34 FOR ARTS SAKE JOHN TUSA Cultural g loom is unwarranted but the infiltration o f business ethics in to the arts must stop.

Paying the tune. Page 34

SHORT STORY 40 ENOCH SOAMES MAX BEERBOHM W ill the British Museum reading room still be there when Soames returns?

SPECIAL REPORT 50 GERMANY LOOKS EAST STEVE CRAWSHAW Sensitivity about the past has not stopped the Germans from building an economic empire in the east.

RESEARCH 56 TIME FOR THE FAMILY JONATHAN GERSHUNY The family is not collapsing but we do fewer household chores.

63 DON’T QUOTE ME NICOLAS WALTER has fun watching errors progress through successive editions o f the ODQ.

64 A BLUFFER'S GUIDE TO BLUFFERS HOWARD DAVIES gives the authors o f a book on management gurus some negative feedback o f their own.

66 NORTHERN PLEASURE PALACE HERB GREER Despite the IRA bomb, the future for the Royal Exchange theatre is bright.

Virtual tax evasion. Page 30

61 ALL I WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS CHRISTOPHER TOOKEY Christmas film s have become festivals o f mean-spiritedness, gallows humour and dysfunctional families.

DIGEST 73 The lessons o f Bosnia; building a European house o f culture.

Light unto the nations? Page 26

REVIEWS 60 SHINING STALIN’S SHOES PJ O'ROURKE Gorbachev’s memoir is an impressive oeuvre— if you drop it on your foot.

I t’s a deal. Page 40

REGULARS 4 / 7 0 - 1 LETTERS Replies to Wood on Steiner.

5 CURIOSITIES 6 MODERN MANNERS JEREMY CLARKE Christmas with the AA.

3 9 WHAT IF? JOHN LAUGHLAND Genoa had not sold Corsica.

4 9 THE NET POSITION JOHN CARR How to g e t popular on the net.

5 4 LETTER FROM LONDON CATHERINE DRUCKER Her first visit from Special Branch.

5 5 THE LIST 5 8 STRICTLY PERSONAL FREDERIC RAPHAEL drops names from the cellar.

68 CHOICES Prospect’s guide to the arts.

6 9 BABEL JOHN LLOYD Can the French press stop crawling?

7 2 THE LAB JOHN MADDOX A day in the life o f E. coli.

7 8 CROSSWORD DIDYMUS

7 9 BRUSSELS DIARY MANNEKEN PIS

8 0 PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS KATIE GRANT Make idle students pay.

PROSPECT January 1997 3