Nordic Noir and the Moomins

Nordic Noir and the Moomins

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Indian-based author and podcaster Purba Chakraborty talks about the history of fiction writing.

We hear about the rise in popularity of 'Nordic Noir', following the publication of Henning Mankell's crime novels.

Then we listen to BBC archive of writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges - regarded as one of the most influential Latin American writers in history.

Plus, the trial of two Soviet writers, Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky, accused of smuggling their works to the west.

Helen Fielding looks back at her weekly newspaper column about a 30-something, single woman in London, which became a cultural phenomenon in the 1990s.

The niece of Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson talks about her iconic Moomin books - which have been published in more than 60 languages.

And finally, we hear the personal story of young Nepalese athlete Mira Rai, which shocked the ultra-running world.

Contributors: Anneli Høier - literary agent. Jorge Luis Borges - short story writer and poet. Purba Chakraborty - writer and podcaster. Andrei Sinyavsky - Russian writer and Soviet dissident. Alexander Daniel - son of Yuli Daniel, Russian writer and Soviet dissident. Helen Fielding - journalist and writer. Sophia Jansson - niece of Tove Jansson, author and artist. Mira Rai - Nepalese trail runner.

(Photo: Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell and a copy of one of his books. Credit: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images)

Episoder(467)

The Dili Massacre

The Dili Massacre

It is 25 years since Indonesian troops attacked protestors in the East Timorese capital, plus the impact of The Satanic Verses on British society, smuggling endangered birds out of the jungles of South America, a palace burns in Madagascar and the inspiration behind James Bond's theme tune.(Photo: East Timorese activists preparing for the protest that ended in tragedy. Copyright: Max Stahl)

19 Nov 201650min

The Pitcairn Sex Abuse Trial

The Pitcairn Sex Abuse Trial

A mass child sex abuse trial on a remote island in the Pacific that shocked the world, a controversial Kurdish song, the birth of Rolling Stone magazine, men versus computers, and street fighting in San Salvador in the 1980sPhoto: Adamstown, seen in this June 2003 photo of Pitcairn Island (AP)

13 Nov 201650min

Dickey Chapelle - War Reporter

Dickey Chapelle - War Reporter

On this week's programme, how pioneering American woman war reporter, Dickey Chapelle, was killed in Vietnam; plus two very different perspectives on Mao's China, Mexican writer Octavio Paz and the escape which made Harry Houdini's name.PHOTO: Dickey Chapelle during a US Marines operation in 1958 (Credit: US Marine Corps / Associated Press)

5 Nov 201650min

Shell Shock

Shell Shock

World War One veterans describe Shell Shock and Prof. Edgar Jones of Kings College on the psychiatric cost of war; plus Hungary's 1956 uprising, how French intelligence was rocked by the abduction of activist Mehdi Ben Barka, the history of Marvel Comics and London's Big Bang. Photo: French troops shelter during bombardment, 1918. (General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

29 Okt 201655min

The Mayak Nuclear Disaster

The Mayak Nuclear Disaster

One of the world's worst nuclear disasters, the most notorious prison riot in America, Second World War internment in Australia, resistance in apartheid South Africa, and one of Britain's most celebrated artists, Stanley Spencer, through the eyes of his daughters.Photo: The Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in 2010. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency

30 Sep 201650min

The University of Texas Shooting

The University of Texas Shooting

On 1 August 1966, student Charles Whitman shot dead 14 people and injured another 32 in America's first mass shooting at a university. Plus, the oldest arts festival in the Middle East; how President Reagan smashed the power of the trade unions; and meeting JD Salinger, the reclusive author of "The Catcher in the Rye".PHOTO: Associated Press.

8 Aug 201650min

First CIA coup in Latin America

First CIA coup in Latin America

In this week's programme, we hear personal accounts of two fronts in America's Cold War fight against communism: Guatemala and Russia itself. Plus, the earthquake in China that killed a quarter of a million; riots in the English city of Liverpool; and remembering Picasso in his prime.PHOTO: Army officers opposed to President Arbenz go over a map of the territory on their push to Zacapa and then to Guatemala City, July 1954. (AP Photo)

30 Jul 201650min

Tanzania's Ujamaa

Tanzania's Ujamaa

Socialism in Tanzania, the man who assassinated the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, the crash of the Soviet supersonic jet Concordski, 20 years to build a road and Date Rape(Photo: Tanzanian women cultivating the soil. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

4 Jun 201650min

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