Books in brief

“They look like us”

Gary Younge

Ukraine throws climate change into stark relief

Bryony Worthington

Security by stalemate

Julian Lewis & John Woodcock

The throwback economy

Diane Coyle

A bonfire of complacency

George Robertson

A mediated catastrophe

Ethan Zuckerman

How to stop a new cold war

Vladimir Putin’s grotesque invasion of Ukraine shouldn’t blind us to the fact that Russia is a second-rate power with no path back to the top, argues Samuel Moyn. We must be war y of those looking for an opportunity to rehabilitate old, failed ideas about the world order

Europe's shattered illusions

Putin’s war has united 27 neighbouring countries in horror. But does the EU’s speed and resolve truly mark a turning point?

Memories of home

Vitali Vitaliev reflects on his invaded country

Putin's great game

Drawing on her experience negotiating with Kremlin officials, Bassma Kodmani explains what the west needs to know about the Russian president’s geopolitical strategy

A sporting chance

Cricket has a class problem. As state schools continue to suffer the effects of austerity, it’s only going to get worse

Muddled thinking

The government says it needs to strengthen freedom of speech on campus, but the measures are clumsy and potentially counterproductive

A loaded brush

The canonisation of Picasso does a disservice to the women who suffered for his art

The black bohemian

CLR James’s writings on empire and cricket were marked by moral clarity and mischievous provocation

The long dark teatime of the soul

Billionaires are investing huge amounts in death-defying technologies. But would we really want to live forever?

Glasgow kisses

A Booker-winner’s love story across the sectarian divide is let down by its own reticence

Did BBC Four kill the arts on TV?

Moving cultural coverage to the niche—and chronically underfunded—channel might have sealed its fate

The real culture wars

Should we boycott Russian music?

Breaking the silence

Theatre must do better by the Jewish community

In praise of the DVD, an art form in itself

The format opened up cinema to a generation of viewers—and directors

THE PROSPECT GRID

Our monthly cut-out-and-keep guide to who falls where on the taste hierarchy

The fire of hope

Mindful life

Building a barn

Farming life

Not so great Britain

Young life

Easter tidings

Clerical life

Leaving home

Displaced life

“She has had a fall”

Long life

Remembering Mum—and Shane

Sporting life

The joy oflex: How war shapes language

Sarah Ogilvie

Diary

Carole Cadwalladr

Contributors

Writers in this issue

Poem: When the war ends

by Kapka Kassabova and Olha Petrenko-Tseunova

Poem: A Ukraine Sequence

by George Szirtes

Poem: Spring Letter 25/3/22

by Don Paterson

PEOPLE

Sevgil Musaieva, Andrey Kurkov, Lea Ypi, Led By Donkeys and Cornelia Parker

Letters

Landing zone Ukraine has witnessed horrendous Russian aggression

Brief encounter

Lyse Doucet, journalist and broadcaster

The Generalist by Didymus

Crossword and picture caption