Holidays never offer the escape you expect— just ask Poirot

Editorial

When leaders wallow in wilful ignorance, it’s time

Letters

Alice Bell was right to highlight the importance of

The new PM will depend on Whitehall for survival—whether he knows it yet or not

The new PM will depend on Whitehall for survival—whether

Austerity: it came, conquered then disappeared—without any argument

Austerity: it came, conquered then disappeared—without

STEPHEN COLLINS

Justice behind a blindfold

At law

“They have betrayed us”: inside the battle for democracy

On the morning of 1st July, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s

An American tragedy

In prosperous western societies, lives have been steadily

Are our human rights laws working?

YES“What have the Romans ever done for us?” is the

Red Tolstoy

Whether dealing with Nazi or Soviet tyranny, Vasily Grossman’s epic novels speak truth to power, says Vanora Bennett

Master of improper arts

Ignored by London, but revered in Scotland, Alasdair Gray is a Glaswegian visionary. Stephanie Boland shares a whisky with him

Stuck in the blood swamp

Black Panther meets Lord of the Rings, but not in a good way, finds Tim Martin

Riskless business

For all her virtues, Tessa Hadley plays it too safe, says Freya Johnston

Late reading with Clive James

In his final column, Clive frets about the Great Barrier Reef and plots an opera about Boris Johnson

Asghar & Zahra

They climbed up to the Alhambra through the misty dawn.

Books in brief

In his first book Bobos in Paradise, US political commentator

Recommends

Royal Academy, 21st September to 3rd December In the

Retweeting

I’m dabbling with Twitter after a year away from it.

SHAPING SKILLS TO DRIVE LOCAL ECONOMY

Sellafield’s mission is one of the longest work programmes

Policy report: Apprenticeships

How to provide the vocational training Britain needs

Economics and investment

The analyst: Duncan Weldon Associate Economics Editor

The generalist by Didymus

7 The dashing highwayman and hero of John Gay’s The

Events

The Prospect Book Club meets every third Monday of the month at 6.30pm at 2 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9AA. To book tickets visit

Word Quiz by Didymus

These eighteen trios of letters can be linked together

Enigmas & puzzles

How good are you at thinking calmly through a problem?

How to enter

The winner receives a copy of Lords of the Desert by

Brief encounter

The moon landings in 1969, set against the backdrop

A TOWN CALLED HOPE

A generation ago the term “inner cities” was code for

HOPE AMID HARD TIMES IN OLDHAM

Between silent factories and struggling shops, there’s poverty and even hunger. But there’s also a steadfast community spirit which holds the key to turning this town around

A TOWN IN NUMBERS

There are huge divides between our towns, cities and regions

TRICKLE-UP ECONOMICS

How Cleveland, Ohio, and Preston, Lancashire, are bringing it all back home

DON’T FORGET THE REGIONAL DIMENSION

My commission saw alarming disparity between the southeast and the rest, affecting towns and cities alike

THE REVIVAL OF BRITISH TOWNS SHOULD BE A CROSS-PARTY MISSION

Successive governments have neglected proud communities in Wigan and Mansfield

TIME FOR A GREAT REBALANCING

My own trip to Oldham showed me what’s needed—serious investment and devolution of power

THE REAL MEANING OF BREXIT

We listened to hard-pressed towns—their biggest frustration is that those in power do not

HOW TO BRIDGE THE DIVIDE

To rebalance Britain, look beyond Brexit and grapple with voters’ day-to-day concerns

COMMUNITY PROBLEMS CALL FOR COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS

To transform somewhere like Oldham, treat local citizens as equal partners

Inventing a nation

The era in which Britain was Roman— roughly the first

Backing the overdog

I was talking to my mom in Texas when my dad came on

Sleeping under the stars

Have you ever slept outside, with nothing separating

Nanny state

When my daughter was just a couple of months old, we

The nature cure

The rise of “wilderness therapy”—and what it means for mental health

Nowhere’s man

Ceramicist Edmund de Waal talks to Andrew Dickson about rootlessness, refugees and how art can change the world

Rise and fall of the high-density madmen

Post-war British architecture often gets a bad rap. But it wasn’t all concrete and cars—some, like the author’s father Peter Self, wanted to created urban living spaces on a human scale

The battle over bread.

The humble loaf has become a fashionable badge of identity. But do we really know our sliced white from our sourdough?

Are you sitting comfortably?

Alberto Manguel tells us how his favourite characters from children’s fiction burst into life. Illustrations by the author

THE HUAWEI STORY

Hostages, espionage and a global trade war— how a Chinese telecoms company is trying to conquer the world

Breaking the law

How Donald Trump has torn at the soft tissue of American democracy

The Blair doctrine

When is it right to go to war? Twenty years ago, Tony Blair laid out five tests that shaped the way the west dealt with conflict.

The future of Conservatism

Thatcherism set in motion perpetual revolution in every area of British life—except the Tory Party, whose ideas are still frozen in the 1980s. Regime change in Downing Street must now be a prompt for a serious overhaul

The world’s top 50

Prospect salutes the scientists, philosophers and writers reshaping our times