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Friday 5 December 2008

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The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests

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Variations on an enigma

Charlotte Hobson on Jonathan Dimbleby's account of Russia

The view from the middle lane

The Hugo Young Papers: Thirty Years of British Politics — Off the Record, by Hugo Young, edited by Ion Trewin

At Home in Turkey

At Home in Turkey, by Solvi dos Santos and Berrin Torolsan

Arts

Food for thought

My favourite programme last week was France on a Plate (BBC4, Sunday) in which Dr Andrew Hussey investigated the link between gastronomy and la gloire; French glory and destiny.

Relative values

The Family Reunion
Donmar

Chicken
Hackney Empire

August: Osage County
Lyttelton

Books

Surprising literary ventures

Willy and the Killer Kipper (1981) by Jeffrey Archer

Differences and similarities

West Workroom towards a new sobriety in architecture theory + practice, by Paolo Conrad-Bercah+w office (including contributions from Daniel Sherer, Pierluigi Panza and George Baird)

Style & Travel

Old is the new new

Damien Hirst’s two-day auction of spanking new works at Sotheby’s in September signalled the end of an era.

Play time

Living in an all-male household (husband, two sons, cosseted cat) has tended to colour my perception of technology.

The global force behind Mumbai’s agony is in our midst

Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi say that LET — the Army of the Righteous — is a worldwide Islamist organisation which is well-established in Britain. The Mumbai atrocities are further proof that the march of Islamic extremism is the central fact of our time

Stephen Schwartz

‘They treat me more like a devil than a god’

Lloyd Evans finds that Bernard-Henri Lévy is not the ageing French dandy of caricature but a serious intellectual with views on everything from Barack Obama to the Muslim veil

Lloyd Evans

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