Volume 121 Issue 1 January/February 2006

Cover Story

Gaza Taliban?: On the eve of the Palestinian elections in 2006, Aya Yasmina May asked what we can expect of Hamas

Last words: Lifelong humanist Lionel Elvin died in 2005. This is his final testament
Mystic Manhattan: Solana Larsen catches up with a past life in New York
French Farce: Hip hop didn't spark the riots in Paris, says Caspar Melville; it merely predicted them
Sssshhhhh...: Stuart Sim needs some quiet time
Love thine enemy: Rather than bicker with believers, we should join forces with them, says Bernard Crick

Stitch Up!: Home-making is enjoying a comeback. Eliane Glaser detects a sinister plot among the cookers, the breeders and the knitters
Mussolini in knickers: What's so funny about all those Twankeys and Trots strutting onto centre stage up and down the country? Sally Feldman defrocks the pantomime dame
Uncommon decency: We must reclaim the language of human rights, says Conor Gearty
Faith, hope and charity: Should we worry where the money goes? Jessica Williams offers a guide to giving
Identity crisis: Stressing racial differences leads to separatism, argues Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn
Going nowhere: Laurie Taylor interviews John Gray: Progress is an illusion and liberal humanists are adolescent romantics. John Gray tells Laurie Taylor why he believes we're all deluded

No short cuts: Andrew Tudor struggles to pin down the enigma of Robert Altman
French impressions: Ken Worpole on the genius of Joseph Roth

Mr Gray's Elegy: The playwright and diarist Simon Gray died on August 6, 2008. In this review for 2006 Brenda Maddox reviews the second volume of Gray's 'Smoking Diaries', 'The Year of The Jouncer'
Sons of Ulster: Newton Emerson on a new history of Ulster
Hare brained: Nina Power reviews Zeno's Tortoise
East of Eden: Jonathan Ree reviews Fallen by David Maine
Occidental tourist: Stephen Howe is baffled by the same old story