Volume 121 Issue 5 September/October 2006

Editorial: Simply Human: It may have come as something to a shock to Darwin's contemporaries to be told that we're really just animals.

Cover Story

Wild things: Sally Feldman explores the untamed frontiers of fashion, fetish and fur

Out of the shadows: Toby Saul on how the paintings of Diego Velazquez changed our way of seeing
The story so far: Laurie Taylor interviews Michael Frayn: Counting, categorising, complexity. Michael Frayn offers Laurie Taylor his version of the human condition
Little monsters: Caspar Melville speaks up for dragons, dinosaurs and devils
Walking the tightrope: Ramin Jahanbegloo, one of Iran's pre-eminent intellectuals, was released on bail on August 30, after being held for more than four months in Tehrans notorious Evin prison. He is accused of fomenting a velvet revolution. Here he explains why he feels compelled to champion liberalism
Eric, Eileen and Norah: Newly discovered letters shed light on the inner life of Orwell's wife, writes Jenny Joseph
Down to Earth: Murray Bookchin, who died in 2006, was the last of the great social ecologists. His ideas are more relevant than ever, says Brian Morris
Death missions: Can Japanese kamikaze pilots be compared with today's suicide bombers? Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney reads those young airmen's diaries

Thinker: William Shakespeare: Continuing our series of thinkers who have been important for humanism, Brian McClinton puts in a bid for Shakespeare.
End Game: States of disbelief: Atheists aren't the most popular in America. Laurie Taylor reports
Diary: Darwin's heaven: AC Grayling comes face to face with evolution in the Galapagos

The Last Revolution: 1688 and the Creation of the Modern World by Patrick Dillon: The Glorious Revolution was neither, says Michael Binyon
Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster: Nina Power deconstructs a contemporary parable
Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Ebenezer Obadare on the latest novel from Africa's greatest living author
The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life? by Paul Davies: Peter Woit reviews the latest book from astrophysicist Paul Davies
Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle: Martina Evans reviews Roddy Doyle's return to the life of Paula Spencer
Blood Rites by Jimmy Lee Shreeve: Rosie Waterhouse on a gonzo take on human sacrifice