Henning Mankell: ‘Dickens would satire crime fiction’

Swedish author Henning Mankell on the unhealthy obsession with Scandinavian crime fiction and his new novel The Shadow Girls. Mankell’s most famous character is Detective Kurt Wallander and the Wallander books made him a household name after television adaptations in Swedish and then in English with Kenneth Branagh in the title role. Speaking to Front Row’s Mark Lawson, Mankell discusses his new novel The Shadow Girls, which deals not with crime but rather with immigration. The book opens with the poet protagonist Jesper Humlin refusing to write a crime novel despite pressure from his publisher – a statement from the start that this is not going to be another Wallander book.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01md9v8