THE SUMMER ISSUE IS HERE

INTELLIGENT LIFE ON NEWSSTANDS | June 3rd 2008

How old is old, these days? Are men boring? And how do you make a rat laugh, anyway?

The answers to all of these questions--and many more (eg, "Can a video game make you fit?")--can be found in the latest issue of Intelligent Life, now gleaming from newsstands in the UK and Europe.

Observant readers will notice quite a few changes, writes Tim de Lisle, the new editor of Intelligent Life. These include an evolving look and feel, as well as more food stories (it's ice-cream season, after all) and new columns dedicated to sport, video games and going green. Also, for the first time, a woman graces the cover: Zaha Hadid. Jonathan Meades calls her "the world's most interesting architect" in a profile for this issue. She is certainly a rare bird, so to speak, in the male gerontocracy of the architecture world.

Other lengthy, probing features include a piece about the mysterious beauty at the bottom of the ocean; a take on the frenzied schedule of Nelson Mandela, the world's favourite elder statesman, from interviews with his wife, Graca Machel, and Desmond Tutu, among others; and an exclusive look behind the scenes at the birth of Angel Corella's new ballet company in Spain ("Lift off"), by Julie Kavanagh, a new contributing editor to Intelligent Life (and Nureyev's acclaimed biographer).

Here at More Intelligent Life, we will offer a steady trickle of articles from the new issue over the coming season. We will start this week with "Bright old things", Maureen Cleave's feature about vital, contented 90-somethings. Her interviews with these nonagenarians challenge our assumptions of old age, and speak to our changing understanding of longevity.

Of course we will continue to publish our own original gems--about messy food, woefully neglected books and ageing rock stars, among other things. Ever mindful of the demand for articles about Herodotus and sex--according to our visitor statistics--we look forward to providing more of the same. (We may even get creative and offer something that combines the two.) We are also finalising an exciting new design, which should help us to better reflect the lustre of the magazine.

So, find us on newsstands and watch this space. As ever, do let us know what you think. ~ EMILY BOBROW