Brief encounter

The evolving ever-after

Taxes aside, death is supposed to be the one certainty

Letters & opinions

Afua Hirsch (“Battle for the mike,’” March) attributes

Trump’s economic Afghanistan

The latest trade tussle is different. The President wants to ramp it up into a war without end

Brief history of a bestseller

My book sold because it posed the big questions

Planting an idea

I’ve quit meat and dairy. The state should nudge us all to go vegan

Burmese haze

Our obsession with Aung San Suu Kyi blinds us to the deeper causes of the Rohingya tragedy

The MPs who really don’t want their seats

A taste of the latest from Prospect online: Siobhán Fenton

Exodus from the east

The view from Romania: Stephen McGrath

Is fake news fake news?

The under-reported story of how the BBC became Britain’s biggest newspaper KIRBY SWALES,NATCEN SOCIAL RESEARCH

Is a degree still worth it?

There is a new political fashion— “Eduscepticism.”

The changing face of death

Technology is disrupting death in many ways. Medical

Life after life

The digital revolution has already changed the way we live— now it’s improving the way we die

A fate worse than death

We behave as if dying is the worst outcome—but, as Cathy Rentzenbrink discovered, life and death is no longer a black and white situation

Return of the reaper

Americans have started dying earlier. Could Britons be next?

A thought experiment

The unsettling story of my second brain

Desert storm

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince is a young man in a hurry— but does he know what he’s doing?

The political sea

How blaming the rescuers in the Mediterranean became an essential part of Europe’s strategy to reduce migration

Who now will think the unthinkable?

The ideological battle lines are shifting. Think tanks are everywhere—except the frontline

Could the green revolution begin down this disused Cornish mine?

Could the green revolution begin down this disused

Russia, spies and lies

Extracts from memoirs and diaries, chosen by Ian Irvine

From the mountain top

Martin Luther King Jr has been turned into a monument, obscuring his dangerous and disruptive radicalism, argues Colin Grant

Enemies of “the people”

Liberals are set on a collision course with democracy, argues David Goodhart

Everyday magical thinking

US poet John Ashbery had a gift for generosity, comedy and simplicity, finds Jeremy Noel-Tod

Experiments in honesty

Doris Lessing helps a writer discover her womanhood, says Ruth Scurr

Books in brief

In a new biography of the suffragette movement, Diane

Recommends

We associate Monet’s shimmering experiments in paint

Leith on language

The fuss around Jordan Peterson—the aggressive and

Life of the mind

Simon seemed unusually relaxed. This is a Skype patient

Matters of taste

Couscous came to France in the 60s with the Pied Noirs

Wine

The wine world is always on the lookout for something

DIY investor

Back before Christmas, Bitcoin was setting the world

Interview: the all-change Commissioner

Both political parties agree that Britain needs more

It’s time to build bridges

This government’s assumption that a growing economy

For national success— go local

It is a tenet of this government’s economic policy

Events

The Prospect Book Club meets every third Monday of

The generalist by Didymus

6 French composer (1775—1834) of the operas Le Calife

Enigmas & puzzles

Mr Colin Detts, a financial adviser who manages Toulouse