Learning from America, p3

Now show me your library card, Mr Bond, p41

A new style for the National Trust, p16

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 7 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary Miriam Gross 10 Politics James Forsyth 11 The Spectator’s Notes 14 Mind your language 21 Rod Liddle 24 Barometer 29 James Delingpole 30 HugoRifkind 32 Letters 35 Any other business Martin VanderWeyer

12 Rattled by China Why world leaders are preparing for a trade war Gideon Rachman 14 Chasing the wrong skirt Saucy women don’t wear mini-skirts Tanya Gold 16 Don’t call us Disneyfied A defence of the new, less stuffy National Trust Simon Jenkins 18 Work?Nice if you can get it It’s not easy finding a job when you have Asperger’s Nicholas Barrow 23 Meandmybird The parrot that controls my life

Mark Palmer 24 Carbon captives The government is squandering a billion on useless technology Ross Clark 26 American notebook In NewYork, and in Mailer’s study

Dylan Jones

BOOKS & ARTS

Books 38 Timothy Clifford A History of the World in 100

Objects, by Neil MacGregor 41 Alan Judd MI6, by Keith Jeffrey 43 John de Falbe Eight White Nights,

by André Aciman 45 SimonWilliams Putting It On, by Michael Codron and Alan   Strachan 47 AnneApplebaum Crimea:The Last Crusade,

by Orlando Figes 49 Byron Rogers A Long Lunch, by Simon Hoggart 50 Robert Chandler Responding to Chekhov,

by Harvey Pitcher 51 Bookends Lewis Jones John Greening ‘Mr Angel’: a poem

Cover by Jonathan Cusick. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, RGJ, Bernie, Nick Newman, Holland, Adam Singleton, Roger Latham, Paul Wood, Rupert Redway, Mike Turner, Evans, Mazurke and Cookson. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 32 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@pressholdings.com Distributor COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road,West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX Vol 314; no 9505 © 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 | 30 October 2010 | www.spectator.co.uk