Westminster games, p10
New gardens with deep roots, p37
Sharpen your Olympic conversation, p14
THE WEEK
3 Leading articles 7 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary Miriam Gross 10 Politics James Forsyth 11 The Spectator’s Notes 17 Rod Liddle 22 Ancient and modern 23 By the book 24 Hugo Rifkind 26 Letters 28 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer
Barometer returns next week.
12 Day of the drones The writer Daniel Suarez on a flying-robot revolution Mary Wakefield 14 Brush up your Olympics How to win gold when conversing in front of the telly Mark Mason 16 ‘We are one body’ In Syria, the regime’s violence has reinvigorated the uprising Paul Wood 18 China’s office of last resort Encounters with injustice, and just a little hope, at the Petitions Office John Simpson 20 No man’s land
America’s sex war started in the suburbs Florence King 22 The despair bubble
It could finally be time to be cheerful about the economy Philip Delves Broughton
BOOKS & ARTS
Boks 30 Jane Ridley The Day Parliament
Burned Down, by Caroline Shenton 32 Lewis Jones The Golden Door, by A.A. Gill Andro Linklater Little America,
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran 33 David Ekserdjian Titian, by Sheila Hale 34 Emily Read Names for the Sea, by Sarah Moss 35 James Walton Mo said she was quirky, by James Kelman Caroline Moorehead Good Living Street, by Tim Bonyhady 36 Cressida Connolly The Dinner, by Herman Koch David Crane Clive Brittain, by Robin Oakley 37 Peter Parker A Time to Plant,
by Hugh and Grania Cavendish 38 Michael Carlson The Twenty-Year
Death, by Ariel S. Winter Bookends Marcus Berkmann
Cover by Kyle T. Webster. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Alex Fine, Holland, Ken Pyne, Adam Singleton, Dish, Tony Husband, Geoff Thompson, Paul Wood, McLachlan, Bernie, Grizelda, Roger Latham, Robert Thompson, Mazurke, Øivind Hovland, NAF, Evans, Meyrick Jones and RGJ www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 26 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 319; no 9597 © 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 | 4 august 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk
