Spectator articles from July 2007

Spectator archives from July 2007

Hearts and minds.(winning the Muslim people's trust)
July 7, 2007... 'Among all criminals and murderers, the most dangerous type is the criminal physician.' So said Dr Miklos Nyiszli, a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz who acted as pathologist to Josef Mengele. The unspeakable depravities of the Nazi doctors were...

DIARY.(Diary entry)
July 7, 2007... Washington High tea with George Bush in the Oval Office. Polite but tough questioning on my book. He tells me how much he's enjoyed reading it. Next stop, the wonderfully counter-counter-cultural bowling alley with Dick Cheney, flanked by...

Don't mention the war on terror - even if we're winning it.
July 7, 2007... The war on terror is over -- or at least has been purged from the vocabulary of Gordon Brown's government. The phrase, he has decided, will never be mentioned by any of his ministers. The men who attempted to attack a London nightclub and...

THE SPECTATOR'S NOTES.
July 7, 2007... Itis not possible to speak of a terrorist incident as being a good thing, but if it were, these latest would qualify. First, no innocent person was killed in London or Glasgow. Second, information was immediately collected by the authorities,...

DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY.(Diary entry)
July 7, 2007... MONDAY Could do without the sort of nonsense I had to deal with this evening. Phone rang in middle of the big announcement and the operator said: 'Call from Newcastle. Will you accept the charges?' Not so much as a thank-you when Bev from...

The public know how these attacks happen - unlike the politicians.
July 7, 2007... 'A l-Qa'eda brain surgeons fail to blow up large car full of petrol' has an agreeable ring to it, as a sort of taunt at our enemies and as a comfort blanket while we're standing in the mile-long queue at Heathrow with a sniffer-dog's snout in...

We are up against 20 years of planning.(Islamism in the United Kingdom)
July 7, 2007... InJuly 1989 I had an experience that scared and alienated me, but also made me realise who I was and, more importantly, who I was not -- and would never be. I was 18 and in my first year at Brighton University, where I was studying for a...

Jihad amid the dreaming spires.(Islamists in University of Oxford )
July 7, 2007... The chaos and fear wrought by Islamic extremism this week would, ordinarily, seem a thousand miles from what we call the 'Oxford bubble'. Shocking, of course, most students would say, but emerging from this latest essay crisis is of greater...

For the Islamist doctor, terror is healing.(doctors perpetuating attacks)
July 7, 2007... The car bombs in London and Glasgow show that a global counter-offensive against the war on terror is well underway. Although Iraq is the main zone of conflict, Saudi-financed Wahhabi radicals -- known to polite Western journalists as 'Sunni...

Live Earth is Al Gore's campaign launch.
July 7, 2007... Al Gore makes an unlikely rock star. He's a natural-born wonk, and the only rock star he physically resembles is Elvis -- in his later, bloated, cheeseburger phase. But on Saturday, Al Gore will be the main attraction at a climate-change...

A letter from Planet Fayed.(comments from Mohamed Al Fayed's camp)
July 7, 2007... In 1986 a BBC producer approached Mohamed Al Fayed and asked him to contribute to a programme called The Uncrowned Jewels. Mr Al Fayed had recently acquired Harrods as well as a dilapidated villa in Paris that had belonged to the Duke and...

Please can we have our Enlightenment back?
July 7, 2007... It must be odd being God these days. Revealed religion generally -- and the Christian God in particular -- are often in the dock, screamed at by literary types with a name to make or a reputation to uphold. Christopher Hitchens, in the...

Brown-nosing.(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... Sir: What is this 'Brown bounce?' There would be no bounce at all if our media had not reverted to their favoured toecap-kissing mode. When Tony Blair came to office ten years ago he was new and fresh and merited a honeymoon period, though...

Relative failure.(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... Sir: Andrew Neil is right to identify the Broken Society ('Memo to Brown', 30 June) as a crucial area for politicians to address, but any success will depend upon an accurate analysis of its roots, which may not be initially popular in a...

Palestine chose war.(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... Sir: Mr. Blunt leaves the Conservative Middle East Council looking like it is chaired by a guy who -- like his traitorous namesake -- has defected from reality in favour of a pernicious and violent 'revolutionary movement' (Letters, 30 June)....

Explosive issue.(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... Sir: You will be tempted to commission another exhibition of panicked paranoia from Melanie Phillips or another hysterical hackette ('Gaza is another front in Iran's war on the West', 23 June). Would it not be a more effective blow against...

No dissent.(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... Sir: Jonathan Sumption, in his review of Andrew Marr's A History of Modern Britain (Books, 30 June), identifies an important historical development when he points out that only a single off-the-shelf opinion is now tolerated on various social...

Cross reference.(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... Sir: Is it possible gently to demonstrate to your Mr Hugo Rifkind the difference between a cross and a crucifix (Shared opinion, 30 June)? Roderick Adams Eskbank, Midlothian

Wikipedically correct.(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2007... Sir: Christopher Howse (Books, 23 June) is quite right in his conclusion about Wikipedia that it is a 'useful tool, if used with judgment'. As a regular user of, and occasional contributor to, the website I can confirm its value, but would also...

The 'underclass' is a consequence of social mobility's success, not of its decline.
July 7, 2007... From John Humphrys on the Today programme to leading articles in quality newspapers to anxious speeches by politicians, the growing gap between the poorest in Britain, and the rest, has become a serious talking-point this summer. The gap...

One day, the dollar will no longer be almighty.
July 7, 2007... At the end of the second world war, 43 allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods to reconstruct the global financial system. The result was an economic version of Pax Americana: a liberal trading and financial regime centred on US strength. ...

Smoking ban causes brewers' droop.
July 7, 2007... An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a pub. The Englishman turns to the others and says, 'What's that awful smell?' 'Och, ' says the Scotsman, 'it takes a wee while to get used to.' 'Ah, so it does, ' says the Irishman, ''tis...

Global championship heads for a ladies' final.(stock exchange rivalry)
July 7, 2007... On 20 July, one of America's most influential businesswomen, Cathy Kinney, will swap Wall Street for the boulevards of Paris. Kinney is one of the New York Stock Exchange's big chiefs -- president and co-chief operating officer of the newly...

Argentina has what the world wants - and may soon have a woman in charge.(Cristina Kirchner)
July 7, 2007... In Washington, the campaign to put another Clinton in the White House is well underway. In Argentina, the next president could also be the wife of a man who has held the highest office before. President Nestor Kirchner, who grabbed the top job...

The biography of a soul.(Being Shelley)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... BEING SHELLEY by Ann Wroe Cape, [pounds sterling]25, pp. 452, ISBN 9780224080781 [pounds sterling]20 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 This is a book that really ought not to work. Being Shelley is not quite a biography and...

The good ended happily.(Consequences)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... CONEQUENE by Penelope Lively Fig Tree, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 320, ISBN 9780670915835 [pounds sterling]13.59 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 The most difficult task for a novelist is to engage the reader in an account...

Protesting too much.(God Is Not Great)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... GOD IS NOT GREAT by Christopher Hitchins Atlantic Books, [pounds sterling]17.99, pp. 307, ISBN 97818435866 [pounds sterling]14.39 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Christopher Hitchins writes with exuberance and a sense of the...

The birth of structuralism.(The Artist and the Mathematician: The Story of Nicolas Bourbaki, the Genius Mathematician Who Never Existed)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... THE ARTIST AND THE MATHEMATICIAN by Amir D. Aczel High Stakes Publishing, [pounds sterling]9.99, pp. 239, ISBN 9781843440345 [pounds sterling]7.99 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Of all the sciences and pseudosciences...

Boom and bust in Sarawak.(Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... SYLVIA , QUEEN OF HEADHUNTERS by Philip Eade Weidenfeld, [pounds sterling]20, pp. 408, ISBN 9780297847885 [pounds sterling]16 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 On stage at Wyndham's Theatre just now, the curtain for Somerset...

A beastly upbringing.(Minotaur In Love)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... MINOTAUR IN LOVE by Fraser Harrison Flambard Press, [pounds sterling]8.99, pp. 256, ISBN 9781873226896 [pounds sterling]7.19 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Minotaur in Love is Fraser Harrison's second novel. His first, High...

The price of defeat.(After the Reich)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... AFTER THE REICH Hby Giles MacDonogh John Murray, [pounds sterling]25, pp. 618, ISBN 9780719567704 [pounds sterling]20 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 This substantial and fascinating book looks at the aftermath of the Third...

The commonsense approach.(Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... Better: A SURGEON'S NOTES ON PERFORMANCE by Atul Gawande Profile, [pounds sterling]12.99, pp. 273, ISBN 9781861978974 [pounds sterling]10.39 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Medical advance has been startling in the past...

Two cheers are quite enough.(What Democracy Is For: On Freedom and Moral Government)(Book review)
July 7, 2007... WHAT DEMOCRACY IS FOR: ON FREEDOM AND MORAL GOVERNMENTby Stein Ringen Princeton, [pounds sterling]26.95, pp. 319, ISBN 9780691129846 [pounds sterling]21.95 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 The 20th century saw the triumph of...

Interest still accruing.(John Galsworthy)
July 7, 2007... Galsworthy is one of those writers who obstinately survives. Critical opinion wrote him off long ago. His plays are rarely staged. Most of his novels have sunk below the horizon. Yet the three which make up The Forsyte Saga have rarely, if...

The 'transvestite potter from Essex'.(Grayson Perry)(Interview)
July 7, 2007... I was intrigued to meet Grayson Perry -- who wouldn't be? I hadn't known his work before he hit the national headlines in 2003 as one of the artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize, which he subsequently carried off in triumph as his alter ego...

Gloom and sparkle.(Tate Britain exhibit at Chris Beetles gallery)
July 7, 2007... Tate Britain, until 2 September Chris Beetles, 8 & 10 Ryder Street, SW1, until 31 July As we are constantly reminded, every exhibition in these novelty-obsessed times has to be the first to do something, and the Tate's rather dreary...

Cry freedom.(escaping in the movie "Edmond")(Movie review)
July 7, 2007... 18, Key Cities Edmond Burke (William H. Macy) is middle-aged, middle-American, dully employed, dully married. One evening, on his way home from work, a quasi-mystical whim leads him to consult a fortune-teller who tells him, 'You are not where...

Huge mistake.(attending "Kismet" production)(Theater review)(Opera review)
July 7, 2007... Coliseum Grange Park I thought I was unembarrassable, at any rate with the lights out. ENO's production of Kismet has proved me wrong. I sat blushing furiously and sweating, when I wasn't struggling to keep my eyes open and head up. Anyone...

Absolute blast.(laser battles and Concert for Diana)
July 7, 2007... My computer gave up the ghost last week. I bought it in 1999 and in recent months it has felt a bit like one of those clapped-out spaceships in Dr Who, held together only with wire and willpower as you force it through the space-time continuum....

Celebrating Stoppard.(Tom Stoppard)
July 7, 2007... Strange to think of Tom Stoppard attaining three score years and ten. It seems a mere nanosecond since we were first dazzled by his disturbing take on Shakespeare, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and his plays are still characterised by...

Insider dealing.(inside politics)(Television program review)
July 7, 2007... It's a commonplace these days for satirists and their fans to claim that they have an unnerving ability to know how politicians work behind the scenes. 'Someone from No. 10 said, "How on earth do you get it spot-on, every time? It's uncanny." '...

Much missed.(stolen Zeiss binoculars)
July 7, 2007... We had been through so much together. Racing not just on the domestic scene but also in Melbourne, Mauritius and Maisons-Lafitte. Together over 15 years we had been bird-watching in Venezuela, Costa Rica and the Gambia, Madagascar and the Isle...

Favourite dates.
July 7, 2007... To the Carlton Club for an oversubscribed dinner moderated by Michael Binyon with Liam Fox and yours truly speaking about the Middle East. When my turn came I shyly pointed out that I was honoured to be invited because the usual subject...

Down and out.(experiences of injuries and other mishaps)
July 7, 2007... I open my eyes. It's morning. I'm lying on a sofa in a sitting-room I don't recognise. This'll have to stop. Apart from anything else, it's getting boring. I'm reflecting on this when Tom charges in. 'Jerry!' he says urgently. 'Does my...

Class conflict.(rough lawn croquet )
July 7, 2007... The garden which came with the house was far too small. Buster -- clearly a martyr to claustrophobia -- regularly burst through the hedge into what used to be The Hall's orchard. Then, unable to burst back again, he howled in frustrated...

RESTAURANTS.(Almeida restaurant at London)(Restaurant review)
July 7, 2007... My friends and I have a restaurant booking in town but cannot get to it as it's the day after the car bomb so the West End is all roped off. I did try shouting, 'Let us through, let us through, we've a restaurant booking!' but this did not...

Snuff is enough.(powdered tobacco products)
July 7, 2007... And this one's known as Badger's Armpit, for reasons which will become readily apparent. For the first-time user I'd recommend just the tiniest pinch, because it does tend to attack the mucal tissue, somewhat. See? No, you'll have trouble for...

The beerage.(Keystone Brewery in Wiltshire, E)
July 7, 2007... Keystone Brewery in Berwick St Leonard, Wiltshire, is small but perfectly formed. Founded last year by Alasdair Large -- late of the Royal Tank Regiment -- and his wife, Charlie, Keystone is as micro as they come. The workforce comprises...

Taken for a ride.(in Connemara Trail)
July 7, 2007... My teenage daughter and I, who have been riding since we could walk, decided the time had come to convert the two menfolk in our family to the joys of the saddle. We hoped a week's horse-riding holiday through the highlands on the remote west...

HOTELS OF THE WEEK.
July 7, 2007... BALLYNAHINCH CASTLE HOTEL Ballinafad, Recess, Connemara, Co. Galway, Ireland Tel: +353 1 2958900 www. manorhousehotels. com ZETLAND COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL CONNEMARA Cashel Bay, Connemara, Co. Galway, Ireland Tel. : +353 (0) 95 31111 www....

Pole position.(Formula One's British Grand Prix)
July 7, 2007... Whatever the rival domestic attractions over the 12 months, the defining spectacular of Britain's sporting year could well be revealed in a field in Northamptonshire over a couple of noisy hours on Sunday afternoon. Bobbing a debutant's curtsy...

This is not a moral crusade.
July 14, 2007... A fortnight ago we urged David Cameron to raise his game after Gordon Brown's impressively bold start as Prime Minister. In his response to the report by Iain Duncan Smith's social justice policy group, the Tory leader has done just that. Mr...

DIARY.
July 14, 2007... Hong Kong It is very good to be back. So good that I can ignore the horror of the summer weather. The humidity suffocates and is only relieved by sudden and violent downpours. But these are minor irritations in a city that is back to its...

Cameron is not sunk. But we need to know what his Britain would be like.(David Cameron)
July 14, 2007... The Conservative leader needs to get his mojo back. At least he had some to start with, mojo not being a quality much associated with his predecessors: 'That often elusive quality that sets a person apart from everyone else. The word "magic"...

DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY.
July 14, 2007... MONDAY Have drawn up shortlist of potential husbands. It is my Number One Priority to end my single status asap now that Being Married is official Conservative policy -- not to mention a jolly good way of making a bit of extra cash from the...

The new arms race is deadly because Russia is so fragile.(submarine missiles)
July 14, 2007... A little over a week ago, Vladimir Putin tested a weapon deadlier than anything developed by the Soviet Union. A missile launched from a submarine in the White Sea entered the stratosphere and returned precisely on target 3,800 miles away in...

Campbell holds a mirror up to shallow Britain.(The Blair Years: The Alastair Campbell Diaries )
July 14, 2007... Alastair Campbell may be no Chips Channon or Alan Clark, but his diaries are at least readable. Very readable. And that is not something one can take for granted with New Labour diarists. The last set, from David Blunkett, managed to turn...

If you want power, be emotional, not rational.
July 14, 2007... In the last 40 years, only one Democrat has been elected and reelected to the American presidency: Bill Clinton. And during the same period, only one Republican has failed to win re-election: George H.W.Bush. These are astounding facts, given...

London matches the glory of Venice in its prime.
July 14, 2007... When Tony Blair secured the agreement of the Scots and -- only just -- the Welsh for devolution in the referendums of 1998, it was supposed to herald a great revival of the regions. Britain was to be reborn as a kind of West Germany, whose...

'Being famous has become rather common'.(Interview)
July 14, 2007... Rupert Everett has just done Richard & Judy, or maybe, he concedes, Richard and Judy have just done him. 'It is hard to work out who is using who on these occasions, ' he says. 'I suppose ultimately we are all just hustlers.' The actor is proud...

Ancient & modern.
July 14, 2007... As globalisation of business and communications grows, to what extent will we see globalisation of values? The experience of the ancient world suggests it could be to quite a large extent. Greek and Roman society was, at one level,...

Boris is the kind of Tory I'd vote for: which means he can win.(Boris Johnson)
July 14, 2007... I've voted Conservative only once in my life -- during elections to the London School of Economics students' union 23 years ago, when the Tory manifesto pledged to spend all of the union money on buying a racehorse, rather than giving it to the...

Dave and Osama have more in common than you might think.(Osama bin Laden, David Cameron)
July 14, 2007... They are both sons of privilege, and by all accounts each had a fairly wild youth. Eventually, both found political conviction. At a certain kind of dinner party, a certain kind of woman will talk, spellbound, about their soulful eyes. Both...

Beeb remains unbiased.(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... Sir: Charles Moore's insinuation (Spectator's Notes, 7 July) that following Alan Johnston's release the BBC would now report Hamas more sympathetically is baseless. If he needs evidence he should consider that during the time that Alan was in...

Arresting issue.(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... Sir: Nobody wants The Spectator to be consistent, or to follow any party line. Its readers expect (and in my case hope) to disagree with many of the opinions expressed in its pages. But until your leading article of 7 July ('Hearts and Minds')...

Aspire to what?(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... Sir: Nowhere in Fraser Nelson's article on James Purnell ('Meet New New Labour's Mr Aspirational', 30 June) is there any mention of precisely which of the public's aspirations Labour understands so well. Could it be the aspiration, say, of...

Drugs work.(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... Sir: So Hywel Williams via Dan Hind damns the efforts of some of the best and brightest life-scientists ('The theft of the Enlightenment', 7 July), who inter alia have done immense amounts to improve the lot of mankind, on the basis that he...

Further Moore.(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... Sir: Charles Moore's column last week achieved what I had thought was the impossible: it made me long to have been at the Concert for Diana (Spectator's Notes, 7 July). Nelly Furtado I can take or leave, but I would have paid through the...

Sign them up.(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... Sir: I have seldom read such a well articulated and disturbing article as Andrew Neil's 'Memo to Gordon' (30 June). While it does not offer a solution, 'a problem identified is a problem half solved'. Grave problems demand grave solutions....

War on error.(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2007... Sir: We wish to correct an error we made in our article 'For the Islamist doctor, terror is healing' (7 July). Abdullah Azzam, the mentor of Osama bin Laden, was not a physician. Rather, he was a teacher of Islamic law. We regret the error,...

A dull business made great by allowing workers to think.
July 14, 2007... Ah, the terrible persistence of the irritating jingle. It's nearly 30 years since 'Thousands of parts for millions of cars' last assaulted our ears, but I'll bet millions of middle-aged Britons, motorists or not, can render it pretty...

Mind your manners.
July 14, 2007... We've all been there: the brain stuck in first gear during an interview; an inappropriate remark to a senior colleague or client; uncontrollable shaking before a speech in public. For most of us these are relatively isolated incidents. There...

Shoppers stay home as rates and floods rise - but there's a bit of better news for M&S.(Marks & Spencer)
July 14, 2007... Shoppers have spent these past few weeks sheltering from incessant rain, rising interest rates and renewed threats of terrorism. Fueland flood-hit food prices are on an up-trend too, so we must brace ourselves for a spate of High Street gloom....

Dropping himself in the soup.(Richard Milhouse Nixon: The Invincible Quest)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... RICHARD MILHOUSE NIXON : THE INVISIBLE QUEST by Conrad Black Quercus, [pounds sterling]30, pp. 1,152, ISBN 9781847242099 [pounds sterling]24 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 One of Richard Nixon's salient characteristics was...

Double trouble and strife.(The Other Mrs Jordan: A True Story of Bigamy and Betrayal)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... THE OTHER MRS JORDAN : A TRUE STORY OF BIGAMY AND BETRAYAL by Mary Turner Thomson Mainstream Publishing, [pounds sterling]10.99, pp. 238, ISBN 9781845962876 Is there anyone, hearing a story about bigamy, who does not feel a tiny jolt of...

Lessons from the father of lies.(Travels with Herodotus)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... TRAVELS WITH HERODOTUS by Ryszard Kapuscinski Allen Lane, [pounds sterling]20, pp. 275, ISBN 9780713998481 [pounds sterling]16 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Ryszard Kapuscinski, who died in January this year, was a...

The chthonic nub of things.(Wild)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... WILD by Jay Griffiths Hamish Hamilton, [pounds sterling]20, pp. 368, ISBN 9780241141526 [pounds sterling]16 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Don't imagine this book by a 42-year-old Englishwoman who has been in her time an...

Right for his times.(The Reagan Diaries)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... THE REAGAN DIARIES edited by Douglas Brinkley Harper Press, [pounds sterling]30, pp. 767, ISBN 9780060876005 [pounds sterling]24 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, high on a hill...

Man with a mission.(Robert Peel: A Biography)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... ROBERT PEEL : A BIOGRAPHY by Douglas Hurd Weidenfeld, [pounds sterling]25, pp. 416, ISBN 9780297848448 [pounds sterling]20 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 There has not been an abler or more decent prime minister than Sir...

The Cry.(Poem)(Brief article)
July 14, 2007... Not the primeval cry that comes straight from the gut in that grotesque of notes that curdles you sick -- but the saddest of sobs, the silent-bled cry where the face still contorts and the water careers -- with no din of a whimper no snivel, no...

Back in the dark and the rain.(Three Crimes)(Book review)
July 14, 2007... THREE CRIMES by George Simenon, translated by David Carter Hesperus, [pounds sterling]7.99, pp. 130, ISBN 9781843914211 [pounds sterling]6.39(plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 In 1931, a Belgian pulp-fiction writer living in...

More of everything.(Concert review)
July 14, 2007... Nicholas Kenyon's swansong at the Proms this summer is surely the most elaborately complicated, one might say contrapuntally conceived, series of concerts ever staged. Just reading the blurb makes one's head spin -- so many themes, so many...

Serious matters.
July 14, 2007... The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1, until 7 October The Redfern Gallery, 20 Cork Street, London W1, until 26 July I went with high hopes to the Cartoon Museum. Actually, I think the appellation 'museum' rather grand...

Out of this world.
July 14, 2007... Lady Lever Art Gallery, until 22 September It's hard to imagine a more unlikely place for a James Ensor exhibition than the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, the squeaky-clean temple to Edwardian taste in art founded by Viscount...