Dark materials
Jim Herrick discovers Joan Bakewell's Belief
Culture
The real thing
Caspar Melville on the oddness of rock snobbery
Not waving, but dying
"Down a bit lower. That's it. Now, look at the camera. And now look puzzled. That doesn't look like 'puzzled'. Really puzzled. Hold it. Now, can you get even lower?"
Buggering on a pinhead
Martin Rowson is delighted to report that religion is on it's last legs
Visionary Grandeur
Michael Levey on Michelangelo, men and mankind
Reason meets faith
Haydn Mason reads an account of a Baroque clash of hearts and minds
Empire Apart
Hazhir Teimourian examines the insularity of the Ottoman Empire
All or nothing
John Maddox is fascinated by a never-ending story
Mother of Pearl
An exclusive poem by Ruth Padel
Wild Vagaries
Jim Herrick considers the two sides of August Strindberg