CONTENTS MARCH/APRIL 2012

FROM THE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS

MASTHEAD

LETTERS

 

  

THIS SEASON

The people making waves in the arts over the next two months, from a bright young choreographer to a Scottish percussionist and the prolific film-maker Michael Winterbottom, tying up the different strands of his career

  

INTELLIGENCE

THINKING

Where neuroscience leaves free will, by Anthony Gottlieb

STOVE NOTES

Don’t call it mash: Simon Hopkinson on mashed potato

FOOD

What’s in a restaurant name? Christopher Hirst finds out

THE WINE-LIST INSPECTOR

Pack an iPad: Tim Atkin in Buenos Aires 

THE MUSIC OF SCIENCE

Oliver Morton on the beauty of plankton

LANGUAGE

The rise of the word “dude”

CARS

Can there ever be a green Ferrari? Paul Markillie in Maranello

SPORT

Why comebacks are hard in Formula 1

A GAME, A GADGET AND AN APP

Tom Standage loses his mind on the PS3 

 

STYLE 

JEWELLERY

Men are slowly warming to it. John Paul Flintoff reports

THE SCEPTICAL SHOPPER

Egyptian cotton: possibly from Romania

THE LINE OF BEAUTY

Redheads, from Lady Hamilton to David Bowie

APPLIED FASHION

Rebecca Willis on the tricky business of the clear-out

MAN IN A SUIT

The brains behind the Affordable Art Fair 

 

FEATURES 

COVER STORY: CATE BLANCHETT

She’s the Hollywood leading lady who escaped to run a theatre with her husband. Jo Lennan meets them 

THE BIG QUESTION

Which is the best language to learn, for an English-speaker? Robert Lane Greene and five other writers cast their votes 

MANAGING YOUR MUSIC

To own, or not to own? That is just one of the questions. Simon O’Hagan tries everything from vinyl to Spotify, for a week each 

PHOTO ESSAY

America’s industrial ruins, captured by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre 

MR JUSTICE

Tom Bingham was a giant of the law, but he remained little known, even when Tony Blair’s warmongering turned him into an unlikely radical. 
A memoir by his son-in-law 

 

CULTURE

AUTHORS ON MUSEUMS  

John Carey on the Ashmolean, Oxford

NEW SLOT: MOOD MUSIC  

Songs to raise the spirits

AT THE CINEMA  

Ian Jack on “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”

BOOKS

Six Good Books: Maggie Fergusson’s choice

Notes on a Voice: David Foster Wallace

Found in Translation: the surreal world of Etgar Keret

VISUAL CV

Julia Roberts, about to return as the Wicked Queen  

 

PLACES

 

MAIN FEATURE

Life on a Kenyan river, threatened by a super-port

QUARTER FINALISTS

Hotels for hypochondriacs

SEVEN WONDERS

Tom Stuart-Smith, landscape designer

BEING THERE

Life in Oslo, by Simon Reid-Henry

SNAPSHOT

Beauty and ghosts at Glencoe in Scotland

THE MISSION

Will Smith tries being a cheerleader

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