Volume 127 Issue 5 September/October 2012

Cover Story

Saving our universities? New Humanist interviews AC Grayling: As AC Grayling’s New College of the Humanities enrols its first intake, Caspar Melville asks our most prominent humanist what prompted his most controversial venture

My mind is free: For long-term prisoner Matthew Nutley confinement behind bars has offered him a chance of real liberty
What is a secular Jew?: It was Jews who were the first to test-drive secularism, says Keith Kahn-Harris

The case for assisted dying: Acting in the name of religion, a small and unrepresentative number of believers are inflicting needless suffering on others. Raymond Tallis, Chair of Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying, on why the law must be changed
Jam & Jerusalem: Underestimate the Women's Institute at your peril, says Sally Feldman
Unwrapping the Mummy's Curse: What lies behind the tenacious myth of the Pharaohs’ revenge? Roger Luckhurst lifts the lid
The town that's twinned with Narnia: The medieval Devon town of Totnes is the capital city of pseudoscience, but local rationalists are mounting a fightback. James Gray goes through the wardrobe
Outsourced labour: One of India’s fastest growing industries treats women as bodies for rent, says Bidisha
Dear atheists...: Francis Spufford issues a challenge to non-believers
Circumcision: time to cut it out?: The religious culture wars have a new battleground. Is male circumcision a harmless ethnic signifier or the infliction of genuine harm on a child? Toby Lichtig reports
Too much, too young: Hundreds of children every year are being forced to marry against their will. What is being done to stop it? Sarah Ditum reports

Endgame: Swan Song: Laurie Taylor tries the ballet
Chown's Cosmos: Footprints in the dust: Twelve men have left their footprints on the Moon. How long will they last? Marcus Chown explains

Ballads of unsuccess: A new collection confirms James Fenton as one of our very best poets. Matthew Adams meets him

Book review: Why We Build by Rowan Moore: Hugh Pearman enjoys a constructive history of architecture
Book review: Radical by Maajid Nawaz: Alom Shaha admires the honesty of a former Islamist
Book review: The Dictator's Learning Curve: Inside The Global Battle for Democracy: With Mubarak and Gaddafi vanquished, and Assad clinging on, there couldn't be a more auspicious time for a book about how dictators have adapted to modernity. Right time, right subject, but wrong book says Stephen Howe.