Inside Downside, p44

All in the same boat, p10

3 Leading article 7 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary Charlie Taylor 10 Politics James Forsyth 17 Rod Liddle 18 Barometer 22 Ancient and modern 25 Hugo Rifkind 26 Letters 28 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

12 Rising credulity Sea levels fluctuate all the time

Nils-Axel Mörner 13 Robert Saxton ‘Atheists with Toddlers’: a poem 14 The champion of the flat tax

In conversation with US publishing magnate Steve Forbes Fraser Nelson 18 Sectarianism in Syria

Revolution or civil war? Paul Wood 20 In praise of real bookshops They fuel our literary culture

Stoker Devonshire 22 Waiting for Dr Nasty An interview with David Starkey

Tanya Gold 24 Assault on the NHS When patients attack hospital staff

Theodore Dalrymple Books 32 Sam Leith Saladin, by Anne-Marie Eddé 34 Richard Ryder A Genius for

Money, by Caroline Dakers Philip Hancock ‘ST1’: a poem

36 Jane Ridley on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert 37 Marcus Berkmann on quirky books 39 Jane Rye Hockney, Volume I,

by Christopher Simon Sykes 40 Andrew McKie In Other Worlds,

by Margaret Atwood A.B. Jackson ‘Office Talk’: a poem 41 Fiona Maddocks Verdi and/or

Wagner, by Peter Conrad 43 Life and letters Allan Massie 44 Colin Amery Downside Abbey,

edited by Dom Aidan Bellenger 45 Mark Mason The West End Front,

by Matthew Sweet 47 Caroline Moore The Lives of the

Novelists, by John Sutherland 49 Michela Wrong Looking for Transwonderland, by Noo Saro-Wiwa Anthony Daniels Why Some

Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others, by James Gilligan 50 Jonathan Croall Edy Was a Lady, by Ann Rachlin 51 Charles Glass The Greater

Journey, by David McCullogh

Cover by Christian Adams. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Phil Disley, Ian Tovey, Geoff Thompson, Bernie, RGJ, Nick Newman, Grizelda, Holland, K. J. Lamb, Ian Tovey, Bill Proud, Robert Thompson 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 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 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 9562 © 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 | 3 December 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk Travellers’ wrecks, p28

Re-enacting the riots, p62

Only here for Vermeer, p57

52 Patrick Skene Catling

P.G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters, edited by Sophie Ratcliffe 53 Andrew Taylor on recent crime fiction Bookends Lewis Jones

Arts 55 Interview Bandleader John Wilson

Michael Henderson 57 Exhibitions Vermeer’s Women;

Bridget Riley; Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven Andrew Lambirth 60 Opera Yes; Béatrice et Bénédict

Michael Tanner 61 Film Hugo

Deborah Ross 62 Theatre The Riots; The Kitchen Sink

Lloyd Evans Dance 3Abschied;

Rambert Dance Company Giannandrea Poesio 63 Radio Kate Chisholm 63 Television James Delingpole Culture notes George Hull

Life 69 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 70 Real life Melissa Kite 71 Wild life Aidan Hartley Bridge Susanna Gross

And finaly . . . 74 Chess Raymond Keene 75 Competition; Crossword 76 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 77 The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen 78 Drink Bruce Anderson Mind your language Dot Wordsworth

I was always the naysayer. During the Suez crisis, I was the only one in my class who supported Nasser David Starkey, p22

The passenger in the car I had shunted got out of the back seat. She was a dead ringer for Waynetta Slob Melissa Kite, p70

I am sure it is theoretically possible to read War and Peace on a multifunctional tablet, just as it is possible to decode Linear B in a branch of Spearmint Rhino Rory Sutherland, p77

Contributors

Charlie Taylor is the Department for Education’s expert adviser on behaviour, and the author of Divas & Dictators: The Secrets to Having a Much Better Behaved Child.

Stoker Devonshire is the 12th Duke of Devonshire, and one of the owners of the bookshop G. Heywood Hill Ltd of Curzon Street, Mayfair.

the spectator | 3 December 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk

Theodore Dalrymple is a former prison doctor. His most recent book is Litter: How Other People’s Rubbish Shapes Our Lives.

Charles Glass’s latest book is Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation, 1940–44.

Jane Ridley’s Bertie: a Life of Edward VII will be published in February by Chatto.

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