter Carey 39 Bevis Hillier Family Dolls’ Houses of the 18th and

19th Centuries, by Liza Antrim 40 Diana Hendry The Man Who

Forgot His Wife, by John O’Farrell Alan Judd Find, Fix, Finish,

by Aki Peritz and Eric Rosenbach 42 Masha Karp on Vladimir Putin 43 Alexander Larman on first novels Bookends Graham Stewart

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Kyle T. Webster, RGJ, Holland, Grizelda, Geoff Thompson, Bernie, Russell, Robert Thompson, Nick Newman, Pete Ellis, NAF, Dish, Bernie. Paul Wood and Adam Singleton. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 62 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; no 9578 © 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 | 24 march 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk The financial pages: 3, 10, 20, 33

Found at the Foundling, p55

Arts 45 Interview David Suchet

Will Gore 46 Exhibitions Turner Inspired:

in the Light of Claude Andrew Lambirth 49 Theatre Moon on a Rainbow Shawl;

The Awkward Squad Lloyd Evans 50 Cinema Wild Bill

Deborah Ross Dance Spring Passions;

Alice in Wonderland Giannandrea Poesio 51 Olden but golden Charles Spencer 52 Opera Miss Fortune;

Die Zauberflöte Michael Tanner 53 Radio Kate Chisholm 55 Television Simon Hoggart Culture notes Kate Chisholm

LIFE

Travel 57 Grenada Patrick Skene Catling 58 Jamaica Ian Thomson 59 Antigua Lucinda Baring Life 63 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 64 Real life Melissa Kite 65 Long life Alexander Chancellor Bridge Janet de Botton And finaly . . . 66 Chess Raymond Keene 67 Competition; Crossword 68 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 69 Sport Roger Alton Your problems solved Mary Killen 70 Food Tanya Gold Mind your language

Dot Wordsworth

But is it true? I ask the former bishop. Do you think the Christian story is true? There is a considered pause Douglas Murray, p22

Poor Greece is right to blame Germany, for its troubles originated in the Nazi occupation Paul Johnson, p36

I don’t like Brit gangster films particularly — so many sociopaths, so little time — but I loved, loved, loved Wild Bill Deborah Ross, p50

Contributors

Jonathan Fenby is a former editor of the Observer and the South China Morning Post, and author of the Penguin History of Modern China. In our cover piece, he writes about the ills of China today.

Paul Johnson’s many books include biographies of Jesus and Winston Churchill. On p. 36, he reviews Keith Lowe’s account of the aftermath of the second world war.

the spectator | 24 march 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk

Diana Hendry is a poet and author of both adult and children’s fiction. She reviews John O’Farrell’s new novel on p. 40.

Masha Karp is a trustee of Rights of Russia and former Russian features editor at the BBC. On p. 42, she considers two new biographies of Vladimir Putin.

Ian Thomson won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize for The Dead Yard: A Story of Modern Jamaica. On p. 58, he interviews the island’s 91-year-old governor-general.

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