Front Row

The mural of footballer Marcus Rashford which was defaced with racist graffiti after England lost the Euro 2020 final last night was part of Withington Walls, a community street art project in the suburbs of southern Manchester. Its head, Ed Wellard, discusses the art work, the British-based Vietnamese street artist Akse who created it, and the role art can play in the community.Late last week Front Row asked Ian McMillan, poet in residence at Barnsley FC, to write a poem in response to the European Cup Final. He talks to John Wilson about his approach to this tricky commission this evening, and reads his poem, 'This Sporting Life'. We start a new series today exploring current debates within book publishing, beginning with a look at the gender split in current literary tastes. Is it harder for young male writers to get published, win prizes and make a splash now? And if so, after millennia of male dominance, does it matter? John talks to Nesrine Malik who is judging the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year, a