The blossoming of Rose Wylie, p48

Big top opera, p50

44 James Walton Azazeel, by Youssef Ziedan Ian Thomson Under the Same Stars, by Tim Lott 45 Anne Chisholm No Time Like the

Present, by Nadime Gordimer Bookends Dan Jones

Arts 47 Kate Chisholm The People’s Passion on Radio 4

brings cathedrals back into the heart of our communities 48 Exhibitions Rose Wylie

Andrew Lambirth 50 Opera Circus Tricks;

Acante and Céphise Michael Tanner 52 Theatre A Walk on Part

Lloyd Evans 53 Cinema Switch

Deborah Ross 55 Television Tim Stanley 57 Radio Kate Chisholm Culture notes Andrew Petrie

LIFE

Life 61 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 62 Real life Melissa Kite 63 Wild life Aidan Hartley 64 The turf Robin Oakley Bridge Susanna Gross

And finaly . . . 66 Chess Raymond Keene 67 Competition; Crossword 68 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 69 The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen 70 Drink Bruce Anderson Mind your language Dot Wordsworth

Tories are privately briefing that Peter Cruddas is a ‘barrow boy’ who is not much use at fund-raising. What bastards they can be Charles Moore, p13

Mortal sins were not always agreed upon: Islamic scholars believed Sodom was destroyed because its inhabitants farted in public Philip Hensher, p35

This narrative follows no known logic: not internal, not external, not even the sort that dithers out on the patio and has a smoke while trying to make up its mind. Deborah Ross, p53

Contributors eith Ward was formerly Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

Robert Chandler’s translations from the Russian include Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter and Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

the spectator | 31 march 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk

James Walton presents The Write Stuff on BBC Radio 4 and is the author of Sonnets, Bonnets and Bennetts: A Literary Quiz.

Dan Jones’s latest book is Summer of Blood: The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

Tim Stanley is a historian at Oxford University, a Telegraph blogger, and the author of the new book The Crusader: The Life and Times of Pat Buchanan.

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